CDCA e A Sud alla COP30 a Belém

Posted by salvatore on 9:55 am in News | Commenti disabilitati su

[posted on FoodWatch, February 7, 2018] The European Union is currently negotiating a series of new free trade agreements that would have a negative impact on consumer rights, environmental standards and democratic principles. These are the findings of a report from the organisations PowerShift and foodwatch. According to the report, the EU trade deals that are being planned with Mexico, Indonesia, Japan and other countries include many of the same controversial elements as the shelved TTIP agreement with the U.S. and the provisionally-applied CETA agreement with Canada: for example, investor-state dispute-settlement clauses, trade committees with insufficient democratic control and the weakening of the precautionary principle in the context of consumer and health protection. The two organisations also criticize the fact that, in spite of the associated risks, the negotiations are being hidden from public scrutiny. In most cases, not even the negotiating mandates have been made public. foodwatch is calling on the EU to halt negotiations and overhaul its trade policy. “The EU has learned nothing from the protests against TTIP and CETA. Consumer protection, environmental standards and democratic principles are being sacrificed on the altar of free trade – at the expense of people in Europe and at the expense of people in the partner countries,“ said foodwatch International’s Executive Director Thilo Bode at a presentation of the report on Wednesday in Brussels. Bode argued that the European Commission should stop its negotiations immediately because not only do the planned agreements go far beyond the elimination of customs duties but there is also a real risk that consumer and environmental protection standards could be lowered or “locked in” at low levels. “We are not opposed to trade – but trade should serve the public interest, not only the interests of corporations.“ The report “Trade at Any Cost?”, which was prepared by the organisation PowerShift on behalf of foodwatch, investigates five EU trade deals that have received little public attention to date: with Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Mexico and the South American trade bloc comprising Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay (Mercosur). In some cases, the negotiations are already far advanced, and in others they are still in the early stages. According to foodwatch and PowerShift, many of the highly controversial elements of TTIP and CETA have been integrated in the new agreements with few if any changes: None of the agreements contain provisions safeguarding the European precautionary principle. Instead, they refer to the legal obligations of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which do not reflect the precautionary principle as practised in Europe In simplified terms this means that a substance should be approved until sufficient evidence of harm is established. The precautionary principle, on the other hand, shifts the burden of proof onto the proponent or developer: for example, a company that would like to earn approval for a chemical product would first have to provide scientific evidence for its safety. In cases of potential risk, governments in Europe are required to take preventive action if there are reasonable grounds for concern. The free trade agreements provide for the establishment of committees that have the power to make far-reaching changes – without sufficient scrutiny or democratic control by parliaments. Similar mechanisms in the CETA agreement are the subject of a constitutional complaint in Germany. The agreements with Vietnam, Indonesia and Mexico would give companies extensive rights via investor-state dispute settlement – a...

