Climate change-induced droughts and their territorial impact, the case of the 2022-2023 event in Liguria

Related to the widespread topic of climate change it was possible to explain through the experts that today the Ligurian climate is warmer, consequently, there is less, short, and more intense rainfall. It is not said, however, that this change is part of global warming, still controversial and that needs further study, but it could also be only part of a temporary period. Massimo Riso developed an observatory on global warming on his website. Precisely it's not still today clear if the local climate of Liguria is suffering from global effects; however, the temperature worldwide is having unexpected ups and downs in the last year and not exclusively due to global warming according to his studies. Even if the topic is political, further studies are necessary to understand better the real phenomena. However, in Liguria surely regional periods of intense and prolonged rainfall occurred around the 1970s when the temperatures were much colder, and it was common to observe rainfall peaks above 80-100mm per day. From the graphs it is then possible to see the current negative trend for two years; however, there have been positive changes for considerable rainfalls from 2005 to today found thanks to the average of all the stations considered, even if for 2023 the precipitation trend is evidently in a sharp negative decline at the regional level. The main question in the current situation is the idea connected to the role of several future water crises for this summer. We need to bear in mind that droughts have always existed and therefore the situation could stabilize as early as next year; however, today's intensive water use once did not exist and the effects were very different. The evolution of society in terms of water has led us to be more vulnerable; in addition, there’s the fact there here are huge percentages of losses for Italian aqueducts. It can therefore be concluded that it is precisely by analyzing the comparisons on precipitation that at least for our region in some areas it rains even more, but the human and natural factors mentioned here critically reduce water availability and consequently increase the impact of drought.

In this context, it’s possible to say that climate change is a real and current problem²⁸². However, this is not always presented correctly to the public opinion, not to mention the role of some climate change denialist scientists who cannot always be considered especially if they do not bring convincing scientific data. Public opinion can only express its idea on the subject if there has been a real comparison with these specific data since they already vary only considerably depending on the area of northern Italy. Moreover, it’s important to add that regarding climate change, the scientific opinion does not have a uniform idea: even if according to evident and confirmed scientific data we saw an increase of 1.2°C compared to the industrial era and therefore with an atmosphere composed of higher concentrations of CO2. The greenhouse gases therefore particularly affect the temperature capable of varying the water cycle in some areas of the globe where it already manifests itself more intensely due to the sum of various and certain climatic conditions. It is no coincidence that the "climatic eras" have already existed²⁸³, i.e., periods unknown from the climatic point of view for us today. In these long periods extremely hot or extremely cold, a climate very adverse to man and not influenced by the latter, has nevertheless allowed the possibility, even without modern means, to survive. Not only these but there are also enormous differences in the climates of the very remote geological eras that involved climatic upheavals today unthinkable and dating back millions of years ago, thus reminding us that the climate must be observed, monitored, and feared and that it will always change by its very nature.




[282] Ulderica Parodi - The interview took place on 24th March 2023 in Genoa.
[283] Giorgio Temporelli, personal communication, 16th March 2023.