 |
|
|
 Editorials | Environmental | April 2005 
To Save the Planet
 Le Monde
| Nature, or rather its destruction, has a price. And sooner or later, we will have to pay the bill.
|
Several years ago, the first people to sound the alarm over climactic warming garnered only sarcasms, or, at best, polite indifference. Today in France, a public organization, the Agency for the Environment and Energy Control (Ademe), broadcasts ads to remind the population to contribute to the fight against warming.
We must hope that a similar evolution occurs, and as quickly as possible, with regard to the preservation of natural resources (linked, by the way, to the fight against global warming): the environment is too often considered, especially in ultraliberal economic circles, as a matter for hairy nitpickers, not on the same level as economic imperatives and company "profitability."
How many more catastrophic reports like the one composed by over 1,300 international experts and published by the UN Wednesday March 30 do we need to make it understood that there is an emergency?
The expression "looting of the planet" takes on profound meaning as one reads this work, the most important ever completed on this subject. "Human activity," one reads therein, "exerts such pressure on the Earth's natural functions that the planet's ecosystems' ability to support future generations may no longer be considered certain." As usual, the poor are the first affected, in particular with respect to access to healthy water.
Wisdom would counsel taking into the widest possible account the profound changes with regard to consumption, technology, and ecosystem exploitation that the experts advise. Yet the president of the world's major power, the United States, who ought to be a major driving force, has not demonstrated any interest in this subject up to now. Hasn't George Bush just authorized oil exploration in an Alaskan natural sanctuary, in exact opposition to the report's recommendations?
In the face of an attitude that comes from the prehistory of consciousness, Europe, like the developing countries, has its share of responsibility and seems to hesitate over the attitude to adopt. Europe is, in any case, ahead of the United States, which has refused to join the Kyoto Protocol.
In France, the President of the Republic has understood the importance of the stakes. At least in principle. For Jacques Chirac is torn between his environmental awareness and the purely economic interests of his electorate. The timidity of the proposed water bill, recently adopted by the cabinet, has demonstrated this anew.
European political leaders would honor themselves by heading up this battle. In the match between Europe and the United States, here's a perfect opportunity to show themselves worthy of these historic responsibilities. For modernity today is, quite simply, understanding that we must save the planet
Bankruptcy
Patrick Sabatier - Libération
The report just submitted to the United Nations on the (piteous) state of the planet is not a product of the sometimes provocative alarmism often criticized in environmental organizations. More than a thousand of the most highly qualified experts have compiled and analyzed all the available data on the impact of human activities on the ecosystems that make life on earth possible.
Conclusion: that life can no longer continue and will not continue at the rate we are spending down the treasure of the terrestrial family.
The ever more frenetic exploitation of natural resources has permitted an improvement in the lot of a rapidly growing population, whatever the critics of progress may say. This development, however, has occurred at the expense of an accelerated degradation of most vital ecosystems. For the first time in the history of life on Earth, the permanence of that life no longer seems assured - even leaving out the hypothesis of human species self-destruction by war.
By dint of sounding the alarm and piling up reports, we risk that no one pay attention anymore, so limited is the human capacity to project into the future. We don't, however, have the luxury of ignorance any more. Unless we intend to bequeath our descendents a world that is (literally) unlivable, we must meet the challenge of sustainable development: i.e., call a halt to the destruction of the fragile ecosystems upon which we depend for our existence as a diver depends on his bottles of oxygen, even as we continue to exploit them for our growing needs.
The first step seems the hardest. We must radically change our method of calculating wealth and accept the idea that neither wealth nor development are measured by dollars per inhabitant. And accept the idea that we must integrate the price of services nature provides into our analyses. Nature, or rather its destruction, has a price. Sooner or later, we'll pay the bill. At this moment, humanity is threatened with bankruptcy. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us