WORLD SOCIAL SUMMIT 2008
'WSS: Giddens, climatic changes, one of today's biggest problems'

"Everybody agrees on the fact that we are experiencing global warning, but reactions are different": during the World Social Summit, sociologist Anthony Giddens poses the topic relative to the heating of the planet as main issue in the debate on fears.

In this regard, society is subdivided in three categories: skeptical people towards the risk, prophets of misfortune and scientists. "Skeptical people state that there is no danger for humanity and not to worry". According to this vision, the world "is something solid, sturdy. They see the earth as something stronger than us". Then there is the vision of the prophets of misfortune: the more the greenhouse gas remains in the atmosphere, the greater the damages will be: this is the "most frequent attitude according to the public opinion" says Giddens. This is a conventional view, "influenced by the green movement". According to this view "we are causing pain to the earth". "There is also a third group of opinion makers: the radicals". They are not "journalists, casual observers" says Giddens, but "they are scientists". According to this group, the phenomenon of global warming "is worrying and is advancing quickly". According to Giddens "a gradual path, an exponential growth will not follow, but it will occur suddenly, with dramatic consequences".

The twentieth century, reminds Giddens by quoting Eric Fromm, was defined the "age of anxiety". It was ruled by the "comparison between two super-powers" with "tangible possibility of nuclear war".

"The risk of climatic change - states Giddens - is only one of the risks produced by the end of nature" then "science and technology will transform everything". The "Characteristic of our age is the prophecy of the end, which is no longer generated by prophets, and no longer written by scientists". Nonetheless, there are three main points which are underscored: in the 21^st century, the population is healthier, "we live longer and there is a great economic development in China, Brazil and somewhere else". It is a century where scientific progress enriched society with new values, says Giddens. But we must not under-estimate the risks related to other matters. "One of the reasons for which we experience fear, is due to the fact that many people misunderstand the nature of risk". "The worse of the hypotheses is presented in the public sector as actual risk" this consequence brings the population to be much more worried than what they should be and "counter-productive measures are taken, such as those against September 11th". Giddens recalls a paradox: the reaction to the attacks at the Twin Towers was to stop flying. "The result is that we chose to travel by car and therefore many more accidents occurred" with victims that perhaps would have survived if they took the car. "The perception of risk cannot be compared to the actual risk" says Giddens.

Giddens deals with the topic concerning the increasing of fears by politics and media. "Politicians increase fear for their own advantage". Giddens says that he does not support the "prophets of misfortune, neither optimists that under-estimate all risks, including those concerning climatic change".

"During the years, I read a lot about climatic changes, and I'm a hundred per cent sure that we will experience a climatic change" says Giddens. In general, "fears are not always exaggerated, anxieties are not always groundless". According to Giddens "there is a gap between what is happening today and an abstract future" therefore fears reflect only on our daily lives. "The climate change is pushed in a corner, and is never considered a priority, while at the same time people live their lives as before". But according to Giddens "we need to make climatic change a priority, a permanent issue".

"How do we reply to risk?" asks Giddens. "Even the most conservative people talk about 2050 as a turning year, unless the trend is inverted". According to Giddens, we must abandon "the usual politics that will not make climatic change a priority".

"The climatic change does not fall in a category of the right or left" says Giddens. In his opinion, we need "a radical view, which will be the key in future politics".