Citizenship of Sustainability - Museo Nazionale … · From the mail to the pony express, to the telegram, to the fax, to e-mail, to telepre-sence, ... CITIZENSHIP OF SUSTAINABILITY

Citizenship of Sustainability The world is living, in the days of the penning of these reflections, in a condition of indeterminacy that compels an attempt at a general reflection

Fiorenzo Galli

2014

CITIZENSHIP OF SUSTAINABILITY CITIZENSHIP OF SUSTAINABILITY 3

1 The revolution of global communication

1.1 The Internet of everything: the evolution of the Internet 1.2 Zettaflood: the evolution of traffic1.3 The Cloud: the evolution of computing1.4 The Next Network: the evolution of the network1.5 The world is really flat: fewer and fewer obstacles to communication 1.6 Energy: evolution of the generation and management of communication

2 International awareness

3 The difficulty in the availability of resources

3.1 The human population on the planet 3.2 The resources of the planet 3.3 Agricultural resources 3.4 Energy resources 3.5 Forests and soil3.6 Water3.7 Metals and other elements 3.8 Waste materials (which we mention only) and “the ecological footprint”

4 The technical nature of Man

5 A new society

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Index

Far from being exhaustive, this article is a contribution to the common reflection and owes much to the authors and sources of information cited hereafter, with respect to which I am ready to apologize and remedy in any case of inadvertent omission or inadequate specification.


Our planet has become global through the explosion of communications media. We now see knowledge doubling every two to three years. At the beginning of the last century, this occurred about every 100 years.

We must definitively recognize that the future is no longer what it once was.

Seventy percent of current knowledge and information is on the Internet: and the more we know, the more quickly we create new knowledge.

By 2025 we will have a world population of about 8 billion people, and about 50 billion devices connected to the Internet (computers, surveillance cameras, monitors for security, health, or appliance energy control; but also bovine feeding sensors, or sophisticated web cam-laboratories for diversified traffic or environment monitoring): an average of 6.25 devices for every inhabitant of the planet.

A network that is becoming more standardized, more pervasive, more people-centric, and, according to estimates, capable of doubling in size every 5.32 years.

In one year, about five exabits of new information are created (where 1 Ebit = 1018 bits), meaning the equivalent of 1 billion DVDs.

Currently 90% of the planet and about 5 million users have a wireless connection available (WLAN: Wireless Local Area Network), and each year, more than 100,000 new telephone antennas are installed.

In the current year, there are over 1 billion devices equipped with Wi-Fi antennas.

This proliferation of new devices, and the related demand for security and mobility, have thus required a new generation of network (the launching of the IPv6 standard for multiplication of addresses necessary for billions of new devices).

Already in 2015, 1.6 Zbits of data (1 Zbit = 1021 bits) will cross the Internet.

A zettabit of information is equivalent to the content of a pile of books extending 20 times the distance between the Earth and Pluto (the farthest well-known body in the solar system), for a total of 72 billion miles, or, if you prefer, 115 billion km.

The increase, from 2003 to 2015, is estimated at about 540,000 times. More than 90% of this will be in video format.

Paraphrase and quotations from: Dave Evans (Chief Futurist Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group), 10 technologies that will change the world in the next 10 years, Milan, April 2013. See also: Jon Stokes on Wired, 29 November 2011.

1. THE REVOLUTION OF GLOBAL COMMUNICATION

The revolution of global communication

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1.1THE INTERNET OF EVERYTHING: THE EVOLUTION OF THE INTERNET

1.2ZETTAFLOOD:THE EVOLUTION OF TRAFFIC

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In only the next three years, we will have a flow of new information equivalent to every person on the Earth tweeting for 100 years, or 125 million years of television.

There will be an insatiable desire for rich media (interactive videos): telepresence, transparent displays (as in Minority Report), interactive mirrors. From megapixels (106 pixels), to gigapixels (109 pixels), to terapixels (1012 pixels)2.

We save 92% of the content we produce: 210 billion e-mails every day, 6 billion photos every month, 60 hours of video uploaded every minute, 200 apps downloaded every second. In 2015, a quantity of videos equivalent to 1 billion minutes (i. e., 674 days) will cross the Internet each second.

Two-thirds of all cellphone traffic will be videos.

HUMANITY PASSES 1 ZETTABYTE MARK IN 2010A zettabyte is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes (that’s 21 zeroes for those counting),or one trillion gigabytes. That’s enough data to fill 75 billion 16-gigabyte-sized iPads.

Graphic: A. HADHAZY, Zettabytes Now Needed to Describe Global Data Overload, Tech New Daily, 04 May 2010.

The Pixel (picture element) is the smallest controllable element of a digital image.2

1 BILLION TERABYTES = 1 ZETTABYTE 1 MILLION TERABYTES = 1 EXABYTE

1,000 TERABYTES = 1 PETABYTE

1,000 GIGABYTES = 1 TERABYTE

SHAPES SHOWN TO SCALE


We will therefore also need “enormous warehouses”: this zettaflood will require network services and an architecture optimized for security, quality of service, and efficiency.

In this regard, one thing to consider is how the most sensitive data rarely go out of “mechanical” control of the proprietor (for example, the extremely costly research data of pharmaceutical houses, valued at billions of dollars).

New capabilities will be created (from the mainframes of 1960, to the minicom-puters of 1970, to the client servers of 1980, to the Web of 1990, and on to the Cloud - reducing the cost of storage and management to 20% - since 2010): in 2015, one third of all data will reside in the Cloud. The turnover of the Cloud will increase by 20% each year.

All of this, of course, will need great speed. The network of the future will be vastly more rapid than the current one.

Already, in February 2011, the telecommunications giant Ericsson and the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna demonstrated the transfer of 448 Gbits per second (1 Gbit/s =109 bits/s) over optical fiber cable, the equivalent of 20 HD films per second; in March 2011, the Northwestern University Research group developed a switch for ultrafast Internet; in April 2011, a new world record was set by transferring over 100 terabits (1 Tbit = 1012 bits) of information per second over fiber optic cable; in May 2011, a researcher established a further new record by transferring 26 Tbits per second with a single laser.

Humanity is also evolving thanks to communication.

The new networking has already begun: today it would be possible to put 1.3 billion Chinese together at the same time on a video call, or to download all the films ever produced in just four minutes, and every person in the world could participate in the same web call using VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol).

The Internet is the most powerful communications instrument in the world, and with it, the knowledge available to humanity will advance exponentially.

From the mail to the pony express, to the telegram, to the fax, to e-mail, to telepre-sence, today we have arrived to real-time: in fewer than 10 years, anyone will be able to transmit from anywhere on any device.

1.3THE CLOUD: THE EVOLUTION OF COMPUTING

1.4THE NEXT NETWORK: THE EVOLUTION OF THE NETWORK

1.5THE WORLD IS REALLY FLAT: FEWER AND FEWER OBSTACLES TO COMMUNICATION

1.6ENERGY: EVOLUTION OF THE GENERATION AND MANAGEMENT OFCOMMUNICATION

The technology of communications has generated a historic paradigm shift: formerly a single producer and numerous users, now there is the possibility for users themselves (consider the social networks) to become producers of information. This phenomenon, if applied to the control of energy - increasingly produced in circuits and local and systemic “grids”- has the capability of generating an epochal revolution.

Daniel Nocera of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) has developed an artificial leaf, more efficient than Mother Nature, which generates enough electricity to power a modern home for one day; Samsung has developed a display (1920x1080 pixel) with no power cord or batteries that is completely self-sufficient; Monash University (Australian, with a campus also at Prato) has presented a prototype for a catalyst capable of drawing hydrogen from water using sunlight.

We will have an IPv6 address (Internet Protocol version 6) just as the house we live in has an address: which will allow the network to control and manage production and consumption of energy.

We are at the beginning of system potentials (like the Energywise technology) which will allow us to control and manage production and consumption of energy. Management, along with energy efficiency is already one of the keys to sustainable development for the present, and not only for information technology.

This is one part of that “energy harvesting” (the so-called Third Industrial Revolution3) advocated by Jeremy Rifkin (president of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington), specialist and guru of the relationship between the evolution of science and technology and economic, environmental, and cultural development.

According to Rifkin, with the end of the carbon era, “[…] we need to open a way toward a more equitable and sustainable future, where hundreds of millions of persons all around the world will produce green energy at home, in offices, and in factories, and they will share it with others, just as today they share information via the Internet.”4

Jeremy Rifkin, La terza rivoluzione industriale. Come il “potere laterale” sta trasformando l’energia, l’economia, il mondo, Mondadori, Milan 2011.Jeremy Rifkin, La Terza Rivoluzione Industriale, Mondadori, 2011.

