Does the Isis or PM10 kill more people? The level of the debate that has developed on the media around the issue of particulate matter is surreal. It is true that the environment, climate change, the relationship between human activity and nature, are the ideal issues to awaken many ghosts hidden in the unconscious: the place of indestructible beliefs, a priori theses, apocalyptic predictions. But what is unleashing is a linguistic and information Babel infested with swindlers and troublemakers who exploit the situation to show off or to defend their own interests. The seat of honor in the special list of eco-charlatans goes to Beppe Grillo, who maintains that those who govern us «walk carelessly on the corpses of 68,000 Italians they weren’ t able to protect»: indeed, if the M5S was ruling, particulate matter would vanish and the sirens would enchant sailors again. The second place goes to Codacons, that asks «mayors from across Italy to ban cigarette smoking in their territories when the limits for PM10 in the air are exceeded». Carlo Rienzi and companions, obviously, are still at the age of Mussolini. Legambiente instead demands to move 400 million euros a year from road transport to rail (but don’ t tell it to the NoTav). There is even someone who proposes a collective dance to invoke rain. But the Minister of Environment Gian Luca Galletti has the solution: «We allocate 35 million euros to tackle the pollution emergency». Is he convinced that he can solve the problem with five euros for each Italian (assuming that he finds them)? The fact remains that the PM10 level in cities like Milan and Turin is currently on average between 40 and 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air, but in the early ’70s it was around 150, more than three times (but there were no EU limits, so no one cared about it). The improvement is mainly due to lower industrialization and the fact that the current cars pollute ten times less than those circulating in the seventies. Certainly not to the temporary block of traffic. For PM25, even smaller particles, the 2015 average in Milan is 30 pg/m3. But in Beijing is 300. Yet not even the almost all-powerful Chinese Communist Party can help it. What about proposing Beppe Grillo to them as a consultant? © Riproduzione riservata Traduzione di Silvia De Prisco.

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