No-one can deny that 2016 has been a catastrophic year: with natural disasters, climate change, floods, drought and fires, not to mention those brutal terrorist attacks and the hordes of refugees making their way towards Europe in search of a better life, only to end up losing their lives and drowning at sea. We can only ask ourselves how the world has not succumbed to panic. All of these ominous events have driven us towards an unprecedented environmental crisis. We are consuming so many resources and producing so much waste that we have reached a critical point.
No-one can deny that 2016 has been a catastrophic year: with natural disasters, climate change, floods, drought and fires, not to mention those brutal terrorist attacks and the hordes of refugees making their way towards Europe in search of a better life, only to end up losing their lives and drowning at sea. We can only ask ourselves how the world has not succumbed to panic. All of these ominous events have driven us towards an unprecedented environmental crisis. We are consuming so many resources and producing so much waste that we have reached a critical point. We are all aware that our growth model is horribly obsolete. Everyone dreams of a world that is more nature-friendly, with trees and plants dotting the urban landscape and all of us realise that the environment has to be protected. Nevertheless, we are deluding ourselves if we think that we can feed our population without the use of irrigation. Even though new approaches are being explored, including vertical farms in the cities, becoming vegetarian, feeding on locust and grasshoppers, scorpions, earthworms… and who knows what else.
However, adopting a development model that is more sustainable and planet-friendly is now an obligation for us all. The COP21 conference on climate change bears witness to this fact and we can only hope that each one of the parties complies with its commitments and that Planet Earth will be saved from destruction.
