PARIS – COP 21 THE WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE

Sunday 29 November 2015

Tomorrow, 30 November 2015 starts in Paris the conference to fight climate change.

This is an extremely important conference, as it is the last call to limit the huge damages that pollution from fossil fuels and the resulting climate change are causing to humanity.

Fossil fuels (and oil in particular) have been essential for the world economic growth, but now they have become the greatest enemy of humanity:

• some 4 million people die every year in the world because of pollution created by the combustion of fossil fuels.
• in big cities like Beijing the pollution is so bad that life expectancy is 5 years less for people living there compared with the rest of China.
• extreme weather phenomena (hurricanes, floods, droughts…) are becoming every year more frequent and more intense, causing huge problems to many large communities, including thousands of deaths and billions of dollars of economic damages and of course the poorest people are suffering the most.
• fossil fuels are at the root of many wars and geopolitical instability in several parts of the world. This creates thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in costs to fight for this energy source.
• the worst terroristic organisation, ISIS, is largely financed by the oil revenue from the territories occupied by them (estimated at about US$ 50 million amonth, plus other financing from friendly oil magnates). Stop the flow of money from oil and ISIS is gone: NO OIL = NO ISIS.
• today global warming generated by the combustion of fossil fuels is no more a potential threat, it is happening and if we don't act immediately to limit the world temperature increase to less than 2 degrees Celsius from the preindustrial level, then by the end of this century the disaster will involve hundreds of millions of people who will be displaced from their land and in the process millions will die.

ALL THIS IS NOT UNAVOIDABLE: humanity has all the means and all the technologies to eliminate nearly completely all fossil fuels in less than 30 years:

THE WORLD CAN BE FOSSIL FUELS FREE BY 2050, and EUROPE CAN ACHIEVE THIS GOAL IN 20 years, and ITALY COULD ACHIEVE IT IN 10 years.

THE SOLUTION IS ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND RENEWABLE SOURCES OF ENERGY.

1. ENERGY EFFICIENCY

The "energy intensity" of the world GDP has declined by 1.25% a year for the last 25 years. This can be tripled to match basically the world economic growth: no more energy consumption growth. It can be done by a strong campaign in every country that involves widespread education for individual behaviour and stringent government regulations: in the energy efficiency of the buildings, in the transportation, in the lighting, in the industry, in the home appliances ... IT CAN BE DONE, ALL THE TECHNOLOGY IS THERE.

2.RENEWABLE SOURCES OF ENERGY

Europe has a negative trade balance for energy of € 400 billion per year: this is

the money that every year Europe "sends" to the countries supplying fossil fuels. With that money, at the current cost of less than US$ 2 for watt of installed power (that will decline to below US$ 1 in the next 10 years), Europe could install EVERY YEAR more than 200GW of renewable power generating some 300TWh of incremental renewable energy per year. Since the European current electrical energy consumption is around 3000 TWh a year (with a good percentage already of renewables) and considering the growing electrification of the economy (in the conditioning of the buildings, in the industry, in transportation…) Europe could be (nearly) completely independent from fossil fuels in less than 20 years. AND THIS CAN BE DONE WITH THE MONEY THAT WE SEND EVERY YEAR TO THE FOSSIL FUELS PRODUCING COUNTRIES.

Italy has had a negative trade balance for energy of more than € 50 billion.  Again, with that money we could install more than 20GW of renewable power generating some 30 TWh of incremental renewable electrical energy per year. Since Italy consumes some 300 TWh a year of electrical energy (with nearly one half already from renewable sources) and considering the growing electrification of the economy, Italy could be (nearly) completely independent from fossil fuels in less than 10 years.
AND THIS CAN BE DONE WITH THE MONEY THAT WE SEND EVERY YEAR TO THE FOSSIL FUELS PRODUCING COUNTRIES.

Similar considerations apply to all the other countries importing fossil fuels. IN 30 YEARS THE ENTIRE PLANET CAN BE ( nearly ) FREE FROM FOSSIL FUELS AND THE HUGE PROBLEMS AND TRAGEDIES ASSOCIATED WITH THEM.

If it is so easy, the question is WHY HAS IT NOT BEEN DONE YET?

