Our greetings to Piero Angela, the most important science communicator who made viewers more aware of nature and the environment.
Better to start a few years ago at the Turin Book Fair. Among the guests was Piero Angela. During the speech he announced the preparation (now in the final stages) of a new season on Rai 1 di SuperQuark. The audience, after having queued for a long time to participate, welcomes this announcement as the biggest fans of a rock star.
A few hours later he was at another meeting, a little more contained, between the stands of the Salone. It was a shorter meeting because then he would have to take a train to Rome. The affection of his audience was manifested in an even more intimate way. There were young people and adults, men and women who grew up with his programs from the very beginning, right from the now historic seasons of Quark when the suffix was still missing. Of people happy to see their own myth in front of them.
The Year Earth Changed, David Attenborough talks about nature during the lockdown
Yup we speak of myth. In one of its many meanings, this term can refer to a character who assumes an almost legendary meaning in contemporaries and posterity.. Consequently creating an intense bond for the same. A Myth that has become such thanks to the word, to the fable understood as a tale (μῦϑος in Greek). Or, as in the case of Piero, it became one thanks to disclosure.
Before anything else he was a journalist as well as a popularizer. This is a detail that should not be underestimated, especially in a period like this in which the phenomenon of fake news it has expanded considerably. THEThe task of journalism is to report the information in an exact and objective way, so that it is clear to everyone and not misunderstood.
Behind every service and every article there is a very complex research work, which goes to probe every single nuance of a story or a topic. And try to report it not only in an exact and objective way but also in a simple way. Especially if it deals with complex issues such as science, health, politics or culture in general. On this point, one thing that cannot be said about Piero Angela is that he was superficial in his work. This attention is very well expressed in every service of his broadcasts. Because even the elusive housewife from Voghera can understand topics that can range from quantum physics to life in the African savannas.
The countless columns that have followed one another over the years have made use of numerous experts and collaborators who have followed his same popular philosophy.: from historical members of the “family” of SuperQuark how Paco Lanciano for physics, the professor Alessandro Barbero which tells the behind the scenes of the story. Or Massimo Polidoro, national secretary of CICAP, association for the control of pseudosciencesof which Piero Angela was one of the founders in 1989.
Many headings within SuperQuark they had research, health and above all the environment as their theme. The latter theme to which Piero Angela was very attached. One of his special historians was about one reconstruction ofChernobyl accident (2006). Or the transmission dedicated to The planet of the dinosaurs (1993) in which, commenting on their disappearance, he raised awareness on the possible extinction caused today by man of numerous animal species. Not to mention the BBC nature documentaries with which, for twenty-nine years, he had opened his program.
All this presented with a polite, smiling and fatherly style helped to make his fortune in terms of audience share and love. An almost parental love that has exploded in recent days, starting from the announcement of the death (which took place in the night between 12 and 13 August) given by his son Alberto on social media. And that, days later, it continues to exist. Not only among those who knew him with the first dissemination programs starting from 1971 (Target man) or 1981 at the arrival of Quark. But also the young people of today, in their twenties and thirties who have had it as a regular appointment every summer. It is to those who are studying or want to learn that Piero Angela has always turned his thoughtswhich he expressed on several occasions.
Among his many quotes that have circulated, only one is the one that has left a profound mark: “Dear all, I think I have done my part. Try to make yours too“. Words that leave with eyes gushing with tears because we all, unquestionably, wonder what our place in the world is, and what action can make this possible.
Penguins trapped in a ravine: BBC documentary filmmakers intervene and save them
It is no coincidence that these are his last words, reported in the newspapers and transcribed by his children as he calmly and consciously headed towards the end of his adventure. A phrase that is also the ultimate meaning of his work: disclosure was not just a job for him, but a vocation. All the broadcasts of him, all the documentaries presented had a specific purpose: to show the wonders of this world, in every sector, so that they crystallize in everyone’s mind like a capsule that slowly achieves its therapeutic effect.
All these documentaries and services ended with a recommendation. What you see you must keep and not only in your heart but also concretely. Doing our part means this: to preserve, to protect not only so that it can make us better people. But also because not doing so would cause an imminent global disaster in the environment. We are small and fragile creatures in a tiny and insignificant ball in the Universe. Making this ball a better place is a must, not a choice.
David Attenborough on Netflix with ‘Pushing the Limits: The Science of Our Planet’
Only by seeing and understanding can we have the right tools to follow this path. To have love and respect for any form of life.
Piero Angela made three generations more aware. We can only be grateful to him for this. Thanks Piero.
Piero Angela – Story of a conscious disclosurelast edit: 2022-08-21T07: 37: 42 + 02: 00 from