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The world population over the age of 65 years will triple from 516 million in 2009 to 1.53 billion in 2050: will we have enough doctors? Today we have available artificial entities with gestures, emotions, and automatic responses like IBM Watson (the supercomputer that understands human language and with an enormous capacity for responding to questions, which would be a great help to doctors, and with a potential yet to be discovered when managed in the Cloud); speech recognition software (which transforms spoken words to written text), memory aids, and more.

All these systems and aids will become like a personalized component, and an addition to the family: a sort of extended family.

The web is more important than ever, but not yet as important as it will be in the future. The journey has barely begun, and the web will change the world.

The Internet will continue to change the way we work, live, play, and learn.

ARTIFICIAL LEAF BY DANIEL NOCERA

Credit: abstract by D. NOCERA, The artificial leaf, publish in Account Chemical Societt, 04.04.2012.

All of this would already be enough to affirm that we are living in a revolutionary period, in regard to which we will need to make an enormous, far-reaching effort at adapting.

But what has been stated, in the development of the new global society, needs other and broader considerations. Among the many analyses, we may find pertinence in the one produced by the STS Forum (Science and Technology and Society Forum), held every year in Kyoto for over a decade.

More than a thousand scientists, politicians, and opinion makers meet for an open exchange of views on the future of the planet and the most urgent problems needing attention.

What emerges is a vivid and disturbing framework that demands careful attention.The explosive progress of science and technology in 20th century has brought prosperity and improved quality of life for much of the human race. With the continued progress of science and technology, new ethical issues are arising, along with concerns of safety and environment.

Possible adverse operating conditions are threatening the future of mankind, at the very time when we are looking toward acceleration in scientific and technological progress. This premise indeed urges us to focus on sustainable development of the human race in the 21st century.

It will be necessary to exercise wisdom (to be understood as common sense and discretion, according to the writer) in order to keep everything under correct and appropriate control.

In this sense, the most pressing problems facing us today include:

Harmonizing economic development with global warming.

The theme of climatic influence on social events is far from new. To cite a sensational historical example, we cannot ignore the extent to which climatic conditions in Europe at the end of the 18th century determined the economic and social conditions giving rise to the French Revolution.

The winter of 1788-89 is renowned for having been one of the most bitter of the last two centuries.

In central London (and until at least 1814), various “Ice Fairs” were held on the Thames during the winter. The children of Venice heard a well-known nursery rhyme recounting how “Our ancestors told us about the winter of ’88, when you

Paraphrase from: Science and Technology in Society Forum: Lights and Shadows 2013 – Kyoto - Milan April 2013.

International awareness

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could walk on top of the ice at the speed of a trot.” It was possible for 18 days, in fact, to walk from Venice to Mestre.

Not only was this winter terribly cold, but it also followed right after an extremely dry year. The summer of 1778 was torridly hot: the wheat in France dried up.

This, combined with winter temperatures below -20°C (-4°F), caused an immediate rise in commodity prices, in particular, that of grains. What followed in those years changed the course of history. 6

The causes for those weather conditions surely were not anthropogenic in nature. Nor were there economic, social, or scientific-technological measures in place during those times that would be able to compensate or assuage (or even less, to avoid) the impact of the situation.

The example, nonetheless, is valid for pointing out the significance of climatic conditions in the management of a balanced and plausible social coexistence.

The scientific approach, possible today, is useful in giving balance to the proper perspective of seriousness that these problems deserve. This applies particularly to the attitudes of the media, which may have an easy appeal but which are often blatantly out of place. It is important for us all to remember the importance given to the issue of “global cooling” in the 1970s (plentiful Internet sources are available regarding the episode), when this hypothesis, far from being scientifically proved, long induced people to hypothesize the construction of a dam across the Bering Strait and the artificial melting of the Greenland ice sheet; 7

preventing terrorism;

controlling infectious diseases and pandemics;

assessing and evaluating the potential health benefits and ethical factors pertaining to the technology of cloning.

Now more than ever, increased efforts are needed on an international level to address these problems.

We need to recognize how to seize the opportunities, but the risks must be known, shared, and kept under control.

Being able to satisfy the needs for human well-being, in terms of energy, resources, and many other aspects - such as health, above all - depends upon the continuing progress of science and technology.

2. INTERNATIONAL AWARENESS

Wolfgang Behringer, Storia culturale del clima, Bollati Boringhieri, Turin 2013; archivio Il clima nella storia www.meteogiornale.it; Youtube video by NASA : global warming : temperature map. Science, 6 August 1976, vol. 193, n. 4252, pp. 447-453.

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But at the same time, the benefits derived from science and technology are not reaching the majority of people: the barriers must be discussed and addressed in order to seize the opportunity to use science and technology for solving the problems of mankind.

Because the problems we face are becoming increasingly more complex with respect to the background of globalization and international competition, these are beyond the possibility of control of any individual country.

The individual steps involved are even beyond the possibility of control of the inter-national scientific community, because many of these problems will find a solution through changes in the social system, in international collaboration (toward which systems and countries will need to be prepared), in global networks, and in the construction of common roles.The time has come, not only for students and researchers, but also for creators of policy scenarios, managers of the business world, and those of the major media around the world, to meet and discuss ideas of 21st-century science and technology.

Regarding these issues, the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk - with astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, astronomer Martin Rees, and philosopher Huw Price as members, among others - has compiled a list of the new (and potentially definitive) risks for the globe, or at least for its inhabitants.

“We live in an increasingly interconnected world, increasingly technologized, and ever more dependent on the web,” affirms Lord Rees, ex-president of the Royal Society and one of the promoters of the initiative. “To us Westerners, the world may appear safer than it has ever been in the past, but it is actually more vulnerable than it seems. And since political leaders are focused on short-term problems, so-meone needs to suggest to the international public opinion what the most realistic dangers are and what means can be used to oppose them.” 8

There is talk of artificial intelligence so sophisticated that it could escape human control; of the possibility of cyber-attacks for control of power grids, air traffic, and communications; of bioterrorism, food shortages, severe climate change, pandemics, and wars over resources (primarily water and food), not to mention nuclear apocalypse.

The happy ending of this film scenario depends on all of us.

What emerges forcefully is the realization that all citizens, and in particular, the younger generations, will need to face issues and developments - relating to organization and management - in society and life that are vastly more complex than ever before.

Enrico Franceschini, La task force di superscienziati che fermerà la fine del mondo, La Repubblica, 14 September 2013.8


Both for those who are or will be the ruling class, but also for ordinary citizens, who will need to have tools available for understanding and orientation regarding the profound, continual, and inevitable changes.

The enormous quantitative change in the presence of technology in our lives will increasingly generate a qualitative change. One that will be capable, owing to its force and accelerating speed, of generating unpredictable social results.

Some 2 billion human beings are now entering a new human society with the just desire of having things that they have never before possessed, such as a refrigerator, an automobile, or air conditioning (and a whole long series of devices, services, and “privileges,” typical of more developed societies). At the same time, another 2 billion people will progressively increase the number of living beings of our kind on the planet within the end of the first half of this century: the problems will not be of only a scientific, technological, economic, or environmental nature.

That of the availability of resources is, indeed, the most disturbing and problematic scenario.

It took more than 100,000 years to reach the first 2 billion human beings living on the planet (1927), 50 years for the second 2 billion (1977), and 25 years for the third 2 billion (1999).

We reached 3 billion in 1960, 5 billion in 1987, and we will be 8 billion in the year 2025. Each minute 18 children are born in China, 24 are born in India (and 1 in Italy). Some 205,000 children are born on the planet every day (equivalent to a city the size of Padua), and about 79 million are born each year.

More and more people are living in the city: city dwellers made up one-eighth of the world population in 1900, and in 2030, this figure will be two-thirds.

Thus we increasingly make reference to megalopolises: today 32 million people live in Tokyo (over half the people living in Italy), 20 million in Mexico City and in São Paulo, 19 million in Mumbai, 17 million in Shanghai, 15 million in Los Angeles, and 10 million in Paris, to name a few.

The problems that emerge are complex and enormous in scale (for example, the supply of energy or water, or the disposal of wastewater, as well as mobility and disposal of waste products, ...).

Nevertheless, for the time being, it is not so much a problem of the physical space available on the entire planet.

Today, in the current year of 2014, we are about 7.2 billion people: we could all fit standing, like in a rock concert, in Val d’Aosta. We’d be a bit uncomfortable, but we’d fit.

All of us could fit into the 48 contiguous United States (the lower 48), making a density of 1000 people per square kilometer (which is 5 times more than in Italy, but 7 times less than in Singapore, the most densely populated place on the planet).

