How to change route?” “” “

The earth is warming up and the climate is changing, jeopardizing the health of mankind and the surrounding environment. Either we change route or “millions of human beings” will be “threatened by rising sea levels, by the lack of fresh water”, by future “extreme meteorological conditions and by the spread of epidemics”. The same dire fate would also threaten nature, wild animals, and the overall conditions that support life on our planet. The alarm bells are rung in the new report of the WWF, the international organization that works for the conservation of nature. “CLIMATE CHANGE IS THREATENING MAN AND NATURE”. In particular the World Wildlife Fund presented a report called “Ranking Power” in Brussels on 30 November. It is linked to a campaign in favour of the diffusion throughout the world of renewable energy sources (wind, solar, hydraulic and biomass, i.e. the energy exploitation of organic matter). According to environmentalists, the major energy production companies are largely insensible to durable energy sources. A total of 72 companies throughout the world were analyzed by scientists, “with disturbing results”. Investment and production in the field of “clean and renewable energy sources”, or those relating to cogeneration with natural gas, are at a very low level. Through a series of technical parameters, “it was ascertained that the companies whose performances were analyzed are utterly unprepared to drastically alter their practices”. The result is that to illuminate cities, heat homes and operate factories, almost exclusive use is made of highly polluting sources that contribute to the overheating of the planet. “In the field of greenhouse gas emissions, the energy sector is the most polluting, and responsible for 37% of carbon dioxide production through the combustion of fossil fuels”, explains Jennifer Morgan, American director of the Wwf’s Programme on Climate Change. “Continuing at this rate, there’s a danger of unleashing a global crisis linked to climate change”. DURABLE ENERGY SOURCES LITTLE EXPLOITED. The companies that seem – according to the findings of the report – sensitive to these issues can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Among them, the Wwf cites the Spanish Iberdrola, the American group FPL, and Scottish Power in the UK. On the other hand, many energy groups with headquarters in the USA, Japan, Australia, and also in Ireland, Sweden, Finland and Portugal are given the “thumbs down” by the report. Of the many cases analysed, the companies of the old continent are shown, however, to be overall “less insensible to the problem: “These companies – explains Stephan Singer, the German head of the Wwf European team, in a comment to SIR – are those that have an eye for the problem, in contrast to the Americans who seem to be blind to it. In general these companies are in fact more advanced in terms of their exploitation of sustainable energies, although they are as a whole unprepared to tackle industrial transformations respectful of the environment and the climate”. Apart from its analysis of the current situation and its denunciations of the looming risks, the Wwf also makes some recommendations, linked especially to the exploitation of renewable sources of energy (water, wind, sun), and also the “improvement of power stations. “Public opinion has an important role to play – explain the experts of the Wwf -, by stimulating growing demand for green energy”. THE PROLIFERATION OF CHEMICAL PRODUCTS ALSO TARGETED. To raise the awareness of consumers, as well as producers and politicians, the WWF is therefore launching a campaign called “PowerSwitch!”, which in Europe plans awareness-raising activities in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. With its 5 million members worldwide, 3.6 million of them concentrated in Europe (even though the association has failed to establish very deep roots in the former Communist countries), the Wwf is also moving in other directions. The campaigns now being run include “DeTox”, against the use of chemical products that are variously used in daily life and that are alleged to be harmful to human health (one example: non-stick saucepans). This action is proceeding in tandem with a campaign in progress in the EU institutions pressing for a Directive on these same chemical products. The “PowerSwitch!” and “DeTox” campaigns are being supported both by the national offices of the Wwf and its central headquarters in Gland, Switzerland. At the same time its office in Brussels is being deputed to monitor at close hand the development of EU policies linked to the environment; the forthcoming “challenges” for the Wwf include not least the reform of the European sugar regime and the question of fishing “quotas”. The issues that remain ever present in the actions of the Wwf are many: notably the short and long term protection of the natural heritage, the safety of consumers, and the responsibility of industry and the political institutions for the health of citizens.