The Klein Bottle

by Emanuela Rosio e Alessio Sciurpa

Dear readers,
2008 closes under the dark star of the economic crisis, with inevitable effects on the fragile market system that, willing or not, influences everyone‘s life. At the same time two major environmental events have come to an end: the Climate Conference in Poznan (Poland), which should prepare the way for the so-called "KYOTO 2", where countries under rapid development like China, India, Brazil, Indonesia, despite the increase in their emissions of greenhouse gases, have restated their no to a timetable of commitments with fixed deadlines and the EU summit on climate package in Brussels with clear concessions to Italy, Germany and Poland on the rights of emissions "free of charge."

The landscape seen from this angle seems gloomy, and looking to the future with optimism becomes difficult.. But just like the bottle of Klein, an area with no distinction between "in" and "out" and continuous movement between the two areas,as part of the same continuum, a market model obsessed with growth, profit and environmental protection, intersect, belong to the same “world system” in an essential way, with the possibility to transfer resources and energy from one part of the system to another. Can one therefore look to the future with different eyes and analyse the same factors from another perspective?
According to a study published in July by the German Ministry of Environment, for each Euro invested in renewable energy will save 1.6 euros in imports of gas or oil and environmental damage. "Right now the field of renewables in the EU has 400 thousand people for a turnover of over 40 billion euros by 2020 we expect others to create 1.6 million jobs," assures Christine Lins of Erec, the European Council of renewable energy. According to Claude Turmes, Luxembourg Green MEP rapporteur of the report on renewable, "We're playing the battle between an old industrial structure and a new, we are in a moment of hinge between the past and the future. The entire whole of the ecotechnologies" argues, "may create 3-5 million jobs by 2020, using the flying public investment." The Californian "New Deal" is an indisputable example, the energy efficiency policies undertaken by California after the oil shock of 1977 in the space of three decades have created about one and a half million new jobs compared with 25 thousand lost . It is necessary that all stakeholders concerned to addresses environmental focus political, will still too tied to the interests of the old production, towards a necessary transition to green, possible and desirable, certainly not enough and painless, but that opens up prospects new and exciting.

It’s in this context and with this hope, we would like to express our best wishes to all of you, continuing to work because all this happening quickly. Only in this perspective, the star under which closes this 2008, may appear to us somewhat less gloomy than you might think.

Our best wishes from AICA, the International Association for Environmental Communication, our publisher, and all the ENVI editorial, for a brighter 2009.
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“Navi a Perdere” by Carlo Lucarelli

by Alessio Sciurpa

Entered in the charts between the books bestsellers in Italy noir of the Edizioni Ambiente written by Carlo Lucarelli. The book takes its cue from a phenomenon, the lose ships, already addressed by Legambiente in its annual reports “Rapporto Ecomafia”. The story told, particularly emblematic, is the "Jolly Rosso" story that it aground on the beach in province of Cosenza in December 1990. The affair, which was also occupied the “Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on Cycle Waste and Illegal Activities related to it ", chaired by Paul Russo, who in his final report, approved at its meeting on 15 February 2006,says: "The Commission has also recorded the occurrence of additional elements, represented largely by statements of collaborators of justice, from the Calabrian organized crime, which reported the existence of a pactum sceleris between the 'ndrangheta and businessmen in the sector of waste, in virtue of which, were planned and carried out numerous Sinkings ships laden with toxic waste case in marine Calabrian (and especially in the Ionian Sea, which by its characteristics of depth, could be better to finally disappear traces of the criminal enterprise)".

For the launch of the book it used a tool like the booktrailer, very intriguing, but not yet very widespread.

Here's the author interview conducted by Emiliano Angelelli director of VerdeNero Blog:

Do you believe in novels socially useful? And above all believe that the noir genre is a socially useful?
Yes. In fact I think novels are all socially useful when they are written well and with sincerity. The noir perhaps it is. It is not the only genre to play this type of function, but physiologically it does, because is interested in things that do not work and tell the complaint.

