Beppe Grillo he was once a very successful television comedian. For some years now he has instead been a direct and indirect protagonist of Italian politics. Direct, because the 5 Star Movement, over time it changed to become completely ‘Party’; indirectly because except that on rare occasions he has never seen himself publicly at the Palace, as he has never presented himself on the lists to be voted on. Today Grillo returned to populate his personal blog with articles, and from there he decided to intervene with a straight leg on fossil fuels.
According to the founder of the M5S, petrol and diesel cars, together with companies that deal with fossil fuels, they should not receive any mass media advertising slots, along the lines of what happened with the cigarettes. In fact, on his blog there is space for the relaunch of an initiative that comes from some of the major environmental organizations in Europe: “20 European NGOs and associations (Greenpeace, WWF, Friends of the Earth, Transport & Environment etc) have launched a campaign to collect signatures for the EU to ban the advertising of fossil fuels and self-polluting. The initiative aims to veto the advertising and sports sponsorship of these companies, as has happened with tobacco companies. In early 2000, Europe discussed whether or not to ban tobacco advertising in the media and veto the sponsorship of sporting events by tobacco companies, and so in 2005 it came into effect throughout the European Union. Now, the same debate is about fossil fuels. Already some cities, such as Helsinki, Bristol and Amsterdam, have limited advertising for fossil fuels and related products, as well as some newspapers reject sponsorships (the best known case is that of the British Guardian)“.
Grillo therefore hopes the elimination of advertising of any company operating in the fossil fuel market, in particular in the field of extraction, refining, supply, distribution or sale of fossil fuels for air, road and river use. In short, one stop at commercials (sorry for the assonance) which in fact would put car manufacturers in a position to be able to advertise only electric cars. However, what would happen to brands that have cars of different power supplies on their list? And how would we deal with the issue of electricity, which does not always come from renewable sources? With a ‘strict’ ban, very few companies would be saved. After all, however, in the debate on the climate and the environment there are those who support drastic solutions, and this proposal would fall perfectly within this sphere.