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Circa 80 Comuni di sette Regioni del Nord Italia con l’aggiunta della città di Napoli (unica eccezione nel sud) hanno deciso di bloccare il traffico per domenica 28 febbraio. Una misura necessaria per abbassare il livello di smog nell’atmosfera, ormai al di fuori di tutti i limiti nelle città del nord. Il mondo politico, e non solo, si interroga sull’efficienza di questa misura, mentre i cittadini ricorrono alla class action contro lo smog.

Whales are a symbol of world environmentalism. They were brought to near extinction by the indiscriminate hunting of 1800 and 1900, banned in 1986 with a moratorium respected by almost every country in the world, except Iceland, Norway and Japan. The latter country in particular has often been criticized by environmentalists because it is the world's largest market for whale meat.

The battle between State and Regions is going on. After Puglia, Basilicata and Campania had approved a number of regional laws that prevent the construction of nuclear plants on their territories, (because they wanted to prevent any decision of Berlusconi government about this), the minister Scajola announced today that the executive will appeal to the Constitutional Court the three laws.

I cacciatori sono certamente una piccola minoranza del paese, circa 750.000 persone, la metà di vent'anni fa. La maggior parte di loro inoltre va a caccia soltanto saltuariamente, e non sente nemmeno la necessità di un allungamento della stagione venatoria. Nel governo di Berlusconi però, incredibilmente, i cacciatori sono maggioranza assoluta e decidono di votare una legge che permette in pratica di cacciare tutto l'anno.

A few days before Christmas break, the government gave the official green light to nuclear power plants and gave a positive opinion to the identification of sites that will host the eight planned nuclear reactors. Our politicians have agreed to return using an energy source that Italy had refused back in 1987 when, through a referendum, the people said "that's enough".

Sometimes there are some good news: 2010 will mark the end, in Italy, for the plastic bags. The ban was introduced with the 2007 Budget law of Prodi government and it should have come into force just 5 days ago. A legislative decree last July, however, has moved the deadline at the end of next year. So we still have 360 days to give up plastic bags.

Men for millennia have hurt other men for the most absurd reasons: to conquer a territory, for ethnic or religious hatred. But only in the twentieth century men have started to develop weapons capable of bringing destruction on a massive scale: airplanes, poison gas, machine guns, bombs, tanks. Then came the atomic bombs and men realized they had the capacity to destroy the planet itself.

Ultimately, was drawn a non-binding agreement at the eleventh hour, after days of bickering and inconclusive discussions  and police repression against the demonstrators asking politicians to do something. But it's a deal virtually useless, made only to save face after a night of long negotiations, and avoiding to close with a failure the Copenhagen summit on climate change.

Italy is poised on the precipice because of a premier attacking the constitution, who leads a government that does not listen to the legitimate requests of students and workers. If our country is in serious danger, the whole world is in an even worse danger , for the global warming that the climate conference being held in Copenhagen should alleviate. But until now results are lacking, and divisions increase.

The problem of the Copenhagen summit on global warming is that rich countries and poor countries want different things, mutually incompatible, and both groups want something that is incompatible with the future of Earth. Rich countries want to continue to pollute a bit longer and then stop very gradually, and do not want to pay the price of the pollution they have produced so far. Developing countries want to start to pollute and not having to pay for it.