Notes for this chapter drawn from: Nicola Armaroli (ISOF-CNR Bologna) and Marco Antonio Bazzocchi in Terra e Acqua: le risorse, dallo stupore per le scoperte allo sfruttamento insostenibile, Biblioteca Salaborsa, Auditorium Enzo Biagi, 4 April 2013 - in the series Riflessioni su Scienza e Società, ed. Margherita Venturi - referenced several times in the article; for further details: PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), www.pnas.org; for global data on the planet www.worldometers/info/about.php - real time world statistics; and also www.sciencedirect.com; www.electricpartner.com

The difficulty in the availability of resources

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3.1THE HUMAN POPULATION ON THE PLANET

2. INTERNATIONAL AWARENESS

CITIZENSHIP OF SUSTAINABILITY CITIZENSHIP OF SUSTAINABILITY 153. THE DIFFICULTY IN THE AVAILABILITY OF RESOURCES

10000

18001 billion

2 billion

2,5 billion

3 billion

4 billion

5 billion

6 billion

5 million 10,000 BC 250 million 1 AD

6,7 billion

7,3 billion*

8 billion*

9,2 billion*

POPULATION YEAR

1930

1960

1975

1987

2000

2007

2015

2025

2050

1950

4 BILLION

2 BILLION

6 BILLION

8 BILLION

8000 6000 4000 2000 0 2000

WORLD POPULATION GROWTHFertility rates are declining, the United Nations says, but not fast enough to stop populationgrowth. The U.N.’s medium-level projection is for the world’s population to reach 9.2 billion by 2050 but still more than 3 billion higher since the turn of the century. Population activists say that’s too much for the world to handle.

Data: Nazioni Unite, Sustainable Scale Project, World Resources Institute, NationMaster.com

The problem, rather, is one of resources: are there (and will there be) enough resources to provide a dignified existence to all the inhabitants of the earth, and not just to a few privileged people, as has happened so far?

All the things that we use are, ultimately, a natural resource. Let’s talk about the main things we need: energy, food, water, forests, mineral resources. We are totally depen-dent on them, and they are not fully regenerable, whether speaking in absolute terms or in terms of the times appropriate for compensating the quantitative use that we make of them (for example, fossil sources of energy, water, forests, agricultural production capacity,...).

The photosynthesis of plants generates the oxygen we breathe (from the leaves) and the food we eat (from the fruits, both directly and indirectly consumed by all of us). It is true that human ingenuity has produced wonders, but we can never forget that we depend entirely on the availability of natural resources.

We also receive “services” from Nature: for example, pollination. We can eat fruit thanks to the bees who take responsibility for this work. If the bees were to die out (or be eliminated by killer wasps), pollination would have to take place by hand, just as already takes place in certain areas in China that are particularly polluted, where the biosphere is especially compromised.

For thousands of years, agriculture has been based on rigid principles of productivity, and on a poor but circular system, capable of feeding a very basic but sustainable life (waste products, such as manure, for example, were used to restart the cycle). During the 19th century, thanks to imports of fertilizer into Europe (guano and phosphates) from other continents, this system based on self-supply began to fade out, allowing a significant increase in consumers and in consumption.

In particular, beginning from 1913, the use of artificial fertilizers obtained from synthesizing nitrogen was introduced. Nitrogen (the primary component of air, fundamental for development of protein, and therefore for production of food) had been recycled up to that moment in a natural process. In 1910, the Haber-Bosh system for the industrial production of ammonia was patented, making way for the factory production of fertilizers.

Pressure on growth and consumption of resources increased in those years, for the very reason that more food was beginning to be available.

Above all, in the middle of last century, the idea had consolidated that the Earth was an inexhaustible repository of resources that would allow unlimited economic growth.

3.3AGRICULTURALRESOURCES

3.2THE RESOURCES OF THE PLANET


A conviction that had a major impact on human behavior all throughout the course of the 20th century, and one that even today continues to orient human beliefs.

The idea that resources are inexhaustible is shamefully widespread in all areas: politics, journalism, unions, and even religion.

It is necessary to state that the greatest revolution of the 20th century was indeed the Green Revolution: not that of the automobile, nor even that of the computer, so highly evident from this point onward.

During the 20th century, there was a 30% increase in cultivated areas throughout the planet, but crop productivity increased by 600% during the same time.

Naturally, we cannot consider this result as an indicator of unlimited measure and direction.

It is clear that agricultural productivity has limits that cannot be exceeded and that the issue of productivity offers important scenarios, the value of which must be seriously analyzed, also from the point of view of ethics, referring to the treatment of animals in intensive systems being forced toward greater productivity.

Energy consumption for agricultural applications have, likewise, increased by 8000% (80 times). Each of the giant machines that today can be seen working large tracts of agricultural land, guided by GPS (global positioning system), is performing the work, and therefore consuming the energy, of thousands of farmhands.

If this represents a benefit in the sense that it allows the overcoming of especially strenuous work, once again, however, it calls back into question the notion that the key to everything is the availability of energy, and our ability to direct it toward producing further and positive results. In this regard, it is useful to quote some numbers, using petroleum as a unit of measure, the source of energy that comes to mind more readily than any other.

SOURCES OF GROWTH IN GLOBAL AGRICULTURAL OUTPUT1961-2010

Data: Wang Sun Ling, Paul Heisey, Wallace Huffman and Keith Fuglie. 2013. Public R&D, private R&D and U.S. agricultural productivity growth: Dynamic and long-run relationships. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 95:1287-1293.

1961-2010 1961-1970 1971-1980 1981-1990 1991-2000 2001-2010

1.0

2.0

-1.0

0.0

-2.0

3.0

4.0

TFP: gross amount of crop and livestock outputs per inputs (labor, capital and materials)

Rate of Growth (% per year)

Irrigation: extension of irrigation to agricultural land

Land Expansion

Inputs/Land: gross amount of fertilizer, machinery, labor and other inputs per hectares of agricultural land

3. THE DIFFICULTY IN THE AVAILABILITY OF RESOURCES


The current world consumption of oil is 1000 barrels (equivalent to 159,000 liters) per second, 88 million barrels per day, 32 billion barrels per year (equivalent to 5.088 trillion liters): to use a three-dimensional image, this comes to 5 km³, meaning a cube 1.71 km on a side, every year. Just to make a couple of comparisons with well-known objects, the Eiffel Tower is 324 m high, and the elliptical base of the Colosseum measures 188 m by 156 m, with a height of 48 m.

The consumption of available energy has for thousands of years taken advantage of the force of human or animal muscles, or of fire or wind. With the Industrial Revolution, which was also a reaction to the demographic growth of the previous decades, began the start to the massive exploitation of the fossil fuels that we have been enjoying, in a particularly privileged manner, for two or three generations.

It becomes prudent to ask a question: can this last forever?

In fact, the global consumption of energy, which corresponds to 600 exajoules (1 EJ = 1018 J)10 per year, is fueled for a total of 80% by nonrenewable sources, that is, from fossil fuels, to be precise. The resources used to burn the gasoline or diesel fuel in our automobiles, or to operate the home furnace, can be regenerated only through extremely long cycles involving hundreds of millions of years.

The fact that world oil production cannot last forever is witnessed by the trend of Europe’s major producer, namely Norway, where daily production of oil, which began in 1970 and peaked in 2000 with 3.5 million bpd (barrels per day), is now in a rapid decline, with a prediction of its dropping to 500,000 bpd by 2030. This curve, more or less pronounced, is in the destiny of every fossil fuel production.

In order to overcome this, and in any case for economic and geopolitical reasons, in recent years the era of “extreme” research and exploitation of fossil fuels has been undertaken. This will be discussed more and more in the future, because the best and most easily accessible petroleum is gradually running out.

One example of this is drilling in arctic zones, or deep-sea drilling at depths of up to 3000 m, and at distances far from the coast, sometimes more than 300 km.

In these circumstances, the difficulties of intervention in case of emergency are highly increased. Bad weather, waves, frigid climates, wind, precarious and remo-te support logistics, and dangers for men and vehicles cause an exponential in-crease in difficulties and costs.

There are, additionally, risks for the associated operations, also for the environ-ment. The swamps of Louisiana are undergoing cleaning “by hand” following the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon.11

1 J = the work required to raise 102 g the distance of 1 meter. 3.600.000 J is equivalent to 1 kWh. The Deepwater Horizon was a semi-submersible platform owned by Transocean, a service company that operated on behalf of British Petroleum, equipped with a dynamic positioning system for operating in stormy conditions such as those in the Gulf of Mexico. On 2 September 2009, the Deepwater Horizon terminated drilling of the deepest gas and oil pit ever made (10,680 m, with a distance of 1259 m between waterline and ocean bottom). It owes its “fame” to the oil spill incident in 2010 (from 20 April to 4 August) causing

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3.4ENERGYRESOURCES

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An “extreme” case is that of the bituminous sands and/or clays and the subsequent extraction of heavy oil. It is a complex operation low in profitability and creates considerable waste residues and in very challenging quantities.Very important in every aspect is the world of shale oil, extracted using the system of fracking, and especially developed for some years, for example, in the territories of Alberta, Canada: the extraction is stimulated by the pressure of steam and sand at very high temperatures to crush the rocks, creating cracks in the ground and allowing the oil to spill out. Cracks are created, the petroleum comes out, and it can then be exploited. Enormous quantities of gas are required for the energy necessary to power the process, and enormous quantities of territory for the extraction, but also for the disposal of the highly polluting residues, after machining.12

From the NASA Earth Observatory site, since 2011, a “stain” of 700 km² has been observed in continual expansion, moving toward a predicted exploitation of 150,000 km². The territorial situations and the related devastation and pollution of the land can easily be compared through their ongoing phases.13

Owing to these resources (at one time nonconventional), Canada has meanwhile become particularly reliable from an economic standpoint (namely, it is now the third largest in terms of reserves and production of oil: Venezuela produces 296 billion barrels per year, or 17.9% of global production; Saudi Arabia produces 265.4 billion barrels per year, or 16.1%; and Canada, 175 billion barrels per year, or 10.6%). We are speaking of data beginning from 2012: in 2011, Canada did not appear in these lists.

