How best to stem ecocide - Mario Gerada

When we realised that COVID-19 was not just another flu, there seemed to be a window of opportunity for collective awakening. Perhaps a moment of dark hope; to look around, observe our behaviour and emotions, our values and look at how neoliberal ideologies have deformed us into their own image. If only for a moment, some of us believed this humbling experience might serve as an impetus to reconsider our relationship with the planet. To finally become conscious that we can no longer live driven by greed and beyond our planetary boundaries; that the journey towards establishing the pillars for the new normal would entail a serious discussion on matters such as ‘sustainable living’; a politically correct, but now a meaningless notion. We hoped that our commitment towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their implementation would be high on our politicians’ agenda, that Governance for Resilience would become central in political discourse. Yet we have seen no measures put forward to make our small island state truly resilient through climate adaptation. We applaud our institutions and those responsible for managing to contain the devastation which COVID-19 could have...