Antonio Navalón
For many years now, the world has been witnessing, unperturbed, what is gradually becoming, if not the beginning of the end of its vital structure, a considerable worsening of the environmental conditions necessary for subsistence. Pollution after pollution and with a permanent denial of reality, we are getting closer to a point of no return. Time is running out, and the world is screaming to be noticed. The trees weep as the ravaging flames consume them; the rivers lament with every drop of their being that vanishes; the air sighs and wonders how long its existence will be assured; and us, what are we doing about it?
At present, no one has an apparent reason to justify the existence of the United Nations Organization. However, it is essential to review and use as a reference for where we are the speech that opened last week’s Climate Ambition Summit. In this regard, I agree that humanity has been working hard to open wide the gates of hell on Earth. As much as we are afraid to see things as they are, and as much as we are determined to look the other way, the reality is that we are striving to make our planet uninhabitable. We console ourselves with the thought that everything is due to the cycles of nature and that everything is unrelated to our actions.
We went from the Kyoto Protocol to the Paris Agreement and from Paris to infinity. We talk about renewable energies, strategies, goals, and everything we should do to slow the accelerated deterioration and climate change. The problem is that those of us witnessing this disastrous scene are also the cause of what has happened, and all because of the unjustifiable thought that it would not be our turn to suffer the consequences of so much environmental destruction. However, we were wrong. Time is running out. It is not only a matter of analyzing the evidence that proves that our destructive capacity is superior to our ability to survive, but, what is worse, that we justify ourselves with a debate of guilty ignorance and willful ignorance.
We have become so focused on becoming judges of people and criminal acts that we have forgotten to judge the continued ecocide we have perpetrated against what is our home and without which we could not live. Just to include some numbers of the magnitude and severity of the current situation, so far this century alone, seven million acres have been destroyed each year by wildfires, causing an average annual cost of $50 billion. But it is not only the damage we cause to our forests and ecosystem; some figures show that natural disasters push more than 26 million people into poverty. All this bleak global picture creates a situation in which, inevitably, we cannot continue to commit ourselves so that in 20 years – or the periods of the so-called Agenda 2030 and Agenda 2050 – we will have alternative sources of energy creation and generation that pollute less and make us live longer.
It is a joke. It’s tragic and terrible, but still a joke. We do not have time and the way the world is developing and with the permanent discussion between North and South, between the United States and the other emerging economic, political, and financial powers – such as China or, without yet giving much trouble, such as India – is leading us to a position in which we are confusing the transient with the fundamental.
Without a planet, there is no life. Without water, there is no survival. Without trees, there is no oxygen. Without oxygen, there is nothing else. Everything is a vicious circle that is closely related to each other. It is not true that if we start creating alternative formulas, they will be enough to avoid the collective destruction and damage we have caused so far. It is not true because we are already part of the collective destruction, and to prove it, it is enough to see how, flame by flame, our forests and the lungs of the Earth are vanishing and turning into ashes. But what is more astonishing is the continued and sustained negligence of those in power to act, above all, to prevent this type of disaster.
There is but one reflection that needs to be made by all leaders: what is burning is our backyard; we are the ones burning, we are gambling with the drinking water reserves, and we are the ones burning the ozone layers. However – and this is where it is necessary to pause for a moment – those who will pay the consequences will not be us but the generations that follow us.
Look at what is happening in California, where the wave of fires in 2020 alone produced a similar amount of greenhouse gases to what had been reduced in the previous 18 years. Look at the fires in Maui a few weeks ago, causing approximately one hundred deaths, and ask yourself: what’s next? In the face of the proven incapacity of those who lead us, anything can happen. It is incredible how, in a place like Maui, where there is the necessary preparation and infrastructure to prevent – through all kinds of alarms and sensors – and mitigate the damage as best as possible, a disaster of such magnitude consumes itself.
Not only have we failed to manage and create a better world, but the accumulated capital of so many years of collective irresponsibility poses a very hopeless and pessimistic future. Nevertheless, has everything been said, and there is nothing to be done? I don’t think so, although, on this occasion, we must use all our efforts to prevent the catastrophe from culminating. To begin with, we must start with our surroundings, taking care of the fires in our villages, avoiding pollution, taking care of the water, and, most of all, being aware of where we are. Then, we have to understand that ecological crime is committed by those who commit it and those who allow it.
The level of deterioration reached is so tremendous and severe that it will be challenging to avoid the prosecution, evaluation, and possible trial of the politicians and leaders who allowed the situation to reach this point. Therefore, the next time something like the Maui disaster happens, what we should question – beyond the effect of the damage caused – is who was politically responsible for allowing a catastrophe of such magnitude to happen, even though they had one of the most efficient preventive systems.
Climate deterioration has names and surnames. It has those responsible, and the time has come to stop superimposing things that are supposedly of higher priority and genuinely focus on what is essential and vital. The hourglass has marked the end of excuses, and the Earth has marked the beginning of the end. It is up to us to decide whether to close or definitively leave the gates of hell open and let its flames slowly consume us.
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