The United States, with the contribution of shale oil, is now approaching the peaks of production (over 10 million barrels per day) witnessed in the early 1970s.14

Another disturbing case involving the dire need to find energy resources concerns the reserves under the Yasumi National Park (100 km2 at 250 km from Quito). The region supports one of the world’s most explosive biodiversity hotspots, one that has required millions of years to come into being. It would be possible to extract 850 million barrels of petroleum from the area, but at the price of devastating an ecosystem that is host to millions of living species.

Extraction of the entire amount would suffice to supply the world’s consumption of energy for only 9.5 days.

Beginning in 2007 Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa called upon the international community for a contribution equivalent to 50% of the estimated revenues from the extraction (i. e., $3.6 billion): Ecuador is a poor country and these resources would be valuable to them, but owing to insufficient sensitivity in the international community, and also to the overall economic crisis, the initiative was abandoned,

massive damage to the ecosystem and coastal seabed of the Gulf of Mexico. During those 106 days, the NASA site impressively reported images of the day-by-day evolution of the oil slick surface.Robert Kunzig, “Scraping Bottom: the Canadian oil boom,” National Geographic Magazine, March 2009. Nature 2010, pp. 468-499.Ed Crooks, Shale puts US in line to be top oil producer, Financial Times, 27 June 2013; for general and specific data, Annual Energy Outlook 2011, 2012, 2013.



declared on 16 August 2013 by President Correa to be a failure.15

“The next step after fracking,” as defined by the New Scientist, which has recently reported on the evolution of the scenario, is generating further and disturbing reflections.

This is the Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) system. The process involves drilling to reach coal deposits that are too deep or too difficult to extract and setting fire to them directly in the ground, causing the gas produced by the combustion to come to the surface so it can be exploited.Environmentalism and climate issues, including also concerns about groundwater, combine to produce somewhat of an infernal scenario, even while not new in conception and realization. And if these situations, which are now isolated cases in remote places, were to become a widespread system, the result would indeed be a scenario right out of Dante’s Inferno, at which point no sort of attempt at reassurance could bring truly sound sleep.

The proposal to develop, in parallel, the systems of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), to trap within crevices carbon dioxide (CO2) produced by combustion, does not appear to be a technologically mature system for safe and economically feasible use.16

Scott Wallace, Rain forest for sale, National Geographic Magazine, January 2013; Associated Press in Quito, Yasumi: Ecuador abandons plan to stave off Amazon drilling, The Guardian, Friday 16 August 2013.Nicola Nosengo, Tutto il carbone che c’è, PEM – Piazza Enciclopedia Magazine, 18 February 2014.

15

16

AFRICA 3.63 .6 3.63 .7

AMERICAS 29.53 0 30.3 30.3

ASIA/PACIFIC 29.9 29.1 29.3 30.6

EUROPE 14.4 14.5 14.5 14.3

FORMER SOVIETUNION 4.34 .4 4.64 .6

MIDDLE EAST 7.37 .8 8.27 .5

WORLD8 9 89.4 90.4 91.1

3.8

30.1

30.6

13.8

4.3

7.5

90.1

3.8

30.4

29.6

14.5

4.5

7.9

90.7

3.7

30.8

29.5

14.7

4.8

8.3

91.9

3.8

30.5

30.8

14.4

4.8

7.6

92

3.9

30.3

31

14

4.4

7.6

91.3

4

30.5

30.2

14.3

4.7

8.1

91.8

3.9

30.9

30.2

14.6

4.9

8.5

93.1

4

30.7

31.4

14.4

4.9

7.9

93.3

3.7

30

27.7

14.4

4.5

7.7

90

3.8

30.5

30.1

14.4

4.6

7.8

91.2

4

ANNUAL CHANGE(%) 0.71 .8 0.71 .5 1.21 .4 1.71 1.31 .2 1.31 .4 1.11 .3 1.3

CHANGES FROMLAST OIL MARKETREPORT (mb/d)

0.01 -0.05- 0.01 -0.020 .040 .050 .130 .310 .3 0.25 0.25 0.15 -0.020 .130 .24

ANNUAL CHANGE(mb/d) 0.61 .6 0.61 .3 1.11 .3 1.50 .9 1.21 .1 1.21 .3 11 .2 1.2

2012Q1

2012Q2

2012Q3

2012Q4

2012Q5

2013Q6

2013Q7

2013Q8

2013Q9

2014Q102014

Q112014

Q122014

ANNUALLY

2013 2014

30.6

30.7

14.3

4.7

8

92.4

QUARTERLY

AFRICA 3.63 .6 3.63 .7

AMERICAS 29.53 0 30.3 30.3

ASIA/PACIFIC 29.9 29.1 29.3 30.6

EUROPE 14.4 14.5 14.5 14.3


MIDDLE EAST 7.37 .8 8.27 .5

WORLD8 9 89.4 90.4 91.1

3.8

30.1

30.6

13.8

4.3

7.5

90.1

3.8

30.4

29.6

14.5

4.5

7.9

90.7

3.7

30.8

29.5

14.7

4.8

8.3

91.9

3.8

30.5

30.8

14.4

4.8

7.6

92

3.9

30.3

31

14

4.4

7.6

91.3

4

30.5

30.2

14.3

4.7

8.1

91.8

3.9

30.9

30.2

14.6

4.9

8.5

93.1

4

30.7

31.4

14.4

4.9

7.9

93.3

3.7

30

27.7

14.4

4.5

7.7

90

3.8

30.5

30.1

14.4

4.6

7.8

91.2

4

ANNUAL CHANGE(%) 0.71 .8 0.71 .5 1.21 .4 1.71 1.31 .2 1.31 .4 1.11 .3 1.3


0.01 -0.05- 0.01 -0.020 .040 .050 .130 .310 .3 0.25 0.25 0.15 -0.020 .130 .24


2012Q1

2012Q2

2012Q3

2012Q4

2012Q5

2013Q6

2013Q7

2013Q8

2013Q9

2014Q102014

Q112014

Q122014

ANNUALLY

2013 2014

30.6

30.7

14.3

4.7

8

92.4

QUARTERLY

GLOBAL OIL DEMANDMillions of barrels per day.

Data: International Energy AgencyImage: Cutler J. Cleveland, Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Enciclopedia of Earth, 22 february 2013


AFRICA 3.63 .6 3.63 .7

AMERICAS 29.53 0 30.3 30.3

ASIA/PACIFIC 29.9 29.1 29.3 30.6

EUROPE 14.4 14.5 14.5 14.3


MIDDLE EAST 7.37 .8 8.27 .5

WORLD8 9 89.4 90.4 91.1

3.8

30.1

30.6

13.8

4.3

7.5

90.1

3.8

30.4

29.6

14.5

4.5

7.9

90.7

3.7

30.8

29.5

14.7

4.8

8.3

91.9

3.8

30.5

30.8

14.4

4.8

7.6

92

3.9

30.3

31

14

4.4

7.6

91.3

4

30.5

30.2

14.3

4.7

8.1

91.8

3.9

30.9

30.2

14.6

4.9

8.5

93.1

4

30.7

31.4

14.4

4.9

7.9

93.3

3.7

30

27.7

14.4

4.5

7.7

90

3.8

30.5

30.1

14.4

4.6

7.8

91.2

4

ANNUAL CHANGE(%) 0.71 .8 0.71 .5 1.21 .4 1.71 1.31 .2 1.31 .4 1.11 .3 1.3


0.01 -0.05- 0.01 -0.020 .040 .050 .130 .310 .3 0.25 0.25 0.15 -0.020 .130 .24


2012Q1

2012Q2

2012Q3

2012Q4

2012Q5

2013Q6

2013Q7

2013Q8

2013Q9

2014Q102014

Q112014

Q122014

ANNUALLY

2013 2014

30.6

30.7

14.3

4.7

8

92.4

QUARTERLY

DEEPWATER HORIZON OIL SPILL

Credits: Cutler J. Cleveland, Deepwater Horizon oil spill, pubblicato in Enciclopedia of Earth il 22 febbraio 2013


Another invaluable resource (also at risk) is that of forests. Borneo is a classic case: for decades it has been in flames. In the 1970s, it was an immense rain forest. The island is in a progressive state of deforestation, primarily to encourage production of palm oil for the food and cosmetic industry.17

There is now a constant cloak of soot between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore that testifies to this fact.

