How do we think we can observe, understand and experience the world, in what we can call not annus, but saeculum horribilis with war, pandemics, climate change and the impact of artificial intelligence, from our small observation point which is the our island? We need new tools because politics cannot be reduced to simple problem solving.
An expert, an administrator would be enough for this. Globalization and deforestation have reduced the distance between the animal world of the great forests and man. In the last half century, the number of people who have moved across "borders" has grown exponentially, spreading epidemic viruses with their movements. This is what happened with Covid-19. It is estimated that it took a few days for the virus to spread out of China. While scientists needed weeks to reconstruct its path. In the last fifty years, more than forty new lethal pathogens have been discovered that have made the leap of species from animals to humans. The hypothesis that there may be other new epidemics is highly probable. The Covid-19 experience has taught us that we need to be prepared in time to face them so as not to close hospitals to their normal activity and privatize public health. As happened to our regional health service.
The climate emergency is among us, in our lives. It is characterized by unpredictable weather conditions: from extreme droughts such as the drought of 2007, in northern Syria which lasted two years which transformed fertile lands into arid lands and forced millions of people to flee their lands; on the other hand other places with unsustainable flooding. We, on our island, are in the first condition. Going to the beach and swimming at Christmas is not a good experience, but a drama if we think that at the same time in the United States the temperatures are polar. Therefore we must reduce CO2 emissions, abandon fossils as an energy source, reduce the use of cars, rebuild a forest environment that gives oxygen and captures greenhouse gases. The digital revolution, then, needs to be managed so that it is not discriminatory. While wearable devices will allow those who can access them to prevent disease and have access to better treatments, for the moment we are starting to have access to digital tools that increase our knowledge and bring us closer to decision-making power. The digital power in our hands can make us more visible and able to decide our future.
Antonio Barracca