Posted by salvatore on 11:41 am in News | Commenti disabilitati su

[posted on Digiconomist, January 16, 2018] Bitcoin’s usefulness as a payment system has been deteriorating fast over the past year. Bitcoin transaction fees and price volatility skyrocketed, prompting big companies such as Steam and Microsoft to stop accepting Bitcoin payments. This development has resulted in the community now being increasingly focused on defining Bitcoin as an alternative to physical gold; making it a long-term way to store wealth. Whether this makes sense is an interesting discussion by itself. Any owner of a gold bar can be fairly certain that he or she won’t suddenly receive a similar gold bar created out of  thin air, but things have proven to be more complicated in Bitcoin. Anyone that held one Bitcoin at the start of 2017, and held onto it for the entire year, would have ended the year with at least one Bitcoin Core, one Bitcoin Cash and one Bitcoin Gold. But let’s assume for now that this won’t stand in the way of Bitcoin becoming “digital gold”. Unfortunately, not even becoming digital gold will be enough to make Bitcoin’s sustainability problems go away. By now, we know that Bitcoin has a serious problem when compared to traditional payments systems in terms of energy consumption and environmental impact. One Bitcoin transaction requires the same amount of electricity as an average household uses in a month or more (in most developed countries). That’s several thousands of times more than what’s required by traditional payment systems. Comparisons of Bitcoin to gold are, however, still scarce, and certainly not available in any live data feeds. Bitcoin versus Gold To get started with the previous we can first compare the total amount of energy consumed by gold mining versus the total amount consumed by Bitcoin mining. While looking at these numbers, it’s important to keep in mind that in Bitcoin, mining is essential for the creation of new blocks, and thus for keeping the system running. The high costs involved in this process are an important part of what keeps the system secure. Mining for gold doesn’t serve a similar purpose. Energy Consumption The data for Bitcoin’s energy consumption is available from the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, although an adjustment is made to exclude Bitcoin Cash (making it easier to measure the total energy consumed per mined coin later on). For completeness, we also include a minimum limit for Bitcoin’s energy consumption based on the current network computational power. For gold, we assume an energy consumption of 175 Gigajoules per kilogram of gold mined. Around 3100 metric tons of gold are mined every year, putting the total energy requirement of gold mining close to 150 terawatt-hours per year. Based on this chart it can be established that gold mining requires a lot more energy than Bitcoin mining, but this only tells half the story. After all, the total value of all the gold mined (well over $100 billion) also significantly exceeds the total value of all the Bitcoin being mined. A more appropriate way to compare the two would therefore be to consider the energy requirement per equal amount of value produced. The next chart shows how it looks like when the average electricity consumed to generate one Bitcoin is plotted against the average energy consumed to mine one Bitcoin worth of gold. Interestingly, the chart reveals that even in the most optimistic case, Bitcoin mining is actually more energy-intensive than gold mining....

Posted by salvatore on 9:32 am in News | Commenti disabilitati su

[posted by Riccardo Arena, Anna Martinelli on La Stampa, February 6, 2018] A tight-knit criminal organization, with only one goal in mind: money, as much as possible, a lot of money and more. Among the many million-worth cases they had their tentacles on, the Eni bribes in Nigeria was by far the hottest one, so hot it had the “judicial gang” arrested. The gang of 15 in fact, is not made of common criminals but actually men of law, namely attorneys and prosecutors and even a Judge, all corrupted, who behind the bugged courthouse’s walls of an apparently peripheral city such as that of Siracusa in Sicily, plotted conspiracies, discredited and threaten colleagues, ran files to other prosecutors or even simulated, and then archived, sensitive international investigation, involving ENI, one of the global supermajors, currently ranking 11th among the largest industrial company in the world. The juiciest beef of this already-seen tangled plot, concerns one judge, Giancarlo Longo and a lawyers Piero Amara who teamed up in small-town-Siracusa and, among many other unlawful actions, allegedly went to the extent of masterminding a fake dossier implying the existence of a conspiracy against ENI in order to deflate the ongoing investigation – carried out by Milan offices – over ENI’s top manager Claudio De Scalzi regarding some alleged million-dollar bribes paid in Nigeria. An all Italian spy-story with a spin-off in Africa that will probably end with 15 people jailed....