Forests are no longer viewed as merely timber reserves. For a long time they have also been eyed, perhaps even more importantly, as terrains to be exploited: frequently a purely economic value is attributed to natural resources.

But a forest is also a producer of oxygen, a mantle that protects against landslides (the deforestation that took place in Italy in the 18th century is broadly responsible for the country’s hydrogeological instability), a regulator for the climate, a habitat for millions of living species, and naturally, a landscape to be admired.

We have made mention of the soil, of the ground, that “skin” that covers the planet (from a few centimeters in thickness to several meters), ensuring that the crops can grow. It is a neglected resource, of which we rarely speak, and which is never given the necessary importance.

But when the soil is washed away, nothing ever grows there again.18

Given that by the year 2050, the world population will be 9 billion, we will have to double the production of food. Not only because of the increase in the world popu-lation, but also because of a more-than-justified demand for more and better food on the part of people who today are not able to experience an acceptable quality of life, nearer to that of the more privileged.

This takes place in a framework involving increasingly competitive use of soil and water, as well as a large expansion of urban areas and the production of biofuels (i. e., fuels obtained indirectly from the biomass, such as derivatives from corn, wheat, sugar beets, sugar cane, etc.).

Many countries, including Italy, are in a situation of food deficit (meaning that the country consumes more food than it produces). What is needed are increased crop yields, but we are at the limit, as is demonstrated by the significant phenomena of “land grabbing.” 19

Rosemary Yardley, Palm Oil Plantation: Destroying the planet one rainforest at a time, Ecology and the Environment – writing in the Majors blog, 9 December 2011. http://blogs.cornell.edu/bioee1610/2011/12/09/palm-oil-plantations-destroying-the-planet-one-rainforest-at-a-time-final/ ; see also PNAS-ESA 2010 and, further, NASA Earth Observatory (earthobservatory.nasa.gov)Dust Bowl: University of California Press, Berkeley 2007. See also: FAI e WWF, Terra rubata: viaggio nell’Italia che scompare, 2012 http://www.fondoambiente.it/upload/oggetti/ConsumoSuolo_Dossier_finale-1.pdf

17

18

3.5FORESTSAN SOIL

19 S. B. Borras JR, J. C. Franco, Global Land Grabbing and Trajectories of Agrarian Change: A Preliminary Analysis, Journal of Agrarian Change, 13 December 2011, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1471-0366.2011.00339.x/full ; Stefano Liberti, Land Grabbing: come il mercato delle terre crea nuovo colonialismo, Minimum fax, Milan 2011.

GLOBAL OIL DEMANDA global map of the landed grabbing network: land-grabbed countries (disks) are connected to their grabbers (triangles) by a network link. Relations between grabbing (triangles) and grabbed (disks) countries are shown (lines) only when they are associated with a land grabbing exceeding 100,000 ha.

Data: International Energy Agency

3 - 6

Grabber

Grabbed area (100.000 ha)

6 - 10

10 - 20

20 - 30

30 - 80



Our planet is a planet of water. But how much of this today is used for the needs of human society? It is not only a question of availability, but also of access.20

The total volume of water on the earth is 1.4 billion km³, but the volume of the fresh water resources available is only 35 million km³.

Salt water accounts for over 97% of the world’s hydric resources. The currently existing desalination plants cannot provide feasible solution on a large scale, because they are based on a technology of membranes that are costly, difficult to maintain, and easy to contaminate. Important research in the matter is ongoing (at the University of Texas and at the University of Marburg in Germany), but results are not yet satisfactory.

The world’s fresh water, making up less than 3%, is primarily frozen, with 68.7% (about 24 million km³) concentrated in the ice caps (these cover about 10% of the surface of the earth and contain, overall, 96% of the frozen fresh water, but they are remote from human settlements), and 550,000 km2 of glaciers, which are noticeably melting. Another 30.1% (about 8 million km³) is groundwater, while 0.3% (about 105,000 km³) is surface water, that which we use the most. Of these, 87% is made up of lakes (with 50% in Canada), 2% is made up of rivers, and 11% is marshes or wetlands (the principal of these are in eastern Siberia, Amazonia, and the Hudson Bay lowlands).

The total fresh water available for ecosystems and for humans is about 200,000 km³, amounting to less than 0.6% of all freshwater resources.

It is estimated that about 502,800 km³ of water evaporate from the oceans and seas each year: precipitation causes 90% of this to return directly into the oceans, while about 44,800 km³ fall back onto the land.

In order to survive, each person needs 1500 liters of fresh water, but obviously we consume much more.

In addition to cooking and domestic uses, for which a European family has an average daily consumption of 165 L (about 60,000 L per year), we also consume water in unexpected and invisible ways: for example, to produce a pair of jeans, we need to feed the entire supply chain with about 11 m³ of water.

The “water footprint” (meaning the amount of fresh water utilized in producing goods and services) in Italy is equivalent to 132 billion m³ per year, or 6300 L per person per day, or 2.3 million liters per person per year.

American Geophysical Union, Water Resources Research, 2013.Francesca Svevo and Marta Antonelli, Acqua in bocca: quello che il cibo non dice sull’impronta idrica, WWF, Kings College, London.Marta Antonelli and Francesca Greco of King’s College, London, founding members of the Water Research Group established by T. Allan), L’Acqua che mangiamo: cos’è l’acqua virtuale e come la consumiamo, Edizioni Ambiente, 2013.See also: Tony Allan, creator of the Virtual Water concept, winner of the 2008 Stockholm Water Prize, and Arjen Hoekstra, who developed the concept of the water footprint and founded the Water Footprint Network. Also: European Consortium WASSERMed, the Euro-Medi-

202122

23

3.6THE WATER

24

25

Italy is the third largest net importer of virtual water in the world (62 billion m³ per year), after Japan and Mexico and before Germany and the United Kingdom. Italy’s consumption of virtual water occurs at a rate corresponding to 66% more than that of the world average (1385 m³ per person per year).

Much has been communicated about domestic consumption, which nonetheless constitutes only 4% of the total value.

Products of animal origin (milk, eggs, meat, cheese) account for nearly half the total water footprint pertaining to consumption.

To improve the situation in Italy, we need to place a strong emphasis on products that are “Made in Italy,” on goods from the small producers, on the Zero Kilometer, and on the Mediterranean diet. 21

This is the concept of the Virtual Water Contribution.22 The account takes off and soars.

Italy is the third largest net importer of virtual water in the world (about 1 trillion m³ per year).23

Let’s look at a few examples regarding commonly used goods.

To produce one glass of beer (250 mL) it takes 75 L of water; for a glass of milk, it takes 200 L of water; for a cup of coffee, 35 L; for an orange, 50 L; for an apple, 70 L; for a 250 g T-shirt, 2000 L; for a sheet of A4-sized paper, 10 L; for an egg, 135 L; for a hamburger, 2400 L; for a pair of shoes made of leather, 8000 L; for microchip, 32 L.

The extent to which water is a problem for survival, and consequently for the welfa-re of a major part of humanity, is well known and recognized by many authoritati-ve sources.24

The main problem regarding fresh water is that it is taken from the groundwater at a greater quantity and speed than can be replenished (especially in the United States, Canada, and Europe). Europe consumes 288,000 hL3 per year, the equiva-lent of six times Lake Garda, corresponding to 5300 m3 per person: 44% of this is used in producing energy; 24% for agriculture; 21% for the public water supply; and 11% for industry.25

Furthermore, the Arctic ice cap is rapidly melting due to greenhouse effects that are anthropogenic in nature: this is actually a very sensitive issue provoking much debate in the scientific world (involving the so-called denial of the importance of the anthropogenic effect on the phenomenon, which here we shall only mention).

terranean center on Climate Changes (CMCC), and IEFE Bocconi, Risorse idriche e cambiamento climatico nel Mediterraneo, the seminar on the occasion of Water Day. And further: US Geological Survey, Water Resource of the United States, http://www.usgs.gov/water/ Unesco, World Water Assessment Program (WWAP); and further: Cooperazione Italiana allo Sviluppo, L’acqua è un diritto non una merce, January 2008.Green Cross Italia, I numeri dell’acqua, www.greencrossitalia.it



The theme of water is largely related to the problem of accessibility (as indicated by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, which also identifies in water the connection with the Convention on Climate Change): in Iceland, every individual has 2 million liters available per day, in Kuwait, 30 liters.

