«There is a total lack of awareness. We cannot continue to be surprised, the climate crisis has been a reality for some time now.” Luca Mercalli, president of the Italian Meteorological Society, has been studying the climate and warning about global warming for decades. «I started in 1986, exactly 40 years ago – says the climatologist, who has just published Brief history of the climate in Italy. From the last ice age to global warming –. Then science predicted what would happen, today the data confirms it: the environment is sick and, if we continue to ignore the problem, the climate will become so inhospitable as to make life difficult. Science is needed to be used, to act as a guide so as not to end up in a colossal trap: let’s use data to save ourselves, not to deny heat deaths. What is at stake is us, our survival.”
The data is known, yet climate scientists are not listened to…
«It’s like this, and it’s frustrating. The work of climate scientists is opposed with arrogance, as if it were all a conspiracy. It happens because there are strong economic pressures, gigantic interests at stake that lobby, today heavily reinforced by Trump’s America which aims for protectionism at the fossil energy market. The intent is obvious: it is up to us to isolate it and consider it an attempt to defraud humanity. If Europe lets itself be dragged by the United States, reducing the effectiveness of the green deal, it will get worse and worse.”
Some citizens don’t seem to be too alarmed, is that right?
«In ordinary people I notice an attitude of deresponsibility, a lack of wanting to be aware in order to avoid anxiety. Then there is a lot of confusion, and in this context organized denialism plays its game. Yet, each Italian is responsible, on average, for the production of 6.5 kilograms of carbon dioxide per year. The responsibilities lie with political leaders but also with each of us. To leave a livable planet to future generations we must achieve climate neutrality by 2050: everyone does their part.”
We are going through the third heat wave, how long will it last?
«The European Union satellite system confirmed that last month was the warmest June ever in Western Europe. The trend that began in 2003 is confirmed: after the first African summer in the Mediterranean and Europe, five others followed. We are experiencing a summer of extreme heat. Next week will be even hotter, with temperatures around 35-37 degrees centigrade.”
What can we expect for the next few days?
«The weather forecast is reliable for 15 days, we cannot say beyond that. However, we know that the extreme phenomena will not stop, that after the heat in autumn the floods will arrive.”
The climate crisis has become a social issue…
«Exactly, and Pope Francis said it already in 2015 with the encyclical Laudato si’. This is both a scientific and ethical question: if the environment is bad, we too are bad, especially the weakest. The moderately hot summer of 2024 caused around 62,700 deaths in Europe, of which around 19,000 in Italy, the most affected country. Balance with the environment is the greatest challenge we face, it is a scientific and ethical question.”
There’s a lot of talk about adapting to the climate crisis, is this the way to go?
«Adaptation is a small piece of the problem, certainly not the solution. It relieves the symptoms but does not cure.”
Cool summers are long gone. What memories do you have of the climate of your summers as a boy?
«I remember the summer in 1978, among the coolest and rainiest of the second half of the twentieth century. I was 12 years old, the sea was cold and it always rained in Romagna. I remember the complaints about the compromised holidays, we walked around wearing a sweater. It was a summer that today we would consider Nordic, with only one week of heat at 32 degrees.”
When did you first realize that you were facing the climate crisis?
«It was 1989. That year I perceived the beginning of the retreat of the ice. Since then I have been studying the Ciardoney glacier, in the Gran Paradiso National Park: in less than forty years it has lost more than 50 meters of thickness. Today it is unrecognizable.”
