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.