It is also a matter of efficiency: Israel has available fewer than 1000 L per person, however there is not a problem of water: 60% of the “grey” water is recycled for agricultural irrigation and drip irrigation technology, which allows additional savings of 30% over traditional techniques. Today, 60% of Israeli land is irrigated using this technique.

The scarcity of water, it would appear, is a struggle for the affirmation of science, technology, and good management over underdevelopment.

VIRTUAL WATERWater is a part of any production process. We need it go grow apples as well as produce a packet of crisps. This amount of water needed in this process depends where we are because climate and agricultural practises willl be the most important players.

Data: Water Unit of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nation

HOW MUCH

35 LITRES

1 CUPOF COFFEE

190 LITRES

1 GLASS OF APPLE JUICE

75 LITRES

1 GLASSOF BEER

140 LITRES

1 CUPOF TEA

120 LITRES

1 GLASSOF WINE

WATER IS NEEDED1 GLASS

OF ORANGE JUICE1

POTATO

25 LITRES

1 APPLE

70 LITRES170 LITRES

1 GLASSOF MILK

200 LITRES

1 ORANGE

50 LITRES

1 EGG

135 LITRES

TO PRODUCE?

2400 LITRES

1 HAMBURGER

90 LITRES

1 SLICE OF BREADWITH CHEESE

13 LITRES

1TOMATO

40 LITRES

1 SLICEOF BREAD

185 LITRES

1 BAGOF POTATO CRISPS



There also exists a problem of consumption and availability of metals and other elements.

Many renewable technologies, which justly boast of the merits of sustainability for their applications, use rare and precious metals: photovoltaic cells, wind turbines, hybrid automobiles, and energy-saving lamps all contain many of the so-called rare earth elements (REE-Rare Earth Elements: 17 metals in the periodic table that are present in many minerals, but in very small quantities, such as lanthanides, scandium, and yttrium, which have had a central role in the technological revolution of the last 20 years).26

The world’s largest producer of rare earths is China (95%): the Chinese have even dedicated a monument to rare earths, given that they are highly strategic elements from an industrial point of view.

Beginning in April 2013, the date of the election in which 30,000 of the 57,000 vo-ters changed the policy that had been adopted up to that point, a new and potentially strong subject, Greenland, entered in to the market of rare earths and uranium, taking advantage of increased accessibility to research sites thanks to the retreat of glaciers, and in spite of the disappointment of Denmark regarding this new attitude of her former colony.27

The current world market for rare earth elements is estimated at more than $10 billion, by comparison with $2 billion in 2011 and $500 million in 2003.

In 1990, there were 20 elements from the periodic table present in the average Italian home. In just that thing that we all have in our pocket, which we once called the telephone, there are 60: among which are lanthanum, yttrium or praseody-mium for the display, europium for the circuits, gadolinium and terbium for the speakers, dysprosium and neodymium for the unit that makes them vibrate.

Now in a massive manner we are removing elements that previously we did not use, and which are present on the planet in reduced quantities.

As is strongly suggested by the UNEP (United Nations Environment Program), our inevitable destiny is to recycle: those metals have been present in the Earth’s crust since the birth of the universe, and they surely will not increase. This is true for mobile phones and for all electronic and digital devices, which are beco-ming increasingly widespread (and short-lived), and in any case, technology in the broadest sense.

3.7METALS ANDOTHER METALS

See definitions by IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry).Marina Perrotta, 12 April 2013 ecoblog.it ; Sia Partners, Energia e Ambiente, terre rare: metalli non comuni dall’elevato peso geopolitico, Energia e Ambiente blog, 5 February 2012, http://energia.sia-partners.com/20120205/terre-rare-metalli-non-comuni-dallelevato-pe-so-geopolitico/See, on waste of electric and electronic equipment, or WEEE: ADN Kronos, Dai metalli preziosi alle terre rare: una vera miniera all’interno dei Raee, 5 October 2012; see also: Rottami e Riciclo, Riciclo di telefoni cellulari, un settore promettente ma ancor immaturo, 8 May 2013.

2627

28

29

The Japanese, with their megalopolises of tens of millions of inhabitants, and billions of devices, have “mines” of these devices to be recycled, and they consider that this will be an important industry for the coming years.28

What is the European situation with regard to mineral resources in general? There are elements that would lead us to believe that the current economic and political crisis is nothing other than a warning signal for the inevitable “war of resources” that is, in fact, already taking place.

From the point of view of metals, which have a crucial strategic importance for scientific, technological, and industrial development, the situation in Europe is very critical.

The European Union depends on supplies from abroad for 100% of its antimony, cobalt, molybdenum, niobium, platinum, rare earths, tantalum, titanium, and va-nadium. But also, and largely, for manganese (90%), iron ore (85%), bauxite (80%), tin (80%), chromium ore (55%), copper (50%).29

The European Union is therefore in a critical economic situation for its poverty of natural resources.

The European Union exports 141 billion tonnes of biomass and imports 172 billion; it exports 212 billion tonnes of manufactured products and imports 183 billion; it exports 215 billion tonnes of fuels and mining products and imports 1.242 trillion.

We can easily predict ever greater difficulties for a continent that does not have the raw materials it strategically needs, and consumes in great quantities, and whose manufacturing quality-quantity is at the limit. The underdeveloped countries are disappearing, and the newly developing countries that are also able to produce complex goods and, above all, possess the strategic raw materials, are appea-ring prominently. How can its inhabitants be assured a dignified life in the future?

Today’s crisis has its roots in the absence of resources, or in the ever riskier strategic availability of resources.30

What are the primary uses for these elements? Antimony: semiconductors, lead-acid batteries, printing machines (and Cleopatra’s ma-keup); cobalt: metal alloys (steels, aircraft turbines, gold production), magnets, chemical catalysts, pigments; molybdenum: metal alloys, registered steels, aircraft and missile parts, industrial lubricants, dental prosthetics, ultramodern toilet tablets; niobium and niobium-tita-nium: superconductors for the CERN’s LHC (particle accelerator), magnetic trains, pipelines; platinum: laboratory equipment, chemical catalysts, dentistry, connectors, cerebral aneurysm treatment; tantalum: electronic devices, metal alloys, surgical tools, chemical plants, prosthetics for the hip, knee, and shoulder, electrical capacitors for smartphones and laptops; titanium: paints, paper, cements, plastics



(in the form of titanium dioxide), aerospace and aeronautics industry applications, high-velocity machinery and tools, eyeglass frames, bicycles and motorcycles, laptops (as well as piercing and golf clubs); vanadium: special steels (surgical instruments, high-speed and rust-resistant machining tools), aerospace applications, superconducting magnets, catalysts for production of sulfuric acid, ceramics and catalysts for industrial processes. Uses for rare earth elements cited previously.

RARE EARTH METALSWHAT IS THIS?

Mineral group which contains 17 chemical elements; scandium, yttrium and 15 lanthanide elements. Not as rare as the name implies, but is difficult to find in concentrations high enough for economical extraction. Used in the production of many devices including LCD screens, computer chips, optical media, rechargeable batteries, mobile phones, magnets and car components.

Data: USGS – U. S. Geological Survey, China Ministry of Commerce

30 European Environment Agency, Material Resources & Waste – 2012 update; External and intra-European Union Trade, Statistical yearbook, data 1958-2010.

WORLD RESERVES in million metric tons

55CHINA

19CIS

13U.S.

3.1AUSTRALIA

1.6INDIA

0.05BRAZIL

0.03MALAYSIA

22OTHERS

Japan and U.S. import the largest amount of rare earth metals for their tech and auto industries

CHINA 130 INDIA 3 TOTAL 133.6*

Producers

*Production data for CIS and other countries not available

Resources / minor producers

CIS = Commonwealth of Independent States (Former Soviet Union states)

BRAZIL 0.55MALAYSIA 0.33

55CHINA

19CIS

13U.S.

3.1AUSTRALIA

1.6INDIA

0.05BRAZIL

0.03MALAYSIA

22OTHERS

DOMESTIC

FOREIGN

48.0

17.6

65.661.8

16.1

45.7

59.7

16.1

43.6

56.9

15.8

41.1

50.1

16.8

33.330.3

7.7

22.5

30.2

7.3

23.0

2011 PRODUCTION in thousand metric tons

CHINA EXPORT QUOTAS in thousand metric tons

China sets their export quota for the first half of 2012 at 10.456 tons

DOMESTIC

FOREIGN

48.0

17.6

65.661.8

16.1

45.7

59.7

16.1

43.6

56.9

15.8

41.1

50.1

16.8

33.330.3

7.7

22.5

30.2

7.3

23.0



MONUMENT TO RARE EARTHS

Image: Reuters / David Grey

31

It is necessary to mention, albeit briefly, the problem of waste.

European directives in recent years have turned to classifying waste matter in terms of categories, including: packaging, tires, landfill of biodegradable municipal waste, end-of-life vehicles (ELV), waste of electric and electronic equipment (WEEE, or e-waste), batteries and accumulators, paper, metal, plastic, glass, home management wastes, and construction and demolition wastes.

