According to new research, the Mafia may be lighting the sparks that tear through Southern Italy every year. This climate crisis – of pouring gasoline on blazes of fire – impacts acres of Sicily, Puglia, Calabria and Campania, regions where four major historical Mafias have their roots. CNN reached out to Lauren Pearson, a Geography Ph.D. candidate at UC Berkeley researching the phenomenon of illegally set wildfires in Sicily, to explain the arranged connection.
The Mafia is "weaponizing" fire in the region for control and financial gain, said Pearson. It creates an emergency that has to be solved and profits for the companies that step in. There is also evidence Mafia organizations may be using fire to procure land to broker deals for solar and wind infrastructure, with the hope of tapping into clean-energy transition funds, UC Berkeley's Pearson said. The Mafia weaponizes both climate change, which is a result of these destructive fires, and the exploitation of funding intended to address it. To further weaponize their actions, the group not only imposes this disaster as a way to illegally garner new funds but also to declare ownership of the land. "There is a weaponization happening of climate change," Pearson said. Learn more and read the entire article here!