One Earth

Today, June 5th, is World Environment Day, a date when the United Nations asks us to pause, reflect, and raise awareness about colossal environmental problems and the necessary search for solutions proportionate to such problems.

We are living through turbulent times: pandemic, war, international problems that also require short-term solutions, but we should not neglect environmental issues, because the necessary changes require continuous and prolonged evolution over time.

We will not provide many statistics on our abusive use of the planet; suffice it to say that “to maintain the rhythm of life we have had in Spain for decades, we would need 4 planets like ours” to understand how excessive the situation is.

Globally, we are consuming more resources and producing more waste than the planet is capable of generating and absorbing.

And why aren't we collapsing?

For two fundamental reasons:

1) Because in the last 8 decades, we have been consuming resources that the planet has been generating for millions of years and that we had reserved.

2) Because there are many countries that do not exceed their ecological footprint (the extent of land they need to produce all the resources they consume and absorb all the waste they produce), thus compensating for the planetary ecological footprint.

The two sides of capitalism: while in "the inner world of capital," as Peter Sloterdijk calls the countries on the fortunate side of the coin, we are producing and consuming at full throttle, creating objects with planned obsolescence that we don't need and discarding practically new things, on the other side of the coin, there are countries that not only serve as our dumping ground, but where people live who vie for our garbage and allow us to use resources that they do not use.

That is why the motto proposed by the United Nations this year is "Only One Earth", to invite us to think collectively as a species and remember where we reside.

Two reference books if you are interested in delving deeper into our relationship with the planet:

"The Natural Contract," Michel Serres.

“The Earth existed without our ancestors, it could exist without us and in the future it could exist without our descendants. We, however, could not exist without it. By forcing ourselves to dominate it, we have made the Earth threaten to dominate us again. It is therefore necessary to change direction.”

"The Ages of Gaia". Lovelock

“When the activity of an organism benefits the environment as well as the organism itself, then it spreads and is favored, and eventually the organism and the environmental change associated with it will achieve global extent. The reverse is also true. Gaia is not intentionally anti-human, but the longer we continue to change the global environment against its preferences, the more we encourage our replacement by another, more environmentally decent species.”

What can we do?

If we realize it, the problem is more ours than anything else. After all, the Earth will continue to exist, not as we know it now, its morphology will change, but it will continue. The point is that the new conditions will not be optimal for human life.

As a civilization, we should pay attention to our condition as a species, assume the maternal character of the Earth and act accordingly, developing a life in tune with natural rhythms.

The solution involves moving towards a model of Sustainable Development; this does not imply a setback, but rather a paradigm shift that, through a circular economy, improves the quality of life for ALL, guaranteeing the proper use of natural resources and respecting the recharge capacities of ecosystems.

As individuals, it is up to each of us to attune our rhythms to those of nature and change our lifestyles to replace them with slower ones. To move towards a more conscious way of "being" and "existing," which makes us value and enjoy the everyday, what we already have. In short, to rethink what we understand by quality of life. Because a large part of the problem lies precisely there, in that we associate "quality of life" with the possibilities we have to consume compulsively (objects, images, experiences, and even people) and unnecessarily.

The possibility is within us to consume out of necessity and responsibly, opting for local, durable, and ethically produced products. And to think not only about recycling our waste, but also about the possibility of reducing it.