Joint Center for History and Economics Online Seminar

Giacomo Parrinello

 

Water for Growth: An Environmental History of the Po Valley, 1770-2003

In 2022, the Po River basin experienced one of the worst droughts of the modern era. Its consequences reached far out, and across the economy of the wealthy Padana plain, showing to what extent the region's prosperity depends on the volatile hydrology and climate of the twenty-first century. How is that possible? The conventional answer is geography as destiny: the natural endowment of the Po Valley, characterized by year-round hydrological abundance, made it inevitable for its economy to rely so much on water since time immemorial. My research challenges this idea. The reliance of the Po Valley economy on water is the outcome of a recent and deliberate intensification of water use and control in the name of agricultural and industrial growth. This intensification occurred despite adverse geographical and environmental conditions and entailed repeatedly pushing hydrological limits, through technology, science, capital investment, and state power. The history of this intensification can shed light on the place of water in the making of the modern Italian economy and, more broadly, on the environmental history of growth beyond fossil fuels.

Giacomo Parrinello, PhD, HDR, is Associate Professor of Environmental History at the Centre for History, Sciences Po, Paris.