Posted by salvatore on 6:21 pm in News | Commenti disabilitati su

[posted on ScienceDaily, January 31, 2018] University of Wyoming researchers led a climate study that determined recent temperatures across Europe and North America appear to have few, if any, precedent in the past 11,000 years. The study revealed important natural fluctuations in climate have occurred over past millennia, which would have naturally led to climatic cooling today in the absence of human activity. Bryan Shuman, a UW professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics, and Jeremiah Marsicek, a recent UW Ph.D. graduate in geology and geophysics, led the new study that is highlighted in a paper, titled “Reconciling Divergent Trends and Millennial Variations in Holocene Temperatures,” published today (Jan. 31) in Nature. Marsicek, a current postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was lead author of the paper. He worked on the study from 2011-16. Other contributors to the paper were from the University of Oregon, University of Utah and the U.S. Geological Survey in Corvallis, Ore. The study was largely funded by a combination of fellowships from the Environmental Protection Agency and the UW NASA Space Grant Consortium, and grant support from the National Science Foundation (NSF). “The major significance here is temperature across two continents over the last 11,000 years. The paper provides a geologically long-term perspective on recent temperature changes in the Northern Hemisphere and the ability of climate models, such as the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) models used in the study, to predict the changes,” says Shuman, senior author on the paper and Marsicek’s supervisor. “Climate simulations do a strikingly good job of forecasting the changes.” “I would say it is significant that temperatures of the most recent decade exceed the warmest temperatures of our reconstruction by 0.5 degrees Fahrenheit, having few — if any — precedents over the last 11,000 years,” Marsicek says. “Additionally, we learned that the climate fluctuates naturally over the last 11,000 years and would have led to cooling today in the absence of human activity.” The study covers a period that begins at the end of the Ice Age and when there still was an ice sheet covering Canada, Shuman says. Researchers reconstructed temperatures from fossil pollen collected from 642 lake or pond sites across North America — including water bodies in Wyoming — and Europe. The Wyoming locations included Slough Creek Pond and Cub Creek Pond in Yellowstone National Park, Divide Lake in Bridger-Teton National Forest, Sherd Lake in the Bighorn Mountains and Fish Creek Park near Dubois. “When we collect sediment from the bottom of the lake, we can recognize sequences of plants that grew in a given area based on the shape of the fossil pollen left behind,” Shuman explains. “Because different plants grow at different temperatures, we can constrain what the temperatures were in a given place at a certain time.” The reconstructions closely matched the climate simulations run by NCAR, which were conducted independently as part of separate projects. The computer simulations later became part of the study. “Our temperature estimates and the NCAR simulations were within one-quarter of one degree Fahrenheit, on average, for the last 11,000 years,” says Shuman, as he pointed to a graph that included a black line for his group’s climate research temperature and a gray line that represents the computer simulations. “I was...

Posted by salvatore on 10:13 am in News | Commenti disabilitati su

[posted by David Shephardson on Reuters, February 2, 2018] The U.S. Justice Department is seeking “substantial” civil fines from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV after the government filed suit accusing the company of illegally using software that led to excess emissions in 104,000 U.S. diesel vehicles sold since 2014, a person briefed on the matter said on Friday. Bloomberg News reported Friday that the Justice Department sent Fiat Chrysler lawyers a Jan. 27 settlement offer that included requiring the company to offset excess pollution and take steps to prevent future excess emissions. A person briefed on the matter confirmed the letter included language that a settlement “must include very substantial civil penalties.” Fiat Chrysler shares ended down 7.2 percent at $22.30 on Friday in New York after earlier falling over 10 percent on news of the potential fines. In a discussion in Washington this week between the Justice Department and Fiat Chrysler overseen by court-appointed settlement adviser Ken Feinberg, no specific figures were discussed, two people briefed on the talks said. Another round of settlement talks is set for late this month. Feinberg and Fiat Chrysler declined to comment. In July, Fiat Chrysler won approval from federal and California regulators to sell 2017 model year diesel vehicles after it came under scrutiny for alleged excess emissions in older diesel models. To resolve the excess pollution issue, Fiat Chrysler lawyer Robert Giuffra said in December at a court hearing the company remains confident it can use updated emissions software in the 2017 vehicles as the basis of a fix to address agencies’ concerns over 2014-2016 diesel vehicles. The Justice Department said in December that company testing on the proposed fix began on Dec. 17 and would take about three months. The government will then have 30 days to review the results and expects to make a determination by the end of April. No settlement is expected before testing is completed, people briefed on the talks said. Separately, the company is still trying to settle lawsuits filed by owners of the diesel vehicles. A separate settlement session is set with lawyers for the owners and Fiat Chrysler in the coming weeks. Regulators have said Fiat Chrysler diesel vehicles had undisclosed emissions controls that allowed vehicles to emit excess pollution during normal driving. The company has denied wrongdoing, saying there was never an attempt to create software to cheat emissions rules. Fiat Chrysler’s emissions case comes after Volkswagen AG’s (VOWG_p.DE) diesel emissions scandal prompted increased industry scrutiny....

