Everything is connected. The health of the planet is also reflected in our health.
Pope Francis, in his Apostolic Exhortation Laudate Deum, published last week, joined environmental activists in emphasising that the impact of climate change will increasingly prejudice the lives of many.
He addresses the social impact of climate change and states that this is intimately related to the dignity of human life. He quotes with approval the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops which had repeatedly emphasised that the impacts of climate change are borne by the most vulnerable. Likewise, he emphasises one of the conclusions of the Amazonia Synod which had underlined that “attacks on nature have consequences on peoples’ lives.”
Poverty and environmental degradation are inter-related. One inevitably leads to the other. This is also the underlying theme of Laudato Sí, the Pope’s eco-encyclical published eight years ago wherein he had described our common home as a suffering planet, urgently in need of being handled with care.
Plainly said, social and environmental policy are interlinked. A theme resonating Latin American liberation theology. Specifically, Leonardo Boff’s seminal work Cry of the Earth, cry of the poor comes to mind.
Leonardo Boff emphasises that the tears of the earth are reflected in the daily tribulations of the vulnerable and the poor. They are the most impacted by the reactions of the earth to the mistreatment that it is continuously being subjected to. It is the vulnerable and the poor who are bearing the brunt of droughts and floods, extreme temperatures, hurricanes and the rising sea level.
We are on the eve of another climate summit. Session 28 of the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), commonly referred to as COP 28, is due to be held in Dubai shortly.
In preparation for COP 28, a synthesis report published last week by the UNFCCC has once more drawn attention that the targets agreed to at the Paris COP 21 in 2015, eight years ago, were still off track. We are still far off from ensuring that the temperature rise is restricted to within 1.5 degree Celsius above the pre-industrial temperature.
“The world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point”, Francis emphasised. Yet we go on and on in activities contributing considerably to climate change.
A case in point is Malta’s transport policy. It is a known fact that transport is a major contributory factor to carbon emissions in the Maltese islands. Yet the state continuously encourages the use of more cars through an intensive development of the road infrastructure. This is done notwithstanding the existence of alternatives, the use of which is made substantially easier by our small size as a country. The fact that everywhere is close by is completely ignored in Malta’s transport policy.
Electrification of vehicular traffic will result in some improvement. It is however not enough. We need a modal shift. A shift from the use of cars to alternative means of sustainable mobility. A substantial reduction of cars on the road is essential.
Our smallness facilitates mobility through sustainable transport options. Public transport is nowadays free but its use is not sufficiently encouraged. It needs to be more efficient and reliable. Only then will it be used more. This must however be linked to an immediate decrease of cars from our roads.
Land use planning can also contribute substantially in this respect. The 15-minute city concept which I have written about earlier this year (TMIS 29 January 2023: Open spaces and the 15-minute city) is a case in point. With appropriate urban planning, which we lack, we can have access to most of our needs within walking distance. That on its own could contribute substantially to achieving the behavioural change required in our roads.
Such a behavioural change on our part could do wonders. It would be a significant local change contributing to a global impact. Reducing the impacts of climate change will contribute to the upholding of human dignity, in particular through protecting those most vulnerable, not just locally.
published in The Malta Independent on Sunday: 15 October 2023
Blog ta' Carmel Cacopardo 