The threat of the apocalypse is real | Article

Mario Luis Fuentes

In his proposal, he believes that there are seven rights that need to be acted upon, with the financial system at the service of the citizens, not the richest, as one of the most important bases of action. Seven rights listed by Geterres: 1) the right to peace; 2) the right to development along with economic and social rights; 3) the right to a healthy, clean and sustainable environment; 4) respect for the diversity and universality of cultural rights; 5) the right to gender equality; 6) civil and political rights as the basis of inclusive societies and; 7) the rights of future generations.

The Apocalypse Clock is a countdown created by various scientists; a symbolic instrument that measures our proximity or distance from a planetary catastrophe. At this moment we are, on this clock, 90 seconds from midnight, that is, at the moment when we would become witnesses of a total world catastrophe. And this is the closest we have come to this scenario, above even the most dangerous moments of the Cold War.

The Word of the Apocalypse is inextricably linked with forms of religious or mystical thought; but in its original sense it means “revelation.” Therefore, today we can rethink it in the sense of scientific revelation, that is, the Aletheia of the Greeks, and in this logic understand that this is an inevitable warning.

Therefore, we cannot continue the “march of fools”, joyfully moving towards the abyss, believing that something at the last moment will save us and return us to some kind of lost paradise. None of this exists on the horizon, and if the economy and the dominant style of development continue along the way, the consequences will be disastrous.

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The aforementioned “hours of the apocalypse” mark time as a point of no return, so we cannot and should not wait to approach it in order to rethink how we want to live and how we will do it, for the benefit of all mankind.

The many crises we are going through, but among them, speaking of one of the most dramatic cases, namely illegal migration throughout the world, today remind us of the artificial and artificial nature of borders; it makes us see that the idea of ​​the nation-state divides and disunites people; and above all, it confronts us with the undeniable reality that, as both Bartolome de las Casas and the poet-king Nezahualcoyotl thought, humanity is one, and therefore nothing that happens to such a person can be alien or alien to us .

For the first time in human history, there is no doubt that the resources are there to keep people out of poverty; in fact, they exist to guarantee a decent life for the billions of people who inhabit the world. What prevents this is the planetary system of unfair distribution of wealth, which has led to the fact that even in the most recent crisis caused by the COVID19 pandemic, the super-rich increased their fortunes during a period of fear, disease and death of millions. people all over the world.

What is reasonable, if it is acceptable to all, in terms of the possession and enjoyment of goods? Should our life in this world really be taken as a chimera, that one day, if we discipline ourselves and work hard enough, we will all reach the pinnacle of planetary wealth? Or, conversely, can we propose a new consumer ethic that is responsible to the planet and whose standard is human dignity?

One of Geterres’ proposals is that everywhere one should stop thinking about short-term politics in order to propose scenarios and horizons for 30 and 50 years, guided by the rights of future generations. And this is desirable, but it requires enormous generosity from those involved in politics at the national and regional levels in order to break the cycles of inequality and build a new society of inclusive and universal justice.

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Thinking about the apocalypse does leave few alternatives that are, by definition, in the realm of utopias: new imaginary places that, based on the possibilities we already have, allow us to produce and develop societies with ever more powerful clean energies, and with new exit and recovery strategies. ecosystems. But this must happen thanks to what has already been said: a new rationality and ethics of consumption, cemented from a global civic culture, capable of protecting the benefits of planetary interest without giving up the rights of everyone.

The care of a common home cannot be put off. There is no more time. For the poor, there has never been, because lack is always present and always tormented here and now. For this reason, the time has come to consider planetary utopias; because in addition to beliefs and positions, the materiality of the risk is real; as many as hurricanes, storms, jungle and wildfires, daily deaths from air and water pollution; and long and so on disasters, the technical and scientific solution of which is, but their implementation requires a different policy, a different ethic; new places to reach other than the abyss or dangerous seas of catastrophe.