The government has acknowledged that climate change is impacting Malta in the form of longer, harsher land and sea heatwaves and diminishing rainfall.
Local experts have warned that Malta’s climate is moving towards desertification. This is also confirmed by the UN Climate Change 2021 report with its predictions for the Mediterranean region. The report states unequivocally that this crisis has been caused entirely by people.
More discussion is needed about ecosystem protection and restoration, as this would in fact mitigate the effects of climate change. The creation of more, larger and connected nature reserves and marine conservation areas should be a priority.
Global warming is one consequence of ecosystem collapse.
The interactions between the air, fresh and marine waters, soils and species, are what creates ecosystems. If these elements are clean, rich in quantity and diversity, and present over large areas, we have wellbeing for nature and people.
If they are degraded, polluted, contaminated, functionally or actually extinct, the ecosystems will not sustain our life.
There is nowhere that is not an ecosystem. The question is whether it is healthy or degraded.
Malta’s ecosystems are seriously degraded because the air is polluted, fresh and marine waters are contaminated, plant and animal populations are mostly functionally extinct, our soils are dependent on artificial fertilisers having lost their natural fertility, and crops are sprayed with toxic pesticides.
When we speak of sustainable and circular supply-consumption-waste cycles, this can only be in the context of not overshooting the islands’ carrying capacities or ecological boundaries.
If Malta is to survive as a nation, we must change our societal norms and the way we conduct business.
Policymakers have a duty to inform and educate citizens. People should be encouraged to move to more frugal purchasing habits and to avoid waste.
The political class should speak the truth about the existential predicament that Maltese society is facing, caused entirely by greed and an economic model based on indiscriminate growth.
Malta’s ‘anything goes’ economy should go into gradual managed de-growth towards a direction of balance with the natural world.
Policy changes and sensible fiscal measures would achieve this. This means that maintaining healthy ecosystems would become central to all personal, commercial and public decision making.
Building permits on ODZ land should be stopped, excepting ones necessary for ecological or agricultural purposes.
What is left of Malta’s land-based biodiversity is found on ODZ land. As ODZ land would no longer be an item of financial speculation, its cost would become far more affordable for farming. This would enhance the country’s food security.
Our aquifers should be recharged with fresh water produced by additional desalination plants.
In the midst of a biodiversity mass extinction situation, all hunting and trapping should be stopped.
The government should, by 2030, have moved the population to diets that are more plant-based.
Malta is a closed system. What enters our borders has nowhere else to go.
There is a balance to be achieved bet-ween importation and waste levels that can be realistically managed. Incineration emits greenhouse gases and exacerbates global warming. It is not an option for waste management.
The carrying capacity for tourists, population, vehicles (albeit electric) and yachts should be established and not exceeded. There is a huge demand for quality, cultural and nature-based tourism.
Malta’s MEPs should lobby at European Union level for greater protection of fish populations in the Mediterranean and not celebrate increases in fishing quotas.
It would be foolish to think that we can negotiate with nature.