Posted by salvatore on 6:19 pm in News | Commenti disabilitati su

[posted by Melissa Twig on The Independent, January 30, 2018] When we turn on a tap, we in the developed world expect an endless stream of clean water to gush out. Like popping a pill when we have a headache or biting into a strawberry mid-winter, it’s a modern privilege most of us are barely even aware of. But South Africans are coming to the daunting realisation that the right to water and sanitation – one of the defining aspects of life in the developed world – is not something to take for granted. As Cape Town creeps towards “Day Zero” – the moment, currently scheduled for 12 April, when all municipal water is turned off – the sense of growing panic is palpable. Helen Zille, premier of the Western Cape, has called this drought the “greatest disaster a Western city has experienced since 9/11”. South African water expert Anthony Turton tells The Independent: “After Day Zero, Cape Town will revert back to medieval times when diseases like cholera and possibly even the plague emerge, as sewers block up and hospitals are overwhelmed. “It will be like a refugee camp, dependent on aid from donor agencies and international humanitarian organisations.” Here in Cape Town, I’m writing this under the hot January sun, and the water is still on. But we are on stringent measures – currently 87 litres per person per day, dropping to 50 litres from 1 February – done in the hope of staving off Day Zero by saving enough water until the autumn rains begin, hopefully, in May. Anyone exceeding 50 litres from next month can expect major fines, possible jail time and a hefty dose of public shaming thanks to an online map that marks out the greatest water wasters with a colour-coded dot. To put it in perspective, the average Briton uses 200 litres a day. In Cape Town today, dishwasher and washing machine usage has to be severely curtailed, so we’re eating off paper plates and wearing the same clothes for a few days in a row. It’s safe to say, nobody is looking glossy. In a particularly hot summer, private pools are covered to prevent evaporation, public pools that don’t use sea water are mostly closed, while many gyms have blocked off their showers. In a city surrounded by beaches, however, these are all manageable hardships. Every day, there are small changes. Hairdressers are doing dry cuts; cafes and restaurants offer drinks in takeaway cups and won’t serve tap water. Gardens are dying under the hot sun, wildfires have started sparking on Table Mountain and public loos are being left unflushed by an increasingly conscientious public. Not exactly Dickensian, but a definite departure from Cape Town’s sleek image as a travel magazine cover star. Buying drinking water has become a daily occupation. At the supermarket yesterday, there was a frenzy to grab bottles as they were being delivered, and staff had to limit each person to four litres. Queues for the natural springs in Newlands, a central suburb, are growing longer by the day and are now watched over by the police. But far more concerning is the fear of what the future brings. At every braai, dinner or drinks party, talk inevitably turns to Day Zero; friends on the dating scene say...

Rassegna Stampa

Posted by salvatore on 12:35 pm in Mondo, Notizie | Commenti disabilitati su Rassegna Stampa

