"Climate gone crazy": this was the real catchphrase of summer 2023, far
superior to those masterpieces of human creativity that usuallymercilessly martyr our ears during the summer season. ---- And in fact,how can we not talk about the climate going crazy after a summer inwhich we unfortunately saw a notable number of extreme climatic events.A summer, according to the Copernicus C3S (1), characterized by arecord-breaking July in terms of temperatures at a global level (2), somuch so that it pushed UN Secretary Guterres to declare that the planetis now "in the 'era of boiling" (3).Yet we believe this talk of "climate gone crazy" does not correctlydescribe this phenomenon we are experiencing. The verb "to go mad",according to the Treccani dictionary available online (4), means "tobecome mad, to lose the use of reason"; then there is a figurativemeaning, associated instead with tools, mechanisms, devices, and in thissense it means "suddenly and unexpectedly starting to function in a veryirregular way".Therefore, according to the mass media narrative, the climate has gonemad in the sense that, suddenly and unexpectedly, it has started tofunction irregularly: an unforeseen event, in front of which we can onlyimagine an adequate emergency response, at most implementing adaptationpolicies to this crazy climate that doesn't want to behave as it should.Then it happens that on "The HarvardGazette", where the latest news relating to Harvard University ispublished, we come across the news according to which research led bythe well-known university shows that the US multinational Exxon (ESSObrand in Europe) "has modeled and predicted global warming with shockingskill and accuracy starting from the 1970s" (5).According to this group of researchers, which also involves the PotsdamInstitute for Research on the Impact of Climate Change, between 1977 and2003 Exxon conducted research aimed at defining the impact of CO2emissions on global warming, leading to the production of forecastingmodels of considerable precision, such as to identify a trend ofincrease in global temperature which has already been demonstrated bythe facts: 0.2 °C per decade, with a margin of error of 0.04 °C.Another interesting element that emerges from the article in "TheHarvard Gazette" is that the Exxon research group, excluding that globalwarming was to be attributed to a new ice age, simultaneously indicatedthe year 2000, with a margin of error of 5 years, as the beginning ofthe first effects of anthropogenic global warming.Therefore, according to what the aforementioned research tells us, itwould have been possible to predict an increase in global temperaturesfor several decades: can we therefore still talk about a "climate gonecrazy"?Evidently addressing the complex problems of today's reality assomething that falls upon us unexpectedly and suddenly, over which wehave no type of control other than managing the effects in some wayretrospectively, is the hallmark of today's politics. Managing problemsfrom an eternal emergency perspective offers a convenient excuse toavoid a serious analysis of the causes; also because often from adetailed analysis of the problems solutions emerge that require radicaland systemic actions that do not go well with the maintenance of thestatus quo, so dear to those who hold political and economic power, aswell as the privileges that derive from this power.So let us continue to talk about the "heat emergency", the "droughtemergency" and the "rain emergency", just as we have continued to talkabout the "immigration emergency" for more than 20 years now.We wait for our political darling to resolve the issue as usual,proposing simple solutions to very complex, epochal problems; in themeantime, great discussions in all workplaces and social circles on thecase of "inflated" bar receipts for cutting the sandwich or for havingused more milk for an unfoamed cappuccino!We do not accept this narrative, the climate has not gone mad,emergencies cannot continue for decades: there is an economic andpolitical system, this lucidly crazy one, which continues its crazy racetowards infinite growth, studded with predatory policies of territoriesand extraction of profit no matter what the cost, regardless of theimpacts this may have on the environment and living beings.An economic model that yields unimaginable privileges for a handful ofpeople, distributing crumbs or not even that to almost the entireearth's population; all this while the worst effects of global warmingare hitting the populations of the territories most plundered of theirresources.The challenge to global warming can only involve the fight against aprofoundly unequal system of production and distribution of wealth: thisalone offers the guarantee that this challenge is not reduced to atechnological renewal of the capitalist infrastructure and a mereopening of new markets.Note:1 ) C3S is the climate change service of Copernicus, the EuropeanUnion's Earth observation program2) Monthly Climate Bulletin, July 2023, the warmest month in Earth'srecent history, www.climate.copernicus.eu, 9 August 2023,https://climate.copernicus.eu/july-2023-warmest-month-earths-recent -history3) UN alarm, 'the era of global boiling has begun', www.ansa.it, 28 July2023, https://www.ansa.it/sito/notizie/mondo/2023/07/27/ alarm-un-the-global-boiling-era-has-begun_98c5cd39-f986-4649-bb1c-67ac201c8f62.html4) Treccani Dictionary, https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/impazzire/5) Alice McCarthy, Exxon disputed climate findings for years. Itsscientists knew better, The Harvard Gazette, January 12, 2023,https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/01/harvard-led-analysis-finds-exxonmobilinternal-research-accurately-predicted-climate-change/Il Cantiere n. 20 ottobre 2023 ilcantiere@autistici.orghttp://alternativalibertaria.fdca.it/_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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