"Climate change affects the spread of fires. It does not set fire to the forest but makes it more vulnerable. And if we let the next 10 years slip by to take serious action, the situation will become irreversible and we will literally end up roasting everyone, the scenarios will be on fire".
Word of the climatologist Luca Mercalli who thus comments on the increasing number of fires that are raging in the country.
"Some might argue that fires are arson - he underlines - This is true, but a forest where it rains and there is a normal climate is less vulnerable to fire. As drought and heat dry out the undergrowth and the material deposited by time, the wood becomes a torch. The carelessness and the criminals are always there but the hot wind and the drought make the fire more easily propagated and difficult to stop. Let us remember that in a healthy wood, a damp wood, the fire travels a few meters ".
According to Mercalli, the problem "is not saving the planet, which somehow is used to getting by, but saving humanity. The amount of Co2 in the atmosphere is the highest in the last 3 million years and we are all called to preserve a climate that allows man to live. Think of what has happened all over the world, in California, Canada, Australia, or at least what has been happening for twenty years now. In the climatic scenarios of the future, warming global will become fertile ground for fires. " The escalation of fossil C02 in the atmosphere, "40 billion tons per year - explains the climatologist - must be drastically stopped. We are already inside this change and we will not stop it anymore if we do not apply the Paris agreement, the Green deal,the energy transition, all promises that have been made for years but which then in practice are not kept. Acting now means avoiding worst-case scenarios and avoiding going into irreversibility. We already have an extra degree and we will have to live with this, even if we start to stop polluting tonight. However, if within 80 years we reach 5 degrees higher, the situation will be irrecoverable, and those we are experiencing will be phenomena that we should expect more and more frequently ".even if we start to stop polluting tonight. However, if within 80 years we reach 5 degrees higher, the situation will be irrecoverable, and those we are experiencing will be phenomena that we should expect more and more frequently ".even if we start to stop polluting tonight. However, if within 80 years we reach 5 degrees higher, the situation will be irrecoverable, and those we are experiencing will be phenomena that we should expect more and more frequently ".