Federal public Service Health, Food Chain Safety & Environment / Biodiversity & health, biosafety
The translation of this testimony was generated automatically by a translation program. Thanks for your understanding.
Concerns:
- Interconnections between biodiversity/climate/energy/pollutions/health/economy/trade/misery/eco-non friendly behaviors: amplificative denied problems. Luckily: changing problem’s essential drivers could thus improve all: land use change (for feed, agrofuels, textile plants, furniture woods, extraction mines) is a main driver of biodiversity/ecosystem services decline, cause climate change, emergent diseases, land loss for poor peoples’ food; dominant agrifood model requires fossile fuels, unrenewable inputs, generating pollutions, climate change, reducing biodiversity, favoring quantity rather than quality food.
- Consumption and individuality vicious circles through marketing in Growth paradigm.
Private actions: - Residence: apartment (reduced ecological footprint)
- Food: vegetarian 5 times/week, vegetables from a GASAP (= inhabitants buying directly from a Belgian organic farmer), composting.
- Clothes: now mostly 2nd hand, when needed.
- Furnitures: partly recuperated from parents.
- Hygiene/confort: eco-friendly products; sparing water and lights’ use (soon green energy supplier); no heating above 18°C; no dish-wash machine; same mobile (no smart) phone, TV, 2nd-hand car since many years.
- Mobility: public transports to city center; no planes under 1500km.
- Societal investment: initiated a urban agroecological community garden; participating in project valorizing biodiversity for urban water (and climate change) management; use Ecosia platform; involved in other transition fora and environment organizations.
Avoiding: - car towards Brussel’s neighborhoods (bad public transports)…
- …..and for some holidays (freedom).
- totally far away travels (discovering diverse natures and cultures; potentially cheaper than holidays on the Belgian coast).
Organic products expensive, except bought directly from producer. Time for eco-friendly behaviors.
Societal/political changes needed: - Inter/trans-disciplinary + collaborative + « degrowth » education all along studies, and practice in life.
- Constrainingly mainstream environment protection (world, not mainly national) in all policies, in particular economy, through international agreements.
- Develop circular economy and renewable energies without environmental, social, health, North/South negative impacts.
- Financially favor ecological products/methods, not unsustainable activities/behaviors.
- Norms/quota/controls/dissuasive (including for richest) sanctions about unsustainable activities.
- Taxing plane trips highly proportionally to number/year/person.
- Improve public transports alternative to plane and car.
- Seriously consider economy models alternative to Growth.
- Really avoid interests’ conflicts in public institutions and their advisory bodies.
- Think long-term and preventive, not mainly/only short-term and curative, in political/societal decisions.
- Share financial benefits from automatization technologies with the public: same salaries with reduced work schedules, reduced unemployment, time for eco-friendly time-consuming activities.
- Change current main agrifood model towards local agroecology; reduce meat consumption.
Originally posted 2018-07-10 10:44:46.