Just days after University rector Alfred Vella gave this country an unqualified ‘Fail’ mark in the delicate subject of sustainable living we learnt that Malta’s progress in attaining its United Nations Sustainable Development Goal targets deteriorated, losing eight places in ranking.
A few weeks ago, another top academic made very damning remarks when speaking about awareness of Malta’s historic and artistic patrimony.
We all know what is wrong but we still keep doing it.
“Clearly, the quality of life of… citizens is affected negatively by the fact that it is almost impossible to take a break from the built environment while you remain on the islands,” Prof. Vella said at the opening of the academic year.
How many times before has this warning been made? Yet, very little meaningful action, if any, is taken. The country has now reached the point when, even if it was a given that the Planning Board would give the thumbs up to a mammoth development, a member on holiday abroad is flown in on a private jet to play safe, because the Planning Authority says it wanted to make sure all members were present for the public meeting.
Prof. Vella spoke of the “general credentials, as a country, in sustainable development”. And they cannot be any worse. Malta, he noted, has the poorest record of the EU28 in waste recycling. It has the lowest renewable electricity generation within the EU and is among the most water-scarce countries in the world.
Then he draws a conclusion, a devastating one: “I am unsure as to which of these grave environmental challenges is the most serious for us today; or if these are each less serious than the general apathy that seems to grip our collective mind to prevent us from taking seriously our commitment towards environmental sustainability.”
The rector wisely highlights a flawed argument many, including politicians, often make: “We live in a society that, wittingly or not, preaches the value of consumption and thrift is often associated with poor and sub-standard existence.”
The more we build and the more new things we buy, rather than reduce, reuse, recycle and recover, the better our lifestyle. That is, of course, unsustainable but we continue doing it at our own peril or, rather, at the peril of future generations. Sustainable development is defined as that which meets present needs without compromising those of future generations.
The head of the Department of Legal History and Methodology at the University’s Faculty of Laws, Raymond Mangion, was no less scathing in his remarks when he referred to “our treasures and masterpieces, both in stone and on paper”.
Speaking on Victory Day, Prof. Mangion noted that villages, with the parish church at their heart, “are risking disappearance”, apartment blocks “have choked our belfries and windmills and hidden their domes and towers” and esplanades, panoramas and idyllic sceneries were “extremely raped”.
“We are looking on speculation and blocks as more prestigious than our archaeological sites, aesthetics and symmetry. We have entered the catacombs of ignorance and the lack of appreciation,” Prof. Mangion warned.
These two eminent members of the academic world spoke clearly. They did not mind standing up to be counted. Others have too, though not all.
But money makes the world go round and many still prefer to continue making hay while the sun shines.
This is a Times of Malta print editorial