One of my
subjects in environmental studies is “Environmental
Law”. I know, it sounds boring, but in reality it’s fascinating. It’s a
good way to learn how the world works at political level, both national and
international. Unfortunately until now I haven’t seen much good, and it’s all
quite sad.
It’s a fact
that we’re in an economic crisis, so governments are focusing on spending less and
less money, meaning that all the things that have to do with the environment looses
importance, and barely any money is invested in environmental projects.
Besides,
most of the international treaties and protocols are not law-binding; they are
merely recommendations. Thus many things concerning the environment a lot of
countries agreed on in the past are now being ignored. Examples are the
following;
The Convention on Biological Diversity is a
treaty from 1992 signed by 153 countries, with the following goals; conservation
of biological diversity; sustainable use of its components; and fair and
equitable sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources. It was about
stopping biodiversity loss by the year 2010. All very well, but in all those
years no country has actually taken solid measures to stop biodiversity loss,
and now, in 2012, it continues increasing so rapidly that scientists call this
a new mass-extinction period.
Another example
is the Earth Summit 2002. It came 10
years after the first Earth summit in Rio, but its results were very disappointing;
most of the compromises consisted in a very limited way to simply “support”
international organizations who worked on sustainable development. The lack of
financial investments has made it impossible to reach the goal once set to
reduce to half by 2015 the amount of people who live on less than 1 dollar a
day, who are starving and who have no access to drinkable water or sanitary
services.
This is all
very sad. Surely, I don’t like the lack of initiatives to reduce biodiversity
loss, but the lack of initiatives to help combat poverty is truly a big
mistake. And there is an enormous lack of initiatives in every
single aspect of sustainable development.
So, I really
believe that governments are wrong in not investing in sustainable development.
Their goal is; getting back to the economically thriving system that once
worked well before the economic crisis. But
this is madness; you can’t try to go
back to one system and once you’ve invested billions
of dollars in it then you try to create a new system (that of sustainable
development). This is the right moment
to really focus on creating a global, sustainable system.
THIS is why
I want to work at the United Nations; exactly for this reason; to prevent lack
of initiatives, lack of interest, fear of
changing a system that is rotten anyway. I want to see a change in the
world, for better. Not for me, but all those who come after me. We are so selfish,
only thinking about short term solutions
that just put us deeper and deeper in trouble, instead of thinking what is right for all living beings and the Earth,
and in terms of many, many generations.
We need
change. To hold onto old beliefs and systems is to avoid growth and wisdom. We
should not fear change, not if it means a better future for all.
This is
what I believe, dear people. Thank you for reading, and if you are interested in some of the famous
treaties and conventions;
