The Italian members of Fridays for Future have written an open letter to the country, calling for a sustainable recovery after the end of the pandemic.
The solution for getting out of the global crisis created by the coronavirus pandemic is already right before our eyes, and it also happens to be the same solution that will prevent us from plunging, in the future, into some other disastrous global epidemic. That solution is called ecological transition, and the right moment to finally put it into practice, even at the cost of massive economic investment, is now.
With an open letter addressed to Italy as a whole – to political and economic institutions above all, but also to citizens – the members of Fridays for Future Italy are launching their proposal not only for phase 2, the plan for the gradual reopening of activities, but for a more far-sighted reconstruction project based on respect for people and ecosystems "that can defeat both the climate crisis and the economic crisis looming before us". Not a return to the past – they assure us – but a look towards the future, backed by 50 scientists and experts in environmental and economic matters, as a proposal that marks the beginning of a major campaign set for 24 April – on the occasion of the fifth Global Digital Strike for Future. Here is the full text of the letter: "Dear Italy, Listen to this silence. Our normality has been upended and we have woken up in a nightmare. We find ourselves shut inside our homes, isolated and anxious, waiting for this pandemic to end. We do not know when we will be able to return to our lives, to our loved ones, to the classroom or to work. Worse still, we do not know whether there will be a job waiting for us, whether businesses will be able to get back on their feet, crushed as they are by the worst economic crisis since the post-war period. Could we perhaps have avoided this disaster? Many studies argue that this crisis is connected to the ecological emergency. The continuous destruction of natural spaces is forcing many wild animals, carriers of diseases dangerous to humans, to find themselves living in close contact with us. We know for certain that this will be only the first of many other crises – health, economic or humanitarian – caused by climate change and its poisoned fruits. Summers that grow ever more scorching and winters that grow ever warmer, floods and droughts have been destroying our harvests for years, causing incalculable damage and an ever-growing number of victims. The inexorable rise in temperatures will bring us infectious diseases typical of warmer climates, or ones still entirely unknown, risking plunging us back into a new epidemic. Are we destined for this? What if we had a way out instead? An idea capable of resolving both the climate crisis and the economic crisis? Dear Italy, this is why we are writing to you: the solution already exists".
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"The way out of the health crisis must be the moment to start again, and the ecological transition will be the heart and mind of this rebirth: the starting point for a revolution of our entire system. The challenge is ambitious, we know that, but the stakes are too high to back down. We must launch a colossal, historic plan of sustainable public investment that will bring well-being and work for everyone and that will finally give us back a Future to return to, after the journey through the darkness of this pandemic. A future in which we will produce all our energy from renewable sources and will no longer need to buy oil, coal and methane from abroad. In which, by stopping the burning of fossil fuels, converting polluting industries and reclaiming our devastated territories, we will be able to save the more than 80,000 people killed every year by air pollution."
"Imagine, dear Italy, your cities will be green and free from traffic. Not because we will still be forced to stay at home, but because we will get around thanks to efficient public transport accessible to everyone. With a major national plan we will renovate public and private buildings, cutting emissions and energy bills. We will restore dignity to your boundless beauties, to your parks and your mountains. We will be able to rely on the air, the water, and the essential goods that your natural ecosystems, healthy and intact, give us. We will produce the food for which we are famous the world over in a sustainable way. In doing so we will create hundreds of thousands of new, well-paid jobs, across every sector. This Future is truly possible, dear Italy, we are convinced of it. To face this health emergency we are finally listening to science. And it is science itself that clearly shows us the course to follow in order to defeat the climate crisis. This time we know how much time we have left to act: we have already entered the crucial decade. The moment of collapse of the only ecosystem in which we can live, the crossing of 1.5°C of global warming, is already on the horizon. The reckless emissions curve must be reversed starting this very year, and permanently. Only if we succeed will we build a fairer, more equitable country and world, for everyone, not at the expense of the weakest, but of the few who have built their profits on the climate crisis."
"Dear Italy, you can set an example. You can lead Europe and the world along the path of ecological conversion.
Not every generation is given the chance to truly change history and create a better world – the only one in which life is possible.
This is our last chance. We cannot afford to go back to the past. We must look ahead and prepare our Return to the Future!
PS: this is only the beginning. Today a major campaign for the rebirth of our country begins, one that will carry us through to the launch of a series of concrete proposals, on the occasion of the global #DigitalStrike, on 24 April. And we will not be alone."
