Thursday, March 28

Tag: eco-mafia

Italy’s Oil Colony: Basilicata
Stracciatella: A Sprinkling of This & That

Italy’s Oil Colony: Basilicata

An interview with Giorgio Santoriello, author of Colonia Basilicata A regional map of Italy with Basilicata in Red. The region of Basilicata is historically one of the poorest and most rural regions of Italy. With a total population of only half-a-million people, Basilicata is known to outsiders for its vast landscapes, its picturesque villages, and its many heritage sites: The Sassi of Matera, the abandoned city of Craco, the beauty of Castelmezzano, and the Roman city of Grumentum. But behind the postcard images is the toxic reality of the oil industry in the region, which has an environmental track record that borders on the criminal. The areas most impacted by the oil extraction have seen sharp rises in the rates of cancers, yet Eni, the petroleum giant, exerts undue influen...