There is a great interest in aligning the long term interest of Basilicata and the interest of oil companies under the most strict control and risk management. The long term interest of Basilicata has to prevail.
If we all succeed in pumping the oil out, respecting the land, its beauty, its waterflows, and the life of the families who have been the custodians of this land for centuries, we will have accomplished the mission of our lifetime.
We would have given a visible shape to the abstract concept of "sustainability" as a showcase for the world to take note of.
The region Basilicata is as beautiful as fragile. We are at a crossroad: we may go towards a brilliant future which reconciles the technology we possess with the deepest aspirations of our soul, or towards a drama of devastation, which we already see developing under our own eyes.
It took more than one hundred years for building all the water dams, and canals, and waterpipelines. This water is the lymph of the region.
The oil companies must make it a visible priority that the purity of this water is their greatest concern. Nothing less would suffice.
They need to be those who come to plant trees, under which young people will sit, not as those who come to merciless cut the trees down. They need to be those who tend with us to a garden, and invite others to do the same.
1. I propose that the oil companies support the intention of helping to plant trees in Basilicata, if land is made available to this purpose. There are 131 municipalities in Basilicata. We can launch a programme to plant 100000 trees in each municipality in a short time: 13 million trees in 13 months.
2. I propose to build a diffused environmental monitoring infrastructure, based on blockchain, so that the data cannot be tampered with.
3. I propose to build a sea water desalinisation plant, to provide sufficient water for the reforestation programme and industrial use.
4. I propose a new governance structure for collecting oil royalties in an investment fund.
We can compare different solutions based on:
costs for installation;
cost for maintenance;
environmental footprint at the installation site(s) and for production of the plant components;
environmental impact of the substitution of consumables (solar cells, fuel cells, etc...)
Very important: an environmental friendly solution in Basilicata shall not turn in a pollution dumping somewhere else inside or outside Italy.
Another option is to use fuel cells fed with the same gas exctracted in Val d'Agri. There is an Italian inventor in Milan who designs such fuel cells. They produce no emissions. It would just be silly not to try.
Just an example: https://www.elementalwatermakers.com/solution-gravity/
The desalinisation plant needs energy: photovoltaics may be an option if a 24h cycle is not strictly needed.