Vuoi ricevere la rassegna stampa quotidiana su ambiente e territori, in Italia e nel mondo? Basta inviarci una mail a segreteria@asud.net indicando nell’oggetto “RASSEGNA STAMPA QUOTIDIANA” se ti interessa riceverla ogni giorno, “RASSEGNA STAMPA SETTIMANALE” se vuoi riceverla ogni settimana e “RASSEGNA STAMPA MENSILE” per ricevere una mail con gli aggiornamenti di tutto il mese.   RASSEGNA STAMPA 16 APRILE 2018 DAI TERRITORI: ROMA: Ama, mezzi rotti e caos rifiuti. Vertice per evitare l’emergenza. L’articolo su il Corriere della Sera, l’inchiesta di Piazza Pulita sull’emergenza rifiuti a Roma – I parte e II parte NO TAP: disordini e danni durante il corteo a Lecce, denunciati 22 attivisti. I dettagli su La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno. Il gip decide di andare avanti con l’incidente probatorio sul gasdotto, bocciando le eccezioni presentate dalla multinazionale TAP e dall’avvocatura di Stato. La notizia su Telerama News FALCONARA MARITTIMA: Odori acri durante manutenzione alla raffineria Api di Falconara, arrivati fino ad Ancona. La notizia su Ansa. Comitati Mal’Aria e Ondaverde in Prefettura: «Vogliamo un tavolo tecnico con i Ministeri della Salute e dell’Ambiente». I dettagli su Centro Pagina TOSCANA: Dai rifiuti della camorra agli appalti della ‘ndrangheta: “Ormai è una terra di criminalità organizzata”. La presentazione del rapporto della Fondazione Caponnetto su il Fatto Quotidiano ILVA: Anche Piombino in Toscana tra gli stabilimenti da cedere per l’acquisto di Ilva. La Ue si pronuncerà entro il 23 maggio. Il governo del Lussemburgo è contrario. L’articolo su La Repubblica NAPOLI: Portici, minacciavano i dipendenti comunali per sversare illegalmente rifiuti nell’isola ecologica di via Farina: dodici indagati. La notizia su la Repubblica CAMPANIA: Traffico di rifiuti dall’inceneritore di Acerra. l carabinieri del reparto forestale denunciano un addetto dell’impianto. l’articolo su Il Mediano  BASILICATA: Acqua contaminata nel mar Jonio, sequestrato l’impianto nucleare di Itrec di Rotondella. Sono almeno cinque le persone indagate. L’indagine su TRM Network. Dove saranno smaltite le acque contaminate? Le proposte su La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno TERNI: Tumori in aumento ma crollo della mortalità. L’intervento del presidente dell’ordine dei Medici sull’impatto dell’inquinamento atmosferico e ambientale su Terninrete  VENEZIA: nasce il più grande centro di ricerca italiano sui cambiamenti climatici, dalla cooperazione tra l’Università Ca’Foscari e il CMCC – Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici. La notizia su Italia Ambiente ROMA: Plasticus, la balena di 10 metri formata da 250 kg di rifiuti di plastica, la quantità che ogni secondo finisce in mare. In esposizione all’Auditorium durante il Festival delle Scienze. Le foto su La Repubblica DAL MONDO: SALUTE: I farmaci sprecati avvelenano l’ambiente. L’infografica su il Corriere della Sera SALUTE: Con l’aria più pulita l’aspettativa di vita cresce fino a un anno. Lo studio in tre città svedesi, spiegato su La Repubblica EMISSIONI: Accordo per tagliare del 50% la CO2 delle navi entro il 2050 rispetto a livelli 2008, ma si punta a inquinamento zero. La notizia su Ansa USA: L’avvocato David Buckel, famoso per il suo lavoro in difesa dei diritti gay, si è dato fuoco per protestare contro l’inquinamento nel mondo. La notizia su il Post GIAPPONE: scoperto un colossale deposito di terre rare, preziosi minerali alla base delle batterie per vetture elettriche, smartphone, pale eoliche e molte altre tecnologie “verdi”. L’articolo su Fanpage INDONESIA: un oleodotto si rompe e una baia prende fuoco. Ma è ancora mistero. L’indagine su il Fatto Quotidiano CIBO: Secondo la Fondazione Barilla, 1/3 alimenti viene gettato via. Lo...

