As Po dries up, Italy's food and energy supplies are at risk

[dalton99a]

https://apnews.com/article/climate-italy-and-environment-e0274e5f2b4dd6bb2854cc7a970f75f6

As Po dries up, Italy's food and energy supplies are at risk
By PAOLO SANTALUCIA

BORETTO, Italy (AP) — Water is so low in large stretches of Italy’s largest river that local residents are walking through the middle of the expanse of sand and shipwrecks are resurfacing.

Authorities fear that if it doesn’t rain soon, there’ll be a serious shortage of water for drinking and irrigation for farmers and local populations across the whole of northern Italy.

In a park near the central northern village of Gualtieri, cyclists and hikers stop in curiosity to observe the Zibello, a 50-meter long (164 feet) barge that transported wood during the second world war but sank in 1943. It is normally covered by the Po’s waters.

“It’s the first time that we can see this barge,” said amateur cyclist Raffaele Vezzali as he got off the pedals to stare at the rusted ship. Vezzali was only partially surprised, though, as he knew that the lack of winter rain caused the river to reach record low levels.


People fish near a hydroelectric power plant at Isola Serafini, on the Po river in San Nazzaro, Italy, Wednesday, June 15, 2022. The drying up of the river is jeopardizing drinking water in Italy's densely populated and highly industrialized districts and threatening irrigation in the most intensively farmed part of the country. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)


A man walks near a bridge in Boretto, Italy, on the bed of the Po river, Wednesday, June 15, 2022.


A barge dating back to World War II has re-emerged on the Po river in Gualtieri, Italy, Wednesday, June 15, 2022. Water is so low in large stretches of Italy's largest river that local residents are walking through the middle of the expanse of sand and shipwrecks are resurfacing, but authorities fear there'll be far greater consequences for farmers and local populations. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

[IronLionZion]

1. Climate change is going to kill us

Rivers and lakes drying up, wheat crops dying out, floods in some areas, rising sea levels, wildfires, hurricanes.

[geardaddy]

3. It's the earth purging the cancer

of humanity.

[Rural_Progressive]

7. Which is really sad

considering that indigenous people lived on the earth for thousands of years without really doing a lot of damage. Humanity's fall from grace began with the advent of agriculture and continued to accelerate with the development of technology and really kicked into high gear when the Industrial Revolution came online.

Just too much too quickly for our hard wired upright primate brain to process. Looks like Mother is going to hit the reset button and try something else.

[cilla4progress]

9. Yep

+2

Correction is coming!

[geardaddy]

11. This, exactly

It is really sad, since we, as humans, knew how to live with the earth instead of on the earth.

[Kaleva]

17. Starvation, disease, infant mortality kept us in tune with Earth

Technology and modern health care threw it all out of whack

[TeamProg]

12. The GW fever will help rid the planet of much of the current parasitic infection. n/t

[NickB79]

16. Not a lot of damage?

Tell me the last time you saw a mammoth, ground sloth, sabertooth, or giant wombat.

Indigenous humans hunted hundreds of species to extinction. They only learned to live with their environments after the caused a mass extinction event.

[Rural_Progressive]

18. And thank you for making my point

They learned.

We're moving too fast and are working with basically the same hardware that caused those early people to make those destructive decisions. We are probably done since we're not going to have the time or the hard won wisdom to change our interactions with the earth.

Seems a shame the non-industrialized people have to go down with us.

[NickB79]

20. True. Then we had flint spearheads and fire

Now we have coal, cars, toxic waste and vast farmland to destroy the environment.

[Rural_Progressive]

28. Probably didn't do a good job making myself clear

When I referred to "hardware" I was talking about our nervous system which was, and too a large extent remains, hardwired for certain responses to environmental inputs. We're still are wired for "fight or flight", for dealing well with short term disasters and really no way to deal with long term, oncoming disasters like climate change. Sad truth is we really don't have the necessary mental makeup to deal with the mess we've created.

I'm afraid the reality is we've gone too far down a dead end path and there really isn't anyway to turn around and get ourselves on a sustainable trajectory. My only hope is that I'm just a regular shlub and what do I know, I hope there's stuff going on that we aren't aware of that will surprise us all.

If there isn't well then "Say goodnight Gracie".

[2naSalit]

8. +1

[calimary]

13. Kinda seems like it, doesn't it?

[rubbersole]

14. Overpopulation is not sustainable.

2 billion humans max. There are 8 billion now. The scramble for dwindling resources won't be pretty.

[hunter]

25. It is, or it wouldn't be sustained.

I'm the optimistic sort. Nobody has to suffer and die.

We humans have all the tools we need to halt human population growth and feed and comfortably shelter everyone.

What's standing in the way?

[rubbersole]

26. The top 1%. Greed.

Oil companies have run this country for over 100 years. No sign of them going away anytime soon.

[ShazzieB]

2. Yikes, this is scary!

[iluvtennis]

4. This is heartbreaking. Crossing fingers for some rain soon. n/t

[Demovictory9]

22. me too

[RussBLib]

5. to anthropomorphize

mother nature seems pissed

[NullTuples]

6. Farming is 100% dependent on predictable weather

It's not like as some of these regions stop being productive other ones can just be started up; the weather now is too chaotic.

I get the feeling we're heading into a global famine. I also get the feeling top capitalists have known this would be the outcome of their actions for a long, long time but figured they personally could weather it somewhere on the planet until they die.

[Dave says]

10. I think you're correct

Those at the top will live in their irrigated, gated cities, with trimmed lawns and green parks. We the rascal multitudes will be left to fend for ourselves while the top continues to brown and bake the land outside their cities.

[hunter]

19. I doubt that. The wealthiest people on earth exist within the most brittle environment of all.

They are delicate flowers living in glass houses, never any match for people who've got nothing left to lose.

The age of self-sufficient communities probably passed away with the Neanderthals.

Ever since it's been a repeating cycle of empires rising and empires falling.

The greater the economic disparities the more the oligarchs and kleptocrats have to worry about some lowly servant poisoning their tea.

The only wealthy people I've ever met who seem truly happy earned their money honestly, or stumbled upon it by accident of birth or bad marriage, and they tend to be the sort who give much of it away.

[NullTuples]

21. And yet, until the last economy collapses the wealthiest of them can buy security.

[hunter]

24. One can buy security, but not peace of mind.

Putin and Trump are not happy people.

[NullTuples]

27. I get it now; I wasn't thinking of them at all.

I was thinking the Arnaults, DeVos, Adanis, Kochs, Ambanis, Helus, Bettencourt Meyers, Bloombergs, Shanshans. Waltons, Fentons, Gurleys, Cohlers, Liews, and so on - plus the top techie names. Basically the really wealthy families, the true Capital class.

[Bev54]

15. Ship wrecks are being exposed in Italy and bodies are being exposed in US

[Brother Buzz]

23. Scattered around those bodies in the US are a ton of...

pristine speedboats, all suspiciously missing drain plugs- The Drain Plug Mafia can strikes anywhere, Baby!