In regular waves they recur, more or less every generation, i catastrophists which inform us of the imminent end of the world due to man’s action. A few decades ago, the end loomed due to the use of energy resources destined to run out soon. The aforementioned theses were naturally supported by powerful studies.
“The Club of Rome (an association of scholars from different countries founded in 1968, which intends to ‘study human activity as a global system on a global scale’), with its insistence on the danger of the exhaustion of natural resources on planet Earth, represented a point of view excessively inclined towards ‘stationarity’. Today we are more aware of the fact that, by applying the methods of the Club of Rome to any other historical era, for example to the world situation of ten thousand years ago, we still and always arrive at the conclusion that resources are about to run out and that humanity is running a mortal danger.” Sergio Ricossa (Praise of wickedness – Società Europea di Edizioni/ Il Giornale – 2016).
Today we know that oil did not run out in the space of a few decades since then, but rather research and technological innovation have allowed us to extract and use it more efficiently, also developing technologies capable of using new alternative energy sources and even more sustainable. Innovation, economic and technological development allow us to increase the possibilities of growth while safeguarding the environment. On the contrary, for every flourishing of alarmist positions corresponds the reinvigoration of ideological positions who appeal to degrowth, to a change in consumerist habits in favor of a more sober society, with a lifestyle pleasing to the socialist planner and based on the great liberator and only remedy for all evils: austerity!
Similarly, today we are witnessing the growth of positions that claim that the planet is close to a climate catastrophe due above all to the action of human activities. And this, for them, should lead to an immediate change in the capitalist production system in favor of a socialist system, which would be more holistic, sober and therefore more sustainable. Every announced catastrophe is good to tryagain, to stop economic growthreduce the freedom of enterprise and impose the management of the “enlightened planner”.
The climate is changing, of course, and on planet Earth this has always happened and will happen, especially due to causes due to astronomical and geological phenomena (solar activity and its cycles, action of ocean currents, volcanic eruptions, etc.). What the actual role of human activity is and what possibilities it has to influence the climate of the planet is the subject of intense and often ideologically influenced debate. The fact remains that economic growth and environmental protection go hand in handthe least technologically advanced countries being the potentially most polluting ones.
In this regard, we highlight an author and scholar of these topics, who is also very interesting for his personal story as a former environmental activist and now one of the most rigorous voices in analyzing environmental and climate issues. Is called Bjorn Lomborgand in the introduction of his recent book entitled False alarmwarns against the apocalyptic tenor with which the media are informing us of the fact that humanity would only have about ten years to save the planet and that the final line for the salvation of civilization is set for 2030. This time it would be therefore to wait about six years to verify these theories.