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“... Everything is still possible... but who if not all of us
can make it become true?”.
Miquel Martí i Pol
Having a deep knowledge of potentially irreversible
processes, I’ve pointed out a long time ago the great challenges humanity must
face and try to tackle with a democratic multilateralism that will prevent us
from reaching points of no return. Only then shall we be able to start a new
era where the power of reason will prevail against the power of force, and
weapons shall be replaced by words, thus allowing us to assume our unavoidable
intergenerational responsibilities.
It would be a historical and irreparable mistake not
to do everything possible so that the legacy of the Anthropocene is not a
seriously deteriorated standard of life, with totally inefficient governance
systems entrusted to plutocratic groups consisting of 6, 7, 8 or 20 countries,
under whose cover lies the worldwide hegemony that has always been pursued by
United States Republican Party.
In their address to the UN General Assembly in autumn
2018, Presidents Macron and Sánchez made it clear how urgent it is to reinforce
multilateralism.
As a scientist, I insist that it is essential to have
a deep knowledge of reality to be able to transform it deeply if needed.
Otherwise superficial and biased information and appraisals will continue to
convey to the public a distorted image of facts and, therefore, a distorted
image of the actions that must be taken.
Had it not been for Mosul and its oil, would Iraq have
been invaded on the fallacious grounds of the possession of “weapons of mass
destruction”? Why does Bengazi matters much more than Tripoli in the case of
Libya? Would there have been such an obstinate interest in attacking Iran were
it not for the fact that it owns, together with Venezuela, the best oil wells?
If Venezuela had not such fantastic oil reserves... would the big consortia
placed under the leadership of Trump have paid so much attention to this
country?
For the time being, Trump has already managed to
achieve a historical record in military expenditure. Everybody accepts
obediently and submissively the intentions of the magnate who, at the same time,
proclaims that he will not implement neither Paris Agreements on Climate Change
-whose signature was made possible thanks to the relevant role played by his
predecessor President Obama- nor the Sustainable Development Goals approved by
the UN General Assembly in December 2015 in order to “transform the
world”.
The five priorities set by United Nations to ensure a
dignified life -food, water, health, environment, education- that should be the
rationale for development aid for the poorest countries have no value for
plutocratic groups (G7, G8, G20) who were entrusted in the eighties by
President Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to take control of our
common destiny, while United Nations System was excluded from this endeavour.
The worst thing that is happening today is the
trivialization of the irreversibility of processes that can have an
irretrievable effect on the Earth’s habitability. Since UNESCO created in 1947
the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and then launched the
Geological, Hydrological, Oceanographic Plans...there has been the great
programme “Man and the Biosphere”...; and in 1942 Aurelio Peccei, founder of
the Club of Rome, warned about the “limits of growth”; and in 1979 United
States National Academy of Sciences informed that -apart from the dangerous
increase in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses emissions- what is even worse is that the oceans recapture capacity was decreasing significantly.
The general public has always received a much greater
number of false than true data, the reason being -and this is another big issue
that should be urgently tackled- that most media speak with “their master’s
voice”. They are in the payroll of the most powerful consortia that have
gradually annihilated the response capacity of a drifting civilization. This is
a consequence, as can be seen in the European Union, of money having replaced
the invulnerable values and “democratic principles” established in the UNESCO
Constitution.
Faced with the triple challenge of climate change and
the biosphere’s deterioration, extreme poverty and nuclear threat, which all
require the immediate implementation of a new concept of security and labour, a
new lifestyle, we are living purposeless and without a path to follow. Instead
of promoting the search for balanced alternatives, instead of having each day a
largest number of responsible citizens who are the actors of their own destiny
rather than mere impassive spectators of events... instead of raising our voice
through a big popular clamour, now that we can freely express ourselves... we
are easily intimidated, dazzled, and we walk aimlessly. It is clear that the
biggest problem humanity must face is not the difference but rather
indifference, not the recognition of the equal dignity of all human beings but
rather supremacism and racism.
It will be up to “We, the peoples”, as we are so
wisely referred to at the beginning of the Charter of the United Nations, to
take over. At last women will get on the stand on an equal footing...; at last
young people will become aware of their responsibility regarding the quality of
the intergenerational legacy, and will take firm action so that measures are
implemented to prevent humanity from socially collapsing and to avoid the
deterioration of the quality of life.
This popular mobilization must be led by the academic,
scientific, artistic and literary communities, that is by intellectuals who are
aware of the fact that tomorrow might be too late.
Every unique human being capable of creating, there
lies our hope: the future must be invented, by overcoming both inertia
and outdated formulas.
To be able to straighten the many crooked paths, at
this crucial time, it is indispensable to transform the global governance. In
previous papers I have summarized the proposals that have recently been made for
the refoundation of United Nations, and I have also mentioned the urgent need
for a Universal Declaration of Democracy[i]
-ethical, social, political, economic, cultural and international democracy-
capable of promoting the full exercise by all citizens of the rights they are
inherently entitled to. It is worthwhile stressing in this respect the
interesting and timely proposal known as San
Francisco Promise that was made public in 6 November 2018 and which lays
the foundations that should allow us to convert the Charter into a Constitution
of the United Nations, with all functional and structural reforms that would be
necessary.
“You will have to change direction and embark on a new
ship”, said José Luis Sampedro to the young generations. Let’s now speedily
follow his advice.
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