A-Infos (en) Italy, Sicilia Libertaria #471 - Another climate is possible - Climate crisis. (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

There's a phrase climate movements often repeat: this isn't the hottest 
summer in history, it's the mildest summer of the coming years. A 
seeming paradox that actually sums up the apparent inevitability of the 
ongoing climate collapse. If ever it were needed, the scorching summer 
of 2026 has confirmed the urgency of environmental struggles. Thinking 
that every year will be a little worse, and thinking that ultimately, as 
humans, we are a species capable of adapting to (almost) anything, are 
ultimately two sides of the same coin. In them, the "here and now" of 
every struggle is lost. Because if the climate struggle hasn't yet 
become so central, it's because, quite simply, it's a slow-motion, daily 
oppression that affects every aspect of our lives. You might say: it's 
capitalism. But it's a little more complex than that. Summer has become 
an increasingly less anticipated and increasingly feared season. On one 
side, the thermometer rises, the asphalt melts, the forests burn, 
hospitals fill up with people admitted for heatstroke. On the other, the 
summer ritual of information resumes: maps showing the hottest cities, 
the obsession with temperature records, reports on exhausted 
ventilators. And of course, the experts' advice, now even on social 
media: drink a lot, go out less, eat lightly. Then, in the fall, we'll 
forget everything. Let's reset every suffering, every data, every 
ailment. What's more, in recent years, a tendency has spread to try to 
stoically resist summer. Especially among the most aware people. Is it 
extremely hot? And yet we still indulge in aperitivos, organize 
festivals, etc. A sort of right to suffer has spread. We don't even take 
precautions, except to complain all the time about the abnormal heat, 
let alone imagine how we can conceive of climate collapse being stopped. 
Oh, it's summer, let's relax. In this heat? As if the heat-and its 
consequences, such as fires and drought-were an accident of nature and 
not the result of an economic order that decided, long ago, to turn the 
atmosphere into a landfill and the planet into a corporate balance 
sheet. Capitalism loves to describe the consequences and erase the 
causes. It's one of its greatest skills. Thus, climate collapse becomes 
"bad weather," "anomaly," "emergency." Never a production model. Never a 
specific political responsibility. Never an economic system built on the 
belief that infinite growth was possible within a finite world. Yet the 
numbers speak with a clarity that no press conference can any longer 
convey. According to the European service Copernicus, June 2026 was the 
warmest June ever recorded in Western Europe and the second warmest 
globally. Data from EuroMOMO, the European mortality observatory 
supported by the World Health Organization,They show over 10,000 excess 
deaths recorded during the heatwaves of late June (for much fewer in 
2020, Europe shut down to stem the coronavirus pandemic). Meanwhile, 
heatwaves are no longer exceptions but are becoming the norm. A 
normality built on oil, gas, concrete, and unrestrained consumption. 
Sicily is one of the first to pay the price. In mid-July, Copernicus 
satellites recorded surface temperatures above 47 degrees Celsius on the 
slopes of Mount Etna, while in several inland areas, weather stations 
recorded air temperatures exceeding 46 degrees Celsius. These numbers 
are now flooding the news, as if they were inevitable. But there is 
nothing inevitable about them. It is not inevitable that cities are 
built like enormous concrete slabs that multiply heat. It is not 
inevitable that trees, fields, and wetlands have been destroyed to be 
replaced with shopping centers, parking lots, and warehouses. It's not 
inevitable that we continue to finance fossil fuels while making solemn 
speeches about the ecological transition. These are choices. Choices 
that have names, surnames, boards of directors, and governments that 
defend them. This is why climate breakdown isn't just a clear 
confirmation of the horrors of capitalism. It's something more, because 
it presupposes our ability to build a new, different world, one that 
doesn't seek compromises with capitalism. One example is enough. For 
decades, major energy companies have been aware of the effects of 
emissions, and for decades, investing in disinformation has been 
preferred to changing the production model. It was cheaper to buy 
consensus than to forgo dividends. Yet even today, there are those who 
prefer to engage in dialogue with these major energy companies. From 
power come problems, not solutions. Let's not forget that this same 
power has built a system to be immune to climate breakdown. And if their 
privilege begins to be eroded, never fear: they'll go colonize the moon 
and other planets, as billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have 
long advocated. Instead, those who pick tomatoes, erect scaffolding, 
deliver packages, or work in logistics warehouses continue to breathe 
scorching air for eight, ten, twelve hours. Every summer, ordinances are 
issued that limit work during the hottest hours. Every summer, they 
arrive late, are applied patchily, and are met with the same objection: 
stopping is costly. But to whom? Certainly not to those who risk a heart 
attack under the sun. Profit continues to demand only one thing: that 
production never stops. Not even when the temperature turns a 
construction site into an oven. Not even when a farm field becomes a 
trap. Not even when the climate crisis clearly demonstrates that the 
physical limits of the planet are incompatible with the greed of 
capital. Then there's Sicily,A perfect laboratory for Italy's 
contradictions. Where ever-rising temperatures amplify the effects of 
decades of speculation, neglect, and political choices geared more 
toward immediate consensus than environmental protection. And while the 
landscape changes, the market organizes itself. It sells air 
conditioners, it sells insurance, it sells technology. It even sells 
sustainability. A few individual gestures transformed into advertising 
campaigns won't save us. Electric cars, or expanses of solar panels, or 
aluminum water bottles instead of plastic ones won't be enough, not even 
if an economic model based on infinite accumulation continues to 
dominate. We need something else. We need communities that organize 
themselves again, territories that can defend themselves, workers who 
refuse to be sacrificed on the altar of productivity, and solidarity 
networks capable of removing fragments of life from the logic of the 
market. Because the climate crisis cannot be addressed solely with new 
technologies, but with new social relationships. And if the heat reminds 
us every day that the planet has a limit, the answer cannot be adapting 
to injustice: it must be building the collective strength to change it. 
Before climate collapse becomes yet another opportunity for profit for 
the few at the expense of the many. Is another climate possible, to 
paraphrase the most famous slogan of the Genoa season, 25 years after 
the death of Giulio Giuliani? The scorching summer that left us gasping 
for air, that ruined our sleep, that killed our loved ones, must wake us 
up. We must move from the fire of climate to the fire of rebellion. It's 
no longer time to be outraged by yet another record temperature. 
Indignation, by itself, evaporates as quickly as a puddle on August 
asphalt.The answer cannot be to adapt to injustice: it must be to build 
the collective strength to change it. Before climate breakdown becomes 
yet another opportunity for profit for the few at the expense of the 
many. Is another climate possible, to paraphrase the most famous slogan 
of the Genoa season, 25 years after the death of Giulio Giuliani? The 
scorching summer that left us gasping for air, that ruined our sleep, 
that killed loved ones, must wake us up. We must move from the fire of 
climate to the fire of rebellion. It's no longer time to be outraged by 
yet another record temperature. Indignation, by itself, evaporates as 
quickly as a puddle on August asphalt.The answer cannot be to adapt to 
injustice: it must be to build the collective strength to change it. 
Before climate breakdown becomes yet another opportunity for profit for 
the few at the expense of the many. Is another climate possible, to 
paraphrase the most famous slogan of the Genoa season, 25 years after 
the death of Giulio Giuliani? The scorching summer that left us gasping 
for air, that ruined our sleep, that killed loved ones, must wake us up. 
We must move from the fire of climate to the fire of rebellion. It's no 
longer time to be outraged by yet another record temperature. 
Indignation, by itself, evaporates as quickly as a puddle on August asphalt.

Andrea Turco

https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/2026/08/24/un-altro-clima-e-possibile/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en