People and Planet

Greta Thunberg

Natuur op de eerste plaats?

Scope:

Europa

Type:

Vraag

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Maybe politics in these times are not about 'left' or 'right' anymore.

Maybe it has become People & Planet (P&P) versus Money & Markets (M&Ms)
One might even claim there is no politics anymore, that it all has become a question of survival. The critical branch point humanity and our planet are facing now that Carl Sagan talked about in 1980, has gotten so sharp that on any level, be it individual, local, regional, continental or global, there really is only one choice left to make: either to consciously live, act and vote for People & Planet or decide to passively let global society and humanity drag along as it has gotten acostumed to over the last century, destroying nature and planet for profit or self complacency, absorbed by the dominating Money & Markets system with its associated consumption life style. To simply allow the status quo and the established powers to just continue is a decision: the easiest and most comfortable one. It is taken by either voting any of the traditional political parties or by not going to vote at all.

Europa is now directly facing this critical branch point in its coming elections. The sudden and recent global upheavel, started by Greta Thunberg, of the awareness that nature, climate and planet have to be seriously taken care of for many generations to come (as was normal amongst many nature oriented cultures before they were wiped out by colonialism) is strong, especially in Europa and especially amongst the young people. But it remains to be seen if it has enough weight to bring decisive change into the European Parliament. If this change does not happen, there will be no new opportunity until 2024.

However, if change does happen, then Europa can make a start in setting a new and sustainable course for People & Planet, and it could play a guiding role in opening a fresh track towards a liveable global society on a healhy planet for the current young generation and all generations to come.

As Carl Sagan said in 1980

It is well within our power to destroy our civilization, and perhaps our species as well. If we capitulate to superstition, or greed, or stupidity.
But we are also capable of using our compassion and our intelligence, our technology and our wealth, to make an abundant and meaningful life for every inhabitant of this planet.

A critical branch point in history - full subtitles

Our own planet is only a tiny part

of the vast cosmic tapestry,

a starry fabric,
of worlds yet untold.

Those worlds in space
are as countless

as all the grains of sand
on all the beaches of the Earth.

Each of those worlds is as real as ours.

In every one of them,
there's a succession of

incidents, events, occurrences
which influence its future

Countless worlds,
numberless moments,

an immensity of space and time.

And our small planet, at this moment,

here we face a critical branch-point in history.

What we do with our world,
right now,

will propagate down through the centuries

and powerfully affect
the destiny of our descendants.

It is well within our power
to destroy our civilization,

and perhaps our species as well.

If we capitulate to superstition,
or greed, or stupidity

we can plunge our world into a darkness,
deeper than the time between

the collapse of classical civilization
and the Italian Renaissance.

But, we are also capable of using
our compassion and our intelligence,

our technology and our wealth,

to make an abundant and meaningful life
for every inhabitant of this planet.

To enhance enormously our understanding of the Universe,

and to carry us to the stars.