Towards a Positive Natural Europe
Towards a Positive Natural Europe
From 6 to 9 June, citizens of the 27 countries of the European Union will be called to elect their representatives to the European Parliament for the next 5 years (therefore for the period 2024-2029).
Never before has bilateral voter/elected co-responsibility towards the awareness that we are all called upon to generate and certainly regenerate a European Union that is more political than economic is necessary.
A Union that suffers under the weight of great economic interests which are frequently not in sync with the rules, laws and needs of nature, of which, needless to say, we are an integral and inseparable part.
A nature in crisis, in which climate change is the tip of the iceberg of more worrying events (loss of biodiversity, desertification processes, humanitarian and sociopolitical crises) which are worsening and seriously endangering human and planetary health.
Record heat waves, droughts and forest fires are increasingly frequent with devastating human and economic consequences, further weakening the ability of governments to cope with the impacts of a global crisis and the effects of some wars, such as the one in Ukraine, on supply chains. supply and the economy.
This is why immediate action for nature and the climate is essential. This must be the moment in which we must change the situation and save our life support systems, and the various Nature Restoration Laws at European level or the modification of the articles are not enough. 9 and 41 of the Italian Constitution.
The goal must be to be nature-friendly by 2030, so that in the next decade there is more nature in the world than there is today. To achieve this goal, we must stop and reverse the loss of ecosystems and their habitats by the end of this decade.
Unfortunately, in the face of countless global (see Agenda 2030 and subsequent interrelated programs) and European initiatives (Green Deal dangerously called into question), political systems, driven by conflicting interests, falter due to the frequent lack of Nature-Based ideologies.
Those ideologies that can have neither a left nor a right but only a centrality based on the immovable and indispensable principles of ecology.
Principles based on equal rights and dignity of all living beings of any species, race, color, sex, geographic distribution, representation and minority.
Those principles strongly recalled in Pope Francis’ Laudato Sì and even better clarified in the subsequent encyclicals Fratelli Tutti and Laudate Deum. “We are faced with a human, social problem; a problem in which we are destroying the gift of God. The gift of nature.” “We need to create much greater ecological awareness.”
Yet, regardless of our position regarding faith or otherwise, we witness proclamations, programs, statements, often of a sensationally oriented populism to gain consensus and votes from the discontented and angry.
But with anger and discontent you don’t get anywhere. These are not the weapons with which we must fight the battle for a democracy shared by humanity and nature. Unfortunately, we have put many weapons into play and they are the result of these politically opportunist but losing proclamations.
Thus everything that revolves around the rights of citizens, farmers, workers and any other category of workers cannot conflict with the rights of a land free from impositions, exploitation, depletion of territorial and genetic resources.
The energy transition itself is being fought on a very dangerous front, among other things in conflict with the EU directives on the distribution, fragmentation and democracy of the management of renewable resources.
Thus the grabbing of land for mega photovoltaic or wind power plants, the race for GMOs and the continuation of an increasingly less efficient agriculture from a production and energy point of view, the questioning of the Green Deal, with the very dangerous extension of the use of plant protection products and herbicides, denote (among many absurdities) a dangerous about-face towards a point of no return, as if ecology could wait for the whims or interests of some multinational or government.
A fundamental change in environmental action is needed, going beyond the simple fight against biodiversity loss, desertification, climate change, etc., to safeguard nature globally.
Unfortunately, global economic systems do not recognize the value of nature for the health of the planet and human beings, and the main economic factors negatively affect the natural world both directly and indirectly. The degradation of terrestrial and marine ecosystems impacts the well-being of billions of people and costs around 10% of annual global gross domestic product.
Yet restoring nature offers enormous economic opportunities. For this reason, the next EU policy must be aimed at being concretely implemented through a Nature Positive Economy, i.e. an economy that works to actively improve the state of nature.
Unfortunately, as happens in the agri-food sector, many are still convinced that conventional and often monoculture agriculture, which makes extensive use of external inputs (such as fertilizers, pesticides, fuels, etc.), is the best path; There is a lot of distorted information in all this.
Research, scientific studies and concrete applications in various parts of the world demonstrate how agroecology, circular economy, and ecosystem-oriented technological systems represent true well-being for humanity and nature.
This is why we need a concrete policy that supports people towards this epochal and no longer derogatable transition.
But not a policy of imposition, which is difficult to implement and often undermines personal rights; we need a policy of support, support and transfer of knowledge towards productive and social systems highly synchronized with the needs of nature. Citizens, workers, businesses, farmers, etc. they must not receive impositions to achieve these objectives but incentives (not only economic) that promote and facilitate the same. A real transition mentorship.
Today ecosystems are close to collapse; FAO, ISPRA, IUCN data, etc. they do not allow discussions; the loss of biodiversity, desertification and rapid climate change are causing a crisis, with a domino effect, in migratory and sedentary species, habitats and survival.
Migratory birds, insects, fauna and plant species have no national borders; they belong to the planet and no national policy, much less European, can ignore the Policy of Ecology: it is a mistake that we must remedy and for which no examination of repair is permitted.
Some signs, displayed during some ecological demonstrations, said that we do not have a planet B, we can add that there is no alternative policy: the only one is the one that moves within the laws and codes of nature.
What to do concretely then. Simple and challenging at the same time. Have all European candidates (of any area and belonging) sign a commitment in this sense: dismantling an economy and finance which, in fact, is creating greater injustices, deprivation of rights, mortification of nature and loss of the future.
It is correct to ask all candidates how they intend to achieve these objectives, to understand their level of political and ethical maturity.
If anyone has a better idea, please come forward.
Guido Bissanti