In these time it is easy to find yourself some enemies. This allows friends to unite and fight.
This methodology, which is very antique, has been used for different purposes such as the strengthening of nationalism, religious wars, elections or even a soccer match.
It’s the conflict and not the agreement what generates a strong sense of identity within a group.
Nonetheless, the momentary successes of this method hide a highly probable failure in the near future when it is applied to human affairs. History teaches us that group action generates the reaction of the opposition and the scenario of permanent instability emerges.
That is why in the past few years it has been thought that this method, both effective and dangerous in neighbors’ fights, deserve better purposes.
New enemies have emerged, which affect all of us and that is what happens with our environmental crisis.
The environmental collapse won’t distinguish among political parties, among nations, religions or wealth. The ship can sink with all of us inside of it, while we passionately discuss irrelevant matters.
Humanity, without distinctions, has a new enemy: environmental crisis, which will destroy us all if we keep on this path.
Humanity, without distinctions, has a new friend: nature. The economic, political and social actions have to be friends with the environmental system in order for it to be sustainable.
The United Nations gathered in 1972 and established that the 5th of June was the day of the environment in order to create conscious about these matters.
The relationship between us humans and the environment has substantially changed. Two thousand years ago, we feared the uncontrollable forces of the storms and the rivers that flooded. Since the last 200 years we’ve thought that everything is controllable and we have advanced producing an impact of such scale that we’ve modified our environment.
We have changed the climate, the atmosphere, the seas, the rivers, the forests, the glaciers, the animal species, the plants, and the cultural diversity. We pretended to have everything under control.
That is why the relationship has changed. Nature seems to be a vulnerable subject needing protection. The scientific community claims that we have arrived to the frontiers of development, putting in risk the ecosystem’s functioning.
Hence, we need to listen to the Earth’s groan and be friends with it.
That implies a deep change of human organization in order to make the social, economic and environmental systems compatible.
The economy needs to be sustainable, which doesn’t mean sacrificing development. New rentable fields are emerging. Energy, tourism, foods and waste can bring wealth and employment.
The society needs to balance individual rights with the system’s functioning and common good in a way that doesn’t destroy our habitat. For instance, if all the world’s inhabitants had access to equality and had the same level of current consumption of some countries, we would need several planet earths.
These necessary changes need extraordinary power because introducing them is very difficult.
That is why it is mandatory to unite humankind to fight against the new common enemy.
For many, this is invisible before their eyes and that is why they don’t react. For others, their personal development is priority despite everyone’s sacrifice. There are others who are reckless and ignore the risks and finally they make political and economic decisions without any consideration about the consequences.
The new enemies are those who, due to their blindness, irresponsibility, recklessness, are leading the world towards an imminent crisis.
It is noticeable that the youngsters are those who have more consciousness about this idea. In all countries, we see a generation that reacts against climate change, who asks for change, who shouts and protests and manifests against this new enemy: the lack of responsibility.
We need to help them and help us.