The answer is simple: THE ENERGY COMPANIES (especially the oil companies) WITH THEIR HUGE LOBBYING POWER HAVE INFLUENCED MOST GOVERNMENTS TO DELAY THE DECARBONIZATION PROCESS TO PROTECT THEIR ECONOMIC INTERESTS.

The energy companies have tried to convince the various governments that global warming does not exist or is not caused by human activity; then they have insisted that renewables are not competitive and that their adoption in large scale can damage the economic growth and the country competitiveness, that the renewables take a lot of space… and similar excuses to delay or stop the process.

The truth is that renewables would be incredible competitive if the fossil fuels would be charged by the collateral huge damages they create (and even without this factor, renewables are becoming increasingly competitive and in 5 years they will beat any other source of energy).

But the present pricing mechanism is very simple:

THE PROFITS ARE PRIVATE FOR FEW THOUSANDS OF MAJOR SHAREHOLDERS AND TOP MANAGERS OF THE ENERGY COMPANIES, WHILE THE COLLATERAL HUGE DAMAGES ARE PAID FOR BY THE COMMUNITY, I.E.  HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE.

It would be sufficient to charge all the fossil fuels with a CARBON TAX  that could compensate for the collateral damages of pollution and global warming, and immediately would be evident that fossil fuels are much more expensive and far uncompetitive vs the renewables.

But again the lobbying power of the energy companies has stopped so far this process.

Fortunately things are changing:

• There is a rapidly growing sensibility towards the environment by millions of people in a lot of countries.
• The problems have become so huge that even countries like China that were less sensible to the issue have now started a strong effort in the DECARBONIZATION process: today China is the world leader in new installations of renewable energy sources.
• Some leading energy companies are starting to invest in energy conservation and renewables: this is the case of utility companies like ENEL (owner of 3 Sun) in Italy or EON in Germany, or even oil companies like TOTAL that own the second largest US solar company SunPower. And the process is accelerating in various countries.
• Leading corporations are embracing the environmental journey. This was the case of ST, a world pioneer in the field that started in 1993; this is the case today of many high tech companies like Apple and Google and most of the semiconductor industry, and many other companies in various industrial and business sectors.
• Some leading countries are setting very aggressive goals for the DECARBONIZATION of their economy, starting with the Scandinavian countries that are very advanced and also Germany and until 5 years ago also Italy.
• Many environmental organisations are stimulating the political debate on the subject and are gaining ground vs the still very strong conservative lobbies of the energy Companies.
• And now the environmental issue has found also a fantastic supporter: POPE FRANCESCO WITH HIS CONTAGIOUS LOVE FOR HUMANITY AND NATURE, AND IN PARTICULAR FOR THE MOST POOR PEOPLE WHO ARE MOST DAMAGED BY THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR ENVIRONMENT.

The COP 21 in Paris is the occasion to put down very aggressive targets with BINDING COMMITMENT FOR THE GOVERNMENTS TO ACT. THIS IS WHAT THE PLANET NEEDS,

THIS IS WHAT HUMANITY NEEDS.

WE NEED A CARBON FREE WORLD BY 2050.

THERE ARE NO EXCUSES: IT IS POSSIBLE AND IT IS ECONOMICALLY CONVENIENT.

Gli attacchi criminali dei terroristi dell'ISIS

Gli attacchi criminali tragici di Parigi, non sono i primi nè saranno gli ultimi se non si fermano questi pazzi criminali.
La Francia sta dando una dimostrazione di grande risposta sul fronte della sicureza ma anche di grande dignità e civlta' allo stesso tempo.

Diciamo anzitutto che la religione non c'entra niente. Questi capi dell'ISIS sono pazzi criminali che perseguono fini criminali e sfruttano menti fragili anche con la falsa motivazione religiosa. Questi pazzi criminali massacrano, stuprano, schiavizzano, molti piu' mussulmani che cittadini di altre religioni: sono criminali che vogliono destabilizzare alcuni paesi islamici e da li, altre aree del pianeta.
Questi criminali vanno distrutti non solo per proteggere le nostre società occidentali ed i nostri valori di giustizia sociale, di diritti umani, di libertà democratiche; ma anche per  liberare dalla loro oppressione schiavista e brutale le popolazioni mussulmane che hanno avuto la sfortuna di trovarseli in casa.

