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Writer's pictureGiulio D'Ercole

152. Third Millennium Paradoxes: Coronavirus and Climate Change

Updated: Mar 24, 2020

By Giulio D'Ercole


Fridays for Future

Exactly one year ago thousands of young students marched in Rome on via dei Fori Imperiali, from the Colosseum to Piazza Venezia, protesting against the inaction of Governments to fight #ClimateChange. It was one of those amazing #FridaysforFuture under a splendid sunny Roman day.

I was there to photograph their beauty, their enthusiasm, their passion, their life!Since then, and since the beginning of #Gretathunberg's movement, very little has been done and very few actions with a tangible impact have been taken in this regard.


A tangible Impact on Climate Change

After one year a nasty, highly contagious virus has revolutionized our lives, bending nations' productivity, decimating air, road, train, and naval transport. Amazingly enough, this Coronavirus has done "more" for the #environment than any other human intervention and the outcomes at the environmental level are clearly measurable. I wonder if, cynically but realistically speaking, paradoxically, in the long term, this virus will have caused fewer deaths than pollution, desertification, hurricanes, tornados, floods, fires, and cancer all caused by the disruption of the planet weather patterns and the chemicals present in our air, food, clothes and so on.


A Lot to Understand. A Lot to Learn. A Lot to Act on What would be very sad would be not having learned anything from this emergency health and social crisis, when it will be finally gone. There is a lot to grasp, to understand, to learn from these months, and even more to act on in the ones to come. We now have a very clear idea, for example, of all those goods, items, habits we can actually give up in order to live a better and healthier life. I do hope that this killer virus will be a propeller of Life!



Fridays for Future in Rome youth marching from the Colosseum to Piazza Venezia in Rome, 2019. Photo by Giulio D’Ercole, Rome Photo Fun Tours
Fridays for Future at the Colosseum

Fridays for Future Save your Planet Girls in Rome, photographed by Giulio D'Ercole, Rome Photo Fun Tours
Fridays for Future in Rome 2019

Photo of Fridays for Future demonstration in Piazza Venezia in March 2019 by Giulio D'Ercole, Rome Photo Fun Tours
Fridays for Future at Piazza Venezia

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