Posted by salvatore on 6:44 pm in News | Commenti disabilitati su

[Posted by Joan Martinez-Alier on The Ecologist, January 31, 2018] Protects against the extraction of fossil fuels and other natural resources – ecological distribution conflicts – cannot simply be resolved by payments of compensation. That is because for most people outside of the corporate boardroom, money is not the primary concern. The Environmental Justice Atlas or EJAtlas of the Autonomous University of Barcelona collected 2330 data sheets on ecological distribution conflicts from all over the world. On average, one more case is added per day. The sheer size of our database makes new studies possible on the actors in such conflicts and their forms of mobilisation, on the deaths of activists in these conflicts or on the factors that lead to failure or success in achieving environmental justice. Social studies can be done on the various cultural expressions such as banners, documentaries and songs used in the various struggles for environmental justice. Smelting and refining What we see is that these conflicts are exposing value system contests. For instance, if a river is polluted or a forest destroyed by open cast mining, financial compensation may be a way out for the company responsible but other valuation languages (biodiversity, the “rights of nature”, the livelihood of local populations, indigenous territorial rights, sacredness) will then be sacrificed. Money cannot compensate for all such loses. The language of economics (and of monetary cost-benefit analysis) is powerful but it is not always powerful enough. Why do so many “ecological distribution conflicts” (as recorded in the EJAtlas) arise? This is  because of the growth and changes of the flows of energy and materials in the economy. We call those flows the “metabolism” of the global economy. For instance, coal mining leads to conflicts along the whole “commodity chain”, from mining to transport to burning in coal fired power plants producing pollutants and excessive amounts of carbon dioxide. Another example is the increase in bauxite mining, that causes conflicts in mining, in smelting and refining of aluminum, in the process of creating electricity for that and when leaving “red mud” as waste. Unsustainable economies Some famous conflicts, such as in the Niyamgiri Hill in Odisha in India against the Vedanta company, exemplify the power of the value of sacredness and the power of indigenous territorial rights against the power of money. In this particular case, the power of the local people turned out to be bigger than the power of a 7 billion dollar investment. Changes in the social metabolism lead to conflicts, which are then expressed in different valuation languages. Ecological and economic distribution conflicts are not the same. Economists claim that all externalities just need to be internalised in the price, but reality shows that not everything has a price tag. For instance, more coal for electricity production causes conflicts at different scales and may give rise to movements for “leaving coal in the hole”. Monetary compensation If such movements are successful, the economy will be more environmentally sustainable. More windmills or more dams might be built instead to substitute for coal fired power plants but this in turn sometimes gives rise to conflicts over land rights and water rights. From the point of view of governments and business, economic growth and profits demand an expanding or changing “metabolism of the economy”. As solution to the conflicts this creates, they propose...

A mani basse sui territori

Posted by salvatore on 1:38 pm in Notizie | Commenti disabilitati su A mani basse sui territori

[di Enzo Cripezzi su Focus/orientamenti] Lo spaccato raccontato in “Le mani sulla città”, memorabile opera cinematografica del regista Franco Rosi, appare oggi amaramente emblematico, facendo le debite proporzioni peggiorative. A dispetto del periodo di produzione – siamo nel 1963 – non può dirsi consegnato alla storia. In una scena, simbolica e significativa, il concetto di speculazione viene abilmente comunicato in poco più di un minuto, pur circoscritto all’ambito edilizio. Andando indietro di qualche anno, giornalisti, intellettuali ed ambientalisti dello spessore di Antonio Cederna, si sono strenuamente battuti per la difesa territoriale, restituendoci una dinamica contemporanea decisamente più compromessa. E per questo meritevole di attenzione e rinnovate battaglie a vantaggio di ciò che resta del territorio e degli interessi collettivi sottesi o, almeno, per rispetto delle future generazioni. Gli interessi edilizi erano alla base della principale forma di speculazione territoriale: ricorderemo gli anni dal Cinquanta al Settanta per le lottizzazioni costiere, per i sacchi edilizi di molte città, per lo sventramento dei centri storici e dei villaggi turistici in montagna. Il concetto era semplice: trasformare in edificabile il suolo agricolo attraverso le varianti urbanistiche. Oggi, per molti versi, sono bypassate anche queste misere limitazioni, attribuendo automaticamente all’autorizzazione dell’opera anche un titolo di variante allo strumento urbanistico vigente o considerandola aprioristicamente compatibile con aree tipizzate agricole, anche se si tratta di opifici, discariche o quant’altro, semplicemente agendo con normative di deroga. Il risultato è dolorosamente percepibile: città e paesi sempre più ampi, in molte aree, arrivano a congiungersi; impianti energetici disseminati senza ritegno su vasta scala con contorno di opere annesse (elettrodotti, strade, sottostazioni elettriche); ragnatele di strade, autostrade e svincoli; comprensori industriali; discariche; centri commerciali e infrastrutture di ogni genere aggrediscono le campagne. Il territorio libero, quello che fa respirare lo sguardo, e l’anima, è sempre più assediato. È il consumo di territorio, e quindi di suolo, il bene non rinnovabile per eccellenza. Il contrasto a questo fenomeno è stato sdoganato a fatica dall’ambientalismo. Una dinamica promossa con l’intoccabile ricatto occupazionale dell’edilizia prima e delle grandi opere poi, sempre più evidenziata da movimenti specifici di ambientalisti trasversali all’associazionismo (Stop al consumo di territorio e Salviamo il paesaggio) e studiata anche da esperti urbanisti e docenti universitari – come Paolo Pileri del Politecnico di Milano – nonché da autorità scientifiche come l’Istituto superiore per la protezione e la ricerca ambientale (Ispra), che il 26 giugno 2017 ha presentato il suo ultimo rapporto. I NUMERI DELL’ISPRA E LA PARCELLIZZAZIONE Secondo l’Ispra, nel 2016, abbiamo totalizzato 23 mila chilometri quadrati di territorio consumato, pari al 7,6 per cento di territorio nazionale. In soli sei mesi – da novembre 2015 a maggio 2016 – sono stati divorati ben 5 mila ettari. L’equivalente di 200 mila nuove villette o 2500 chilometri di autostrada. Ancor più la parcellizzazione, poi, nella dinamica di consumo di territorio, accresce di gran lunga l’impatto urbanistico: anche la contabilità di pochi ettari di territorio cementificato possono compromettere la compattezza e L’omogeneità di un comprensorio pure molto ampio ed esteso, determinando il cosiddetto sprawl urbanistico, vale a dire la polverizzazione urbanistica con tante strutture sparse sul territorio che diventa cosi sempre più frammentato. Emblematiche sono molte aree della Pianura padana, così come quelle dell’entroterra partenopeo, ma anche tra Bari e Barletta, in Puglia, o a sud di Potenza, in Basilicata, o alcuni comprensori abruzzesi. Consumi di suolo...