"Navi a Perdere" seems a thought also for television. Do you think that in future "Blu Notte", your TV show, will follow the strand of ecomafia?
Blu Notte already partly did so, with the bet that we have dedicated to asbestos. Of course we want to continue with this line and could also be that this will be a topic of ours. "Navi a Perdere" wasn't written thinking on television. The fact is that, I always write in the same way (ndr. Lucarelli laughs), so if I deal with my narrative experimentation is a type of story and when things really my way of telling you that. So if anything when I am writing to television to novels.

From 25 to 100 ships disappeared during a little more than a decade in an area, the Tyrrhenian Sea near Calabria, very narrow. Ships of poisons are therefore a social drama?
Definitely yes. We are always on the assumptions. The ships were sunk and many believe that they contained poisons. This is the basis on which to reason. I'm sure that many terrible things happened in the ocean. Already only one hundred ships sink are strange and an ugly disaster. And it is true that we used as make bad thoughts, and many times to have reason to do so, we think that in our seas, there are many poisons. Anyway, yes it is a social drama. When it begins to poison the sea, the land and the air who breathes. the problem becomes global of all.

In "Navi a Perdere" shows the figure of Comiero, faccendiere impelagato disposal of radioactive waste. And speaking of radioactive waste was born a connection with the case Ilaria Alpi. Another unsolved mystery of our country ...
The engineer Comerio indeed is seen and heard in relation to a whole series of reports about these events, including the case Ilaria Alpi. Rather than find another home in a series of documents that speak of these facts. It is of course the courts to investigate these events. What is certain is that there are many assonance, many nearby playing disturbing.

Wu Ming 1 recently launched a literary debate with the publication of "New Italian Epic," an essay that tries to identify a common thread among several contemporary Italian writers. She recognizes in this literary vein?
Absolutely yes. I believe to be part of this nebula, this archipelago of writers trying to write novels comprehensive addressing issues that have to do with our history and our present in "epic". I fully recognize us. More...

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Nos enfants nous accuseront by Jean-Paul and Béatrice Jaud

by Francesco Rasero

The documentary, supported by WWF France, to denounce the poisoning fields by the chemicals used in agriculture and the effects that this leads inevitably to health, especially as children wich are particularly exposed to these substances.
The mayor of the village of Bajrac (department of Gard, southern France) decide to go to "bio" the school canteen, "health conscious of the danger they are subjected younger generation, exposed to 76 thousand tonnes of pesticides every year used in France which are then, in the air, soil, water and ... in the dishes", with an increase in cancers among children, 1, 1% every year.
In the film involved kids, parents, teachers, journalists, farmers, public authorities and scientific researchers and everyone gives their feelings, their analysis, their anxieties and neck, even suggesting possible solutions to the problem. More...

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UE waste week pilot edition closed last Sunday

by Francesco Rasero

Last sunday closed the pilot edition of the European Waste Reduction Week which took place from 22 to 30 November 2008. In this context, some pioneer cities and regions, members of ACR+, have created momentum by organizing a variety of innovative awareness-raising actions.
The 2008 pilot edition is meant to prepare the ground for the first official European Waste Reduction Week, which will take place in 2009 in the framework of an EU LIFE+ project submitted by ADEME (French Agency for Environment and Energy Management) with ACR+ and the regions of Brussels, Catalonia and Porto as partners.
The pilot edition of the European Waste Reduction Week fits into the scheme of the European Campaign for Waste Reduction launched in 2007 by ACR+, which brings forward a reference of “100 kilos less municipal waste per inhabitant and per year” (www.acrplus.org/-kg).
First of all, the campaign has been aimed to create participation, to Gather the waste prevention stakeholders (AICA it’s one) around a common initiative symbolically condensed within a Week, created a momentum which helped disseminate innovative and efficient actions across the European Union and highlighted the connection between waste and the sustainable consumption of resources.
Finally an interesting tool has been used in this week, the Campaign Guide on Waste Reduction (in French and English).
In a nutshell, from 22 to 30 November 2008, European stakeholders have danced together to the tune of waste reduction, a good wishes for 2009 edition and the future of waste management. More...

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