|
|
CONSTITUTION OF THE PLANET
Ethics and the ecological Imprint
"The ecological imprint is a statistic
index used for measuring human demands on nature. It correlates
human consumption of natural resources with the ability of the Earth
to regenerate them."
This is one of the many definitions that you can find in
encyclopaedias, dictionaries or on the Internet.
In a few words we can represent the Planet Earth as a distributor of
human requirements (under any form of energy) and man as the user of
these.
But the distributor can work (as a mere simplification) for an
indefinite period only if its ability to satisfy human requirements
is not altered (decreased). Now the ability to satisfy these
requirements is not constant but it is modified by a series of
variables of an environmental nature and by others of a periodic
nature (seasonal and geologic cycles).
This is already in itself a first point to reflect upon: it leads us
to evaluate sustainability (of the planet in its ecological imprint)
not as a globalizable resource but as a territorial one.
Sustainability cannot be homologated and therefore neither can
ethical lines and politics on sustainability be homologated or
uniformed. To give an example which may seem banal (but is not) the
Kyoto protocol cannot be understood and applied by all countries in
the same manner.
Every territory has its own ability, better known as its "Carrying
Capacity" (defined by the biophysical limits of the planet, such as
the ability to carry and sustain the population and all the other
living forms which man and nature need in order to survive) and this
ability can be defined more simply as the vocationality of a
territory to sustain Development, where the term Development is an
integral part of the space-time matrix that contemplates the
subsistence of a dynamic equilibrium in which every biotic and
abiotic component remains unchanged in the long term.
In simpler terms we can say that there can be no Development or
Progress of the System (Social, Economic, Ecological, etc.) if I go
beyond the availability of the energy forms present in a determined
place. To underline that Life, through its forms (biodiversity) is
one of the most refined energy sources and therefore in the
summation of availability the various energy forms must be
attributed (as with thermodynamics) grades of quality.
Whatever the theme of Sustainability and Ecological Imprint may be,
it cannot be faced easily and cannot be entrusted to economic
interests. I refer to issues regarding a certain type of
environmentalism, which is a little suspicious, or to the sudden
redemption of some multinationals that would like "to save" the
Planet with the GMOs or with patents on DNA.
The question of Sustainability is therefore confined to a Superior
Order and belongs to the category of Constitutional Matters.
Just like the Constitutions of modern Countries have allowed these
to emanate norms which permit people to live in a civil way, so too
the Principles that should govern the future World cannot be
entrusted to anyone with a vested interest.
It is necessary that every Man understands that the territories of
our world have been rendered borderless and no longer do there exist
lands belonging to someone, but common lands which are the patrimony
of one and all.
Martin Luther King once said: "I Have a Dream" *. I also have a
dream and I would like that this dream be the dream of everyman:
fight incessantly and hard but peacefully for a Planetary
Constitution that no longer has room for personal interests but for
the interests of all.
* Speech given in Washington August 28th 1963 -
Martin Luther King: “I have a dream”
"I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a
nation in which they will not be judged by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character. I have a dream, today! "
Guido Bissanti
|
|
|