Some of these may enter fully into the process of recycling, while others are a problem and a cost, because they are not yet recyclable. Still others pose a very serious problem (such as nuclear waste, without counting accidents).

The familiar waste materials that we know and touch and can throw into the bin, however, make up only 8% of the total of about 4 billion tonnes produced annually on the planet, of which some 70% ends up in landfills.

Waste sorting is excellent, but more than 90% of the total is represented by a quantity of waste that the average citizen does not see, even if it is useful for allowing us to lead the good life that we know: much of this can be categorized as mining wastes.

Social lifestyle changes (increased divorces and numerous singles) have also had a significant impact - along with the fragmentation of society - on the increase in living space (when two people separate, the summation of the new living spaces is greater), of structures of services, of the number and use of appliances, or in automobiles. The need for resources and the waste we produce lead to the concept known as the Ecological Footprint. Introduced by the New Economics Foundation in London, the idea is closely connected with modern technology and, of course, the population of the planet.

It indicates the ratio between the global biocapacity, i.e., the natural resources that are self-generated each year by the planet, and the quantity of resources and services required by humanity, including disposal of wastes.

The first “overshoot” day (meaning the first day on which everything corresponding to the planet’s annual capacity of self-regenerating had already been consumed, in anticipation of the completion of the calendar year) occurred on 19 December 1987. Three years later, this day arrived 12 days earlier, on 7 December 1990.

The Global Footprint Network informs us that the day in 2012 on which the limit was passed (the “overshoot” day) arrived on 22 August, 36 days earlier than in the preceding year. In 2013, it occurred on 20 August.

www.footprintnetwork.org; contribution by Mathis Wackernagel (President of Foot Print Network Europa), quoted by the editors of Cadoinpiedi.it 23 August 2012.

3.8WASTE MATERIALS (WHICH WE MENTION ONLY) AND “THE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT 31



The unit of measure used is that of the global hectare, which also takes into account the part of the planet that is progressively reduced by environmental degradation.

The global hectare is the total measure of the Earth’s biocapacity. The global hectare per capita is the ratio between the quantity of exploitable resources from the land and water and the number of inhabitants on the planet.

In 2005, the 13.6 million hectares of land and water available on the planet were distributed among 6.5 billion inhabitants: the result was 2.1 hectares per 1000 persons.

At the current state of technology and consumption, the world average indicates we need 1.51 planets in order to satisfy current needs. If everyone’s style of life was like that of the United States, 4.16 planets would be needed; in the case of Russia, 2.73; of Brazil, 1.95; in the case of Italy, 2.55; of China, 1.2; whereas the style of life of India would require little, 0.49.

In regard to what has been argued up to this point, the ratio between population and the number of automobiles for every 1000 inhabitants is interesting: the population of Italy is 60 million, and it has 680 automobiles for every 1000 inhabitants. The population of China is 1.3 billion, and it has 60 automobiles for every 1000 inhabitants. The population of India is 1.2 billion, and it has 30 automobiles for every 1000 inhabitants. What will happen as the Chinese and Indians gradually want to and are able to increase their use of automobiles?

In the last century we quadrupled our overall general consumption.

The resources we utilize originate from a relatively thin layer, constituted by the Earth’s surface, or little more, and by that thin film of 3 or 4 km called the biosphere. At present we are not equipped for living outside of this context.

What is now taking place is the most serious crisis in all of history. It is not the economic crisis being spoken about every day in the media, but rather a much deeper and more serious crisis: the crisis of resources.32

The world powers, beginning with the United States, appear eager to tackle the problem of availability of resources with the same determination with which they have in the past faced the most serious situations of armed confrontation (the Ukrainian crisis may, for good reason, be viewed in this light).

Is there a level of awareness and priority for these issues on the part of the ruling classes?

Michael T. Klare, Resource Wars: the new landscape of global conflict, Holt Paperbacks, New York March 13, 200232

There are some humanists who put forward the possibility that we suffer from a well-established vice of anthropocentrism: was the Earth made for humans?

Or is Man merely one of the possible variables, the one that has been successful, in the planet’s complex system of bioevolution?

What is certain, is that Man as such is born and distinguishes himself as a living being endowed with technical skills: this is his strength, and this is what has brought him thus far.

Now he needs to mature a widespread awareness of having to start over in coming to terms with Nature, regardless of, or perhaps because of, the added technical capacity within the human species and its ability to influence natural cycles.

And beyond a particularly timely reflection on birth control, we need to begin from right now in shaping a new society. And this must be done by addressing a renewed cultural approach, in the most complete and comprehensive meaning possible for this.

Culture is the organization that societies give themselves in order to live better. We need understanding, guidance, sharing with respect to a new and necessary attitude toward continual change and flexibility. And these attitudes will enable us to develop new and successful strategies.

We are talking about a new world citizenship. A new world government, to which to give our contribution and toward which to strive, with much less egoism, or in other words, much greater common sense.

Does this mean a utopian and idealistic attitude?

In view of global needs nowadays, in fact, a utopian individual may even be among the most pragmatic.

And idealism, for a layman, is the handrail of civilization, just as for a believer, faith is the handrail for salvation.

Both attitudes know no barriers, and are mutually exclusive.

We are at the height of the Anthropocene era: for the first time, the human being is capable of leaving its mark on the planet and of affecting its fortunes.

We therefore need to understand and manage the opportunities and risks that are being offered to us by the science and technology that represent the deeper nature of our humanism, of our being profoundly different in nature from other living beings.



Man is not merely an animal that is slightly different from the others. Man, as he has prevailed in the evolutionary system, is not equipped with obligatory instincts, as are other living beings, which have a certain and inevitable behavior from birth to death. Man is deeply connected to “technical” living and to his own choices.

By virtue of this, we also have a free will, and even more so, and we continually re-create our own way of living, and this at an accelerating rate. But we do have limits.

This concept deserves attention.

OVERSHOOT DAY

The first day on which everything corresponding to the planet’s annual capacity of self-regenerating had already been consumed, in anticipation of the completion of the calendar year.

Image: Centimetri - Ansa.

M. PERROTTA, Siamo all’Earth Overshoot Day e abbiamo già consumato le risorse di un anno, www.ecoblog.it, 21 august 2013.

1961

100%

1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 ‘12

Risorse del pianeta consumate in un anno (in percentuale)

Overshootday (calcolo iniziato nel 1987)

74

XX

85

100108

116 114

125

* * STIMA

DA QUESTA DATA SONO ESAURITE LE RISORSE NATURALI PRODOTTE DALLA TERRA PER IL 2013

2013

127 130

145151

156

7DIC

XXXX

21NOV

1NOV

20OTT

21AGO

22AGO

20AGO

It is not entirely correct to say that the human being has always adapted to techne.

Techne, however, is the true and deepest nature of humanism.

The theory that Man is not born with instincts, and is born technical, was stated for the first time by Plato in the Protagoras, with the myth of Prometheus.

The story is well known.

Zeus charged Epimetheus (from epì, the one who thinks afterward, the inexperienced one) with distributing among living beings the most varied instinctive qualities and tools for survival: velocity and great reproductive speed for animals of prey, long fangs for carnivores, furs or carapaces for protection against the cold or predators, claws for snatching food, and extraordinary vision for other creatures, etc. And of course, behaviors that are coded (following a standard, as we would say today) and obligatory: instinct, by reason of specific characteristics.

But when he got to Man, Epimetheus had nothing left. He had already distributed and exhausted everything. Man was thus left naked before an armed and wild Nature, and devoid of any sort of anthropological attention.

Zeus, feeling pity over the fate of Man, then invited the brother of Epimetheus, the Titan Prometheus (pro, the one who thinks beforehand, the wise one) to give to Man his gifts of foresight.

In so doing he made of Man that living being which Hobbes defined as famelicus famae futurae (desirous of future renown).

Prometheus exceeded the intentions of Zeus. With the capacity of fire and of calculation, Man constructed tools and learned to adapt, to survive and progress, thanks to the use of and increasing growth of his technical skills.

He was therefore born as Man, only to the extent of being immediately technical. And in this manner, he makes up for his instinctive lacking.

All this is also the reason for his freedom.

Indeed, while the animal has coded behaviors and knows what to do and how to behave from birth to death, Man, thanks to techne, does not need this: he is much freer to choose his own destiny.

Umberto Galimberti, Psiche e Techne, Feltrinelli, Milan 1999; Emanuele Severino, Techne, Rizzoli, Milan 2002; Emanuele Severino, La tendenza fondamentale del nostro tempo, Adelphi, 1988-2008.

The technical nature of Man

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In this myth we can find much more than mere, albeit valuable, scholarship.

We are not only at the roots of European civilization, but also in the presence of a possible meeting point with other cultures, in the name of the shared need for respect and attention for nature.

Necessity. Here we have a word to put among our keywords.

