Our roaring Green Years

This article is published in number 15 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until April 13, 2021

What is the point of talking about sustainability when the pandemic is not over yet and we are all waiting for the vaccination program to finally come to life in Italy? To answer this question and to introduce this special Green Issue of Vanity Fair I begin by telling you about an exhibition that will open its doors at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao on May 7th. It is called The Roaring Twenties – The Roaring Twenties and investigates the fabulous decade that from 1920 to 1930 marked a planetary rebirth after the horrors of the First World War.

The exhibition is very interesting because it does not exhibit so much (or only) the jazz, fashion and parties that characterized the Roaring Twenties, an atmosphere that many continue to support will return after the end of the pandemic. Rather, the retrospective is concerned with highlighting the discoveries, innovations and revolutions of ten profoundly ambitious years, an era where the present became the future and whose achievements we all still benefit from today.

Well, in our opinion we are entering a new decade, the 1920s, which can be as profitable and design as that. Where one of the most important issues, perhaps the most important, is sustainability. So don’t think only of trees, clean rivers and green cities. A greener world has to do above all with people, with their work, with their life, with their happiness. Not only that: if the past years have been years of proclamations, of taking to the streets by the new generations, from now on it will be above all a question of acting. From Challenge to Change, from challenges to actions: this is how we called our digital event green (it will be available on the new platform vanityfairgreen.vanityfair.it) scheduled for April 15th. It is a symposium that calls the WWF to the same table together with artists, scientists, creatives, professionals to understand how to change our lives immediately, now, without waiting a moment longer.

The new, roaring Twenties need the courage, visions and stories of those who have already done their part. In the following pages we will tell you why, we are sure, from now on we will have to deal with being reborn, returning to life and above all doing it better than before. Two years ago, I was lucky enough to spend over 4 hours with Tim Cook, in the incredible Apple headquarters in Cupertino. I remember perfectly what he said to me: «In the next few years we will have to deal with two fundamental issues: sustainability and the problem of privacy, of personal data. Every effort must be made to resolve every question relating to these two great questions. Our survival is at stake ». Well, the time has come to dedicate ourselves to the first, to the green side of our lives. Without waiting a moment longer. In fact, starting right now, right now.

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