Open letter to Environment Minister calls for action against climate emergency

This Thursday, two dozen organizations and figures sent an open letter to the Environment Minister asking for action to combat the climate emergency, warning that “it’s time for Portugal to change.”

“Every day we wake up to alarming news of a climate emergency with serious consequences for public health and safety, the environment and the economy in Portugal and around the world, sometimes caused by droughts, fires and unbearable heat, sometimes due to rising sea levels, heavy rains and severe floods. These extreme events are essentially the result of poor spatial planning practices and excessive consumption,” the letter’s signatories say.

The letter, entitled “For a new nature policy,” says it is time for Portugal to change, take more and better adaptive action and mitigate the climate emergency.

And this change, they say, must happen now, not when agriculture becomes unsustainable due to desertification, or when sea levels rise, when floods reach more urban centers, when the air becomes unbreathable, when respiratory infections increase. diseases.

“It’s time to create a new nature policy that prevents ecocides—destruction that has a huge impact on the environment, or the overexploitation of non-renewable resources. Now, before it is too late,” say the authors, concluding the letter. with the phrase “Mr. Minister, act.”

The letter, signed by names such as professors Viriato Soromenho-Marques or Maria Amelia Martins-Lusão, as well as several associations, states that September was the hottest month on record, that in October the temperature in Portugal is much higher than usual, and that efforts are being made to prevent rising temperatures. the temperature is not enough.

And they recall warnings about the problem from the UN, scientific organizations, Pope Francis or youth groups, concluding that a new policy for nature is urgently needed.

And they give numerous examples of what they consider ecocide, such as the destruction of forests and water reserves for construction, the cutting down of cork oaks and other native forests, mass construction in Comporta, Grandola or the continued expansion of intensive agriculture. in the Southwestern Natural Park of Alentejano and Costa Vicentina (greenhouses), as well as in several other examples.

The organizations say change is needed but warn that it cannot be achieved at all costs and that policy needs to focus on urgently reducing consumption rather than maintaining or expanding it.

“It is impossible to continue to support municipal licensing in sensitive areas and/or projects of “national interest” and/or policies that will only exacerbate ongoing environmental collapse and the social and environmental costs that collapse will impose on everyone for decades to come. It is criminal to allow this to happen,” they warn.