Ebbene, questi pazzi fanatici criminali alimentano la loro strategia del terrore con strumenti di guerra -- eserciti, armi, centri logistici, centri di reclutamento, reti internazionale del terrore, strumenti informatici... --- che hanno bisogno di tanti soldi.
Ebbene si stima che la prima fonte di finanziamento gli deriva dal contrabbando del petrolio che prendono dagli impianti nei territori controllati da loro militarmente in Siria ed in Iraq. La stima di questa fonte di finanziamento e di circa 50 M  di $ al mese, ed e' la maggiore fonte di finanziamento.

Sembrerebbe quindi facile far crollare questa organizzazione criminale tagliando la loro maggiore fonte di finanziamento. Loro si possono nascondere, possono mescolarsi alla popolazione civile, ... ma gli impianti petroliferi, le raffinerie, gli oleodotti, non si posson nascondere. Sono là, ben noti a tutti e facilmente bombardabili dagli attacchi aerei.
In poche settimane sarebbe facile colpire e rendere inutilizzabili tutte queste infrastrutture nei territori controllati dall'ISIS : pozzi, raffinerie, stazioni di pompaggio degli oleodotti....tutto cio' che procura petrolio per il loro finanziamento e benzina per i loro mezzi di trasporto.

 N I E N T E     P E T R O L I O   ===   N I E N T E     I S I S

Allo stesso tempo, una forte azione di intelligence e di pulizia per scovare i criminali che si nascondono nei nostri Paesi e consegnarli alla giustizia. Agendo con fermezza, ma senza perdere i nostri valori di civiltà, nè il dovere di assistere i migranti che ne hanno veramente bisogno anche per fuggire dalla follia  di questi criminali, nei Paesi dove questi  comandano.

L'Occidente puo' e deve sacrificare qualche impianto petrolifero, oggi controllato dai criminali, per fare terra bruciata finanziariamente intorno a loro.

Sono gli obiettivi piu' facili da colpire con i minori rischi di vittime civili.

Basta volerlo:    NIENTE PETROLIO === NIENTE ISIS

------------------------------------------     ENGLISH VERSION   -------------------------------------------

The criminal attacks of ISIS terrorists

The recent and tragic attacks in Paris are not the first nor will they be the last, if we do not stop these crazy criminals.

France is offering a great response in terms of defence, but also of great dignity and civility at the same time.

But let’s start by stating that religion has nothing to do with what happened. These ISIS leaders are insane criminals who pursue illegal goals, misuse and exploit fragile minds with falsely religious motivation. They massacre, rape, enslave many more Muslims than people of other religions: they are criminals who want to destabilize some Islamic countries and from there, other areas of the world.

They must be stopped, not only to protect our Western societies and our values ​​of social justice, human rights, and democratic freedoms, but also to free from their brutal oppression and slavery the Muslim populations who have had the misfortune of having them in their country.

They feed their strategy of terror with instruments of war (armies, weapons, logistic centres, recruiting centres, international networks of terror and such), which need a lot of money.

It is estimated that the first and largest source of funding comes from smuggling oil that they take from the territories they control militarily in Syria and Iraq. The estimate of this source is in the region of US$ 50 million per month.

It therefore seems obvious that to topple this criminal organisation it would be enough simply cutting them out from their largest source of financing. They can hide and mingle with the civilian population, but oil installations, refineries, pipelines and the like cannot be hidden. They are there, well known to all and easy targets for air strikes.

In a few weeks it would be easy to hit and render useless all these infrastructures in the territories controlled by ISIS: wells, refineries, pumping stations, pipelines and everything that provides oil for their financing and gasoline for their vehicles.

NO OIL = NO ISIS

At the same time, we need strong intelligence and resolute action to flush out these criminals who hide in our countries and to bring them to justice. Acting firmly, but without losing our values ​​of civilisation or giving up on the duty to assist those migrants who really need our help whilst escaping from the countries where these criminals have the power.

The West can and must sacrifice some oil facilities, now controlled by these criminals, to isolate them financially.

These are the most easily achievable goals with the lowest risk of civilian casualties.

We only need to want it: NO OIL = NO ISIS