DAt 2008 to 2022, 147 thousand people were displaced from one place to another in Italy following seismic events. In 2023, however, there were over 41 thousand people forced to move, temporarily and not, due to floods and landslides according to the Periodic relationship on the risk placed to the Italian population by landslides and flooding of 2023, edited by CNR.
The data of climatic migration in Italy
From the same emergencies, in the period 2018-2022, about 19 thousand people had been involved. Three more thousand, according to the international monitoring system Global Report on Internal Displacement, they had to move due to fires, The highest figure since the data is registered, 2008.
Starting from data like these the journalist Virginia della room he made his own book-investigation Migrate to the house, Published by Ambiente editions.
“The phenomenon of climatic migration is usually associated only with exotic and distant places. Instead, our country is in the heart of a “climatic hotspot” (of a region where the effects of change are more evident, editor’s note), and by now the destructive events caused by climate change force to migration »explains the room.
Among the most affected, farmers and breeders who find themselves having to put the pieces of their companies back together. As in the case ofSabbatani farm, strongly damaged by the flood who, in May 2023, hit Emilia Romagna (Region that in 16 months, between 2023 and 2024, has undergone three extreme climatic events). In San Lorenzo in Noceto, in the province of Forlì, the fury of the Rabbi river has overwhelmed the infrastructures of the company that has been raised ovary hens for over 70 years.
«We have lost 11 out of 31 farms. Half of our 120 thousand animals died drowned, three sheds were swept away by the current, The others suffered heavy damage »Enumera Filippo Sabbatani, driving the company with his father Danilo and the brothers Alice and Massimiliano.
The Sabbatani brothers in the flooded company
The investments that are missing
The sheds were affected where the chicks are raised which, once grown up, are transferred elsewhere to produce the eggs. «The production cycle has been interrupted. To start again, we were forced to reconstruct three farms from scratch to recover the first phase of the supply chain” explains.
This part of the company – which stood in the adjacency of the river – was therefore moved five kilometers away. The expense has doubled, in the face of zero compensation. Returning from intense rains, several times the Sabbatan brothers had already reported the bad management of the river banks to the Public Administration. In vain.
«To deal with agriculture and breeding we are less and less, the hills are abandoned, as well as the fields where mud and debris create landslides. For these phenomena, roads had previously disappeared and some houses had remained isolated. We were born in the midst of the nature we love and protect, we must live with climate change, but the government’s preventive intervention could contain the damage “ Chiosa Sabbatani who only in September 2024 was able to restart the company in the new headquarters, while the bureaucratic process is still lasted to access the refreshments scheduled for flooded companies.
“The Italian government, although aware of the risks, continues to spend on fossil sources, to fragment environmental policies, to ignore the alarms that come from the territories. Some regions and cities try to do it alone, draw up plans and initiatives. But without the intervention of the central government and adequate funds it is not enough »intervenes from the room.
Climate disasters force climate migration
It was also ignored the Request for intervention made by Marco Camerlengo and the other inhabitants of a building which, in Corridonia, in the province of Macerata, stands close to a escarpment, landslide in May 2023 due to the continuous torrential rains.
«For years, the Province has denied evidence. But that morning the building was declared unusable e We had to abandon our homes. Fortunately, I managed to move with my family to an old house owned by my father, in a countryside. However We had to face about 30 thousand euros of expenses to make it habitable “ Camerlengo tells that he had to upset his daily life.
In a first phase, longer movement times to go to work. Now, Making the home that stands in a fairly isolated valley more connected digitally connected, works from home as an interpreter.
«In the face of the damage suffered, not only cheap, I try to see the positive side of this transformation: Where I live now I feel less stressed, I can focus more and I lead a more sustainable life »he declares.
Climatic migration: climbing the mountains
The Italian context deeply marked by the climatic crisis is also interested in the sociologist Andrea Membrettico-author of the volume Vertical migrations. Will the mountain save us? (Donzelli Editore).
“In recent years – he says – The flat areas of our territory, with the Po Valley in the lead, are particularly affected. For this reason, “Metromontana” mobility is activated which leads some citizens to move their residence to “Alto Terre”, Less anthropized but well connected, looking for a better climatic situation ».
As happened to Chiara Vezza, from Turin by adoption, who with her husband decided to abandon the city, made unlivable by excessive cementing, to move to the mountain of Condove, in Val di Susa.
“In this natural dimension, more wild, far from urban pollution, I reunited with the environment, making it the basis of my work,” he admits. In fact, he gave birth to The rubblea farm that deals with the cultivation of medicinal aromatic plants.
Chiara Vezza – Credit Giuliano Berti
The feeling of well -being is enhanced by Positive repercussions on the children aged 9 and 14: «They have many green spaces available, they are growing with an environmental awareness unthinkable in the city. We adopt sustainable choices such as wood heating, solar panels and responsible use of water. We are surrounded by the woods that mitigates the heat in the summer and live in balance with the ecosystem »comments.
A warmth that takes away the breath
Even more drastic and motivated was the migration of Cristina Neri Damaggio, of Messina, which started from the city of the Strait to the time of the capital, looking for work as a seamstress. In both cities, The climate has made its daily life unsustainable: «Unfortunately, in recent years, even Messina, always quite ventilated, has become unlivable. In summer, peaks of 45 ° degrees are touched, made even more unbearable by humidity. I was forced to be closed in the house, with air conditioning. Unfortunately, the situation has not improved in Rome, with the aggravating circumstance of pollution, “he says.
Even to hurry commissions or even work had become a problem. «During the heat waves, I had pressure changes, dizziness and continuous migraines. I always felt tired, I was in the prey to Ecoania: I agitated as soon as I felt the arrival of an anticyclone “ tells.
Black damage She managed to regain her psychophysical well -being by moving to Oulx, in the upper Val di Susa. On the indication of a family friend, he discovered the mountain resort as a destination for the holidays, and then choose it as a permanent residence.
«In 2022, when I moved to a stable basis, I finally felt free. Here, without heat and with a more marked thermal excursionI live in a small paradise, in close contact with nature that improves my state of health. Last year my mother reached me, “he says, proudly to have found also employment as the only seamstress of the valley.
“I can work with greater concentration. This transfer does not have the flavor of a bitter medicine, it is a cure -all for my life “ highlights.
Move to adopt more sustainable behavior
There are many stories, told in Vertical migrationsof Italians who have chosen to move to the mountains, not only forced by natural disasters, but also to adopt more sustainable behavior. For example, They benefit from a source of fresh water near home, use the machine little, they make open -air sports and consume zero km products.
“Migratory movements will be increasingly preponderant -explains Andrea Membretti-also conditioned by the availability of economic and socio-cultural resources. The mountain, however, can only save us if the cities will help her find its role in a equal and ecosystem relationship with the plain, within new forms of balance ».
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