Continuing, in fact, with the analysis of the myth, in Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, the Chorus (representing, in Greek theater, the voice of the people) turns to Prometheus, condemned to a horrible punishment: an eagle was to devour his liver all through eternity, by order of Zeus, who had become jealous of the fact that now humans could get for themselves those things for which previously they had to pray to the gods.

Thus was born—both in myth and in theater, which the Greeks used for dealing with problems of their society—the eternal contrast between science and faith.

The Chorus, then, asks Prometheus about the reason for his fate: “[...] tell us Pro-metheus, which is more powerful, Techne or Nature?” In his response, Prometheus is unequivocal: “Tèchne d’ànànches àstenèstera macrò” (Techne is weaker by far than Nature). And this, after over 25 centuries, is more than obvious.

Note, however, that Prometheus did not use the term fùsis, but rather the other word used by Greeks to signify Nature: ànànche, meaning, in fact, necessity. Not a Na-ture created by God and entrusted to the hands of Man, but rather an entity befo-re which, in the Greek mind, eternal laws and even the gods themselves had to bow.

A message that we find more pertinent than ever, for our contemporary world, which needs to reinvent a coexistence, both technical and social at the same time, but plausible with respect to the laws of Nature.

4. THE TECHNICAL NATURE OF MAN

Contemporary men need to be both protagonists and witnesses of profound upheavals, but sustained by two inalienably solid principles.

The capacity to generate continuous innovation, but structurally related to respect for natural needs.

The imposed right-and-duty to combat advantages of position, privileges, corporate and localist interests, and widespread ignorance.

In this context, innovation cannot be reduced to a mere technical fact, a standard or procedures for use, with daily and progressively more intense and vital application of systems, devices, and services that have never before appeared in our life scenario.

Necessary innovation is, first of all, a method of facing life, where curiosity, continual research, dialogue with even unexpected interlocutors, constitute the necessary journey to reduce the distances among all protagonists of a new ecological niche, which human beings must once again imagine and achieve.

Ecological niches do not exist in Nature: they are created by individuals (even single cell beings) which have the opportunity, the desire, and the strength to progress, following the orthogenesis of life that seems to drive the natural evolutionary system according to Darwin, and even Lamarck. 34

The path we must face allows for no respite: in order to manage with wise determination the current requirements of sustainability, we must be capable of making rapid, flexible, and effective decisions (and to be ready to modify them abruptly when necessary by following the general form of “lifelong learning and acting”).

To understand these new and challenging scenarios, what starting point, if not from culture? Already by the end of the 1960s, Jean Monnet recognized and in a certain manner suggested to future interpreters of the European challenge that “if the process of constructing Europe could start over again, it would be better to start it from culture.” 35

Starting again from a more efficient approach, one more integrated with the territory and social organization, which (re-) discovers an intelligent sense of community, designated time by time, and in fitting with specific subjects. And to make it aware of that context that today we call the smart system.

Different models of social innovation are spreading throughout the world: but, as always, it is not for us to select one that suits us today (and then to see it rapidly

Konrad Lorenz, Karl Popper, Il futuro è aperto, interview with Franz Kreutzer, known also as I dialoghi di Altenberg with introduction and translation by Dario Antiseri, Tascabili Bompiani, Milan I ed. 2002.Jean Monnet in Jeremy Rifkin, Il sogno europeo, Mondadori, Milan 2004, p. 239.

A new society

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aging), but rather to learn the method of operating socially, in order to predict systematically the continual changes that become ever more, and continuously, necessary.

“The emerging economies are transforming our capitalism, contaminating it with ideas and innovations that come directly from those worlds. In addition to growing from the material point of view thanks to technology (Internet, social networks, etc.), these countries have now become a source of competition also on the immaterial grounds of economy and knowledge... the governments are failing to meet the most basic needs of citizens.

In this absence of governance, the citizens respond increasingly by putting into place initiatives of ‘self-organization’ conveyed by diffuse and molecular technology.

These transformations that are profoundly changing policy and our way of life arise directly from technological innovation. If we do not create a sense of community as soon as possible among people, we will continue to suffer these transformations, rather than being ourselves the protagonists and agents of change.” 36

“[…] a community is intelligent if it makes use of human, economical, and techno-logical resources in a forward-looking policy aimed not at impoverishing, but at increasing social, relational, cultural, and environmental capital, in a concept of social cohesion, civic participation, and inclusion.” 37

A form of participatory urbanism.

A brilliant economy, and intelligent mobility, a quality environment, of capable and informed citizens, and intelligent way of living, and active and efficient citizen governance, these are the six principal axes indicated by the European Smart Cities Project, coordinated by the Centre of Regional Science at the Vienna University of Technology. 38

In Italy, there are major ongoing experiments in cities such as Bologna, Pisa, Genoa, Turin, and Bari.39 We will have an important opportunity to measure the capacity of Milan with Expo 2015.

However, that form of management of social coexistence which we have called democracy is in serious crisis, and its profound difficulty (which we could fear is inadequacy) is largely generated by the pervasive search for consensus (which prevents those who systematically seek consensus from intervening with timely determination and from providing for the harsh reality of problems) and by a progressive layering of bureaucracy (increasingly devoted to self-reference and to a formidable ability for shirking responsibility). The combined-ready (which,

Roberto Panzarani, Sense of Community, Palinsesto, Rome 2013.Carlo Mochi Sismondi http://saperi.forumpa.it/story/69514/www.smart-cities.euThe world is already experiencing several examples of the smart city. The long-term experience launched by Malta, the V-Pole of Van-couver, the Green Wave experience of Copenhagen, and that of the Carbon Neutral of Masdar City (Abu Dhabi), the top experiences in Vienna and Barcelona and the Chinese experiment of the new city of Cafeidian - 2030 (max 5% emissions) and the curious (within

36373839

5. A NEW SOCIETY

with important considerations, Emanuele Severino defines as the Society of Technology and the Twilight of Capitalism) almost always prevents the constituted powers from being efficient and systematically effective (among other things, failing to remedy injustice, inequality, and abuses of power), often intersecting with the logic of the corporate and clientele power of its protagonists.

One must therefore ask whether the emerging problems of the planet and the frequently confused inconsistencies in the current decision-making apparatus are mutually compatible.

Having made all of these considerations, it would surely not be secondary to further deepen the role of culture, in an attempt to perform at least one task of the democracy of understanding: contemporary cultural institutions must provide tools for pursuing freedom of choice and of change, for providing understanding (and when they have such a role, knowledge), and for producing tools for guidance.

Confidence in scientific research and technology, not separately from the historical and humanistic itinerary, does not represent an unconditional act of faith, but rather an itinerary of training and assimilation of the problems and of their possible solution.

Curiosity, research, and development (which are the essence of human nature) will lead us to addressing the problems highlighted up to this point, and to preventing these, and other problems, from increasing in their intensity and severity of influence. Will we be able to redistribute our resources more equitably?

A bottom-up approach is perhaps imposing itself: at least in an attempt to ask the ruling class to give evidence of an awareness of these problems, and to give strategic signs for dealing with them.

It is necessary, at the conclusion of these notes, and to hold open the possibility of reflection, to mention the obvious mutation of the entire chain: culture - technology - information.

The scenario of the new world in the making presupposes the existence of new paradigms, often destined to sudden and frequent changes.

This implies the objective necessity of being able to identify criteria and methodo-logies that attest to the truth of what constitutes the growing mass of information and data that describe the new scenarios and introduce the upcoming issues, and therefore requires a significant commitment to a critical attitude, even - and especially - regarding the information itself.

limits) story of self-organization of the city of Gurgaon in India, devoid of any sort of public infrastructure, but a decent example of one of India’s fastest growing districts. Significant also is the major urban renewal project undertaken in Brazil for the pacification of the fave-las, also in view of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.Many different types of smart cities are developing, in comparison and integration with each other, with the intent of developing effective systems for responding positively to the need for change. General reference models from which to take inspiration, finding their codifi-cation through time. The Net City, with the ambition of serving as a flexible connection between local and global; the Open City,


The information itself is highly susceptible to an ever increasing sophistication (which may perhaps be positive), but runs the risk of being manipulated, contrived, and misleading.

The future is complex.

All I can do is to wish for us all to enjoy our work.

® Fiorenzo Galli, giugno 2014

Translated by: John Venerellacharacterized by maximum transparency of its work; the Sentient City, with its desire to provide maximum efficiency in terms of mobility, energy resources, and environmental quality to support development; the Wiki-City (or democratically owned city), with its citizens called upon to be an active part in every decision; the Creative City, which gives space to proposals coming from below; the Resilient City, always able to react by sharing information; the City 2.0, which implements a continuous flow of bi-directional communication to evaluate its services with the citizen-user; the city as platform, or the Cloud City, with its urban space as a facilitator of social interaction.

5. A NEW SOCIETY

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