In spite of the record temperatures for October and all the hype on climate change, the silence of this week’s Budget on the subject was ear-piercing and mind-boggling.

In Malta and around the world, next to nothing is being effectively done, or even proposed, to tackle with immediacy the overwhelming life-threatening issue. It is as if it were simply a passing nightmare!

Times of Malta reported (see excerpt below) that “few initiatives were announced to try to reduce car use and help the environment” – the same ‘bla bla bla’ of many yesteryears.