Posted by salvatore on 9:55 am in News | Commenti disabilitati su

[posted by Valerie Volcovici on Reuters, January 19, 2018] President Donald Trump’s effort to put coal miners back to work stumbled in most coal producing states last year, even as overall employment in the downtrodden sector grew modestly, according to preliminary government data obtained by Reuters. Trump made reviving the coal industry, and the declining communities that depend upon its jobs, a central tenet in his presidential campaign and has rolled back Obama-era environmental regulations to give the industry a boost. But the effort has had little impact on domestic demand for coal so far, with U.S. utilities still shutting coal-fired power plants and shifting to cheaper natural gas – moving toward a lower carbon future despite the direction the White House is plotting under Trump. Unreleased full-year coal employment data from the Mining Health and Safety Administration shows total U.S. coal mining jobs grew by 771 to 54,819 during Trump’s first year in office, led by Central Appalachian states like West Virginia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania – where coal companies have opened a handful of new mining areas for shipment overseas. “You know, West Virginia is doing fantastically well,” Trump told Reuters in an interview this week about the state, which gained 1,345 coal jobs last year, according to the data. “It’s great coal.” But the industry also lost jobs in other Appalachian states like Ohio, Kentucky, and Maryland; the western Powder River Basin states Montana and Wyoming; as well as in several other states like Indiana, New Mexico, and Texas. Texas lost the largest number, at 455, and Ohio was a close second, losing 414, according to the data. Pennsylvania, which gained 96 jobs in 2017, is also expected to go negative soon after Dana Mining announced this month it would close a mine employing about 400 people. Overall, the number of U.S. coal jobs is still lingering near historic lows at less than one-third the level in the mid-1980s, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, as the industry loses market share to cheaper natural gas. The bright spots in the industry in 2017 came amid a big surge in demand for shipments from overseas, said Luke Popovich, a spokesman for the National Mining Association. “We have seen production rise this past year by more than six percent and exports rise five-fold over the previous year,” he told Reuters. ”Honest people can differ over how much credit the president deserves for this revival and how much credit belongs to market forces,“ he added. ”To those of us closest to the coal industry, there is little question that the administration’s regulatory reset … has made a decisive difference.”...