We have different ideas about our future. To realize them, we must be united on climate. That is why scientists launch the “Let’s Choose Our Future” campaign, aimed at citizens and political forces (with these there is an agreement!).
IN THE VERY AWARENESS THAT PROJECTS, PERSONAL OR POLITICAL, ARE QUITE DIVERSE, THE “SCIENCE ON THE BALLOT” COMMITTEE INVITES US TO CHOOSE OUR FUTURE. THE FUTURE WE HOPE FOR BUT ALSO OUR FUTURE ITSELF, WHICH WOULD BE LESS AND LESS CONTROLLABLE AS WE WORSEN CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS: WE MUST UNITE TO FIGHT AGAINST THIS CRISIS! READ THE SCIENTISTS’ OPEN LETTER, AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT THE INITIATIVE WITH A CALL TO ACTION ADDRESSED TO CITIZENS AND BUSINESSES AND POLITICAL FORCES. AND NOW ALSO A FIRST CONCRETE RESULT: THE SIGNATURE BY ALMOST ALL PARTIES OF AN AGREEMENT TO ESTABLISH A CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT SCIENTIFIC COUNCIL (CSCA) ! – HERE IS OUR STORY:
On the eve of the 2018 general election, 18 of Italy’s leading climate change and environmental scientists formed the scientific committee ‘Science on the Ballot.’ Data in hand, the scientists warned that only by saving the environmental context, which was already becoming increasingly precarious, could the best solutions be found to the other problems that were at the center of the election campaign: jobs, immigration, security, and taxes. The committee offered a series of concrete proposals and with an open letter invited the political parties to a public meeting: indeed, in the 2018 programs of either center left, center right, MoVimento 5 Stelle, Liberi e Uguali, as well as other lists, environment was present, beyond what might appear in the election campaign.
From the public meeting, which on Sunday, February 18, 2018, saw the presence of all political forces, came the proposal, by the Committee and following the example of what happened in the United Kingdom on the eve of the 2015 elections, to sign a cross-party pre-election agreement: four specific points of action to save our country’s environment. The agreement was signed on Thursday, March 1, 2018, at the Foreign Press Association in Rome by all political forces, with the unfortunate exception of MoVimento 5 Stelle and Forza Italia.
The Committee then proposed to all political forces to proceed with the implementation of the agreement by organizing, together with the Vice-Presidency of the Chamber of Deputies, in the person of Hon. Fabio Rampelli, a conference on March 12, 2019, entitled “A climate for collaboration – Climate change in Italy, and grave risks and great opportunities that accompany it, require an important joint work by all political forces,” in which the proposal of a political/scientific working group called “1.5” was launched, that is, with the goal of containing the temperature increase in the degree and a half. Unfortunately, Lega and Movimento 5 Stelle did not participate in the meeting.
After the great success of the first “Global Strike for Future” on March 15, 2019, the committee wrote an open letter of support and a proposal for collaboration to the students striking for climate, which was shared by many fellow scientists.
In the face of the Covid-19 emergency, the Committee then stepped in to remind people that solving the environmental and climate crisis thankfully requires commitments far less onerous than those required by the pandemic.
And when, in early 2021, political forces agreed on a government of national unity to deal with the vaccination campaign and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, a government from which only Fratelli d’Italia was left out, the Committee recalled the need for science-policy collaboration to deal with climate and environmental crisis as well. Joining forces with other groups of scientists, the Committee presented Premier Draghi with an organic proposal for a science that would help the country to build its future: widespread training, a boost to research, the establishment of a National Scientific Council to help deal with environmental emergencies.
Today, in an election campaign with many sides in the field, the Committee wants to remind that, to realize any vision of our future, we need to be united on climate, and it calls on citizens and businesses to embrace and spread the message that what unites us is more than what divides us, and that we have scientifically correct solutions that we can adopt; and il calls on the political parties to agree to establish a scientific advisory and assessment body on climate and environmental crisis, which could be called the Climate and Environment Scientific Council, to be helped to realize the society they envision.
From the public meeting, which on Sunday, February 18, 2018, saw the presence of all political forces, came the proposal, by the Committee and following the example of what happened in the United Kingdom on the eve of the 2015 elections, to sign a cross-party pre-election agreement: four specific points of action to save our country’s environment. The agreement was signed on Thursday, March 1, 2018, at the Foreign Press Association in Rome by all political forces, with the unfortunate exception of MoVimento 5 Stelle and Forza Italia.
The Committee then proposed to all political forces to proceed with the implementation of the agreement by organizing, together with the Vice-Presidency of the Chamber of Deputies, in the person of Hon. Fabio Rampelli, a conference on March 12, 2019, entitled “A climate for collaboration – Climate change in Italy, and grave risks and great opportunities that accompany it, require an important joint work by all political forces,” in which the proposal of a political/scientific working group called “1.5” was launched, that is, with the goal of containing the temperature increase in the degree and a half. Unfortunately, Lega and Movimento 5 Stelle did not participate in the meeting.
After the great success of the first “Global Strike for Future” on March 15, 2019, the committee wrote an open letter of support and a proposal for collaboration to the students striking for climate, which was shared by many fellow scientists.
In the face of the Covid-19 emergency, the Committee then stepped in to remind people that solving the environmental and climate crisis thankfully requires commitments far less onerous than those required by the pandemic.
And when, in early 2021, political forces agreed on a government of national unity to deal with the vaccination campaign and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, a government from which only Fratelli d’Italia was left out, the Committee recalled the need for science-policy collaboration to deal with climate and environmental crisis as well. Joining forces with other groups of scientists, the Committee presented Premier Draghi with an organic proposal for a science that would help the country to build its future: widespread training, a boost to research, the establishment of a National Scientific Council to help deal with environmental emergencies.
Today, in an election campaign with many sides in the field, the Committee wants to remind that, to realize any vision of our future, we need to be united on climate, and it calls on citizens and businesses to embrace and spread the message that what unites us is more than what divides us, and that we have scientifically correct solutions that we can adopt; and il calls on the political parties to agree to establish a scientific advisory and assessment body on climate and environmental crisis, which could be called the Climate and Environment Scientific Council, to be helped to realize the society they envision.