Be-Planet, Club of Rome, IEW, WWF,… / Commercial Engineer, Environmentalist
The translation of this testimony was generated automatically by a translation program. Thanks for your understanding.
Does ‘Homo sapiens’ actually deserve this naming, related to wisdom?
He developped art and culture, love, spirituality, quality, democracy, health/medecines, social security, (the list is long),… unfortunately not for everyone on the planet.
My general concern is that he also developped arms (of mass destruction), war, nazism, hate, injustice, addiction for quantity and possession, pollution, (the list is long as well),…
To summarize, not all of the ‘Sapiens’ are wise! And their activities should be (although Freedom remains a key value for Humans !) regulated as there is something fundamentally wrong and utopic in thinking that an unlimited growth is possible on a finite planet.
Recognizing the real risk of a genuine collapse of our civilization or even of Humanity (after the man-made extinction of so many species) if we go on with the ‘business as usual’ is therefore a prerequisite to fully understand why we have to decouple, dematerialize, decarbonize and go for biomimicry and circularity.
Awareness of phenomenal beauty and fragility of life is the other key to induce the actions leading to new common and average behaviours from all ‘Sapiens’ resulting in a much lower environmental footprint, compatible with the limits of our single Earth.
Therefore, as a retiree, ex-recycler, NGO-manager and civil servant, I prone and practice the ‘joyful soberty’, reducing as much as I can (it could be more!) my environmental and social impacts. I work for several NGO’s in their advocacy activities at Belgian or EU levels or in their support to local, bio, circular, low-carbon projects.
The so-called’ sustainable development’ adopted in 1992 in Rio should have delivered positive results by now and bent most of the exponential curves we witness for the use of mineral and organic resources, energy as well as for our detrimental emissions to soil, water and atmosphere. It is not the case at all due to a lack of real implementation by governements which are all losing grasp on ‘markets’, more globalized than ever before and no longer regulated as they should be in order to reach the agreed objectives.
Facts are known, solutions exist. The political will is momentarily missing but the existential threat from climate change, if tackled now, offers the possibility for a societal renaissance of unprecedented proportions. Each of us can contribute as an individual, or through associations by acting as a conscious customer and an enlightened citizen/voter.
Originally posted 2018-12-15 06:42:27.