When an orchestra director negotiated his cachet in trees 3 Favorite 

Claudio Abbado was an Italian orchestra director (1933 - 2014) who served as chief director at La Scala Theater in Milan from 1968 - 1985. After 18 years of absence, in 2009, he was invited to conduct a concert there. He accepted upon condition that, instead of paying him a monetary honorarium, the city would commit to the planing of 90.000 trees in the city of Milan. He had in fact worked on a project with his friend Renzo Piano, renewed international architect, and together they envisioned a new future for a city committed since the 1800s to a total process of industrialization. With a working team made of different architects, eingeneers and botanists they put together a plan in action that would foresee the reintroduction of trees from the city centre to the outskirts, creating ecological corridors within kilometers of cement and cars. The city accepted, Claudio Abbado agreed on the concert. Unfortunately his health prevented him from realizing it, and ultimately the city backed off from this plan claiming that the costs were too high to sustain.

Flash forward to 2020, COVID-19 hits Milan and the whole Lombardia region harder than any other region in Italy. Part of the cause was due to the concentration of pollution in the air, favoring for the circulation of the virus. Milan today is undertaking a face-lift fully financed by the European fund for reconstruction following the pandemic. The tree-planting plan is still existent, still realizable, but the money is being devolved to the construction of new metro lines and buildings. Similarly, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we have learned that military spending may be doubled over night, by will of the government. We also know that multinationals and individuals, in the role of influencers, withhold the power to shape and model state behavior to their advantage.

The climate emergency can be tackled through innovative and effective measures that may benefit the life of citizens. What is missing is the culturally-constructed will power of governments to act upon it.

About Claudio Abbado's plan to plant 90.000 trees: https://www.corriere.it/spettacoli/08_dicembre_30/giuseppina_manin_abbad...
About COVID19 diffusion in Milan and Lombardia: https://milano.corriere.it/notizie/cronaca/23_aprile_16/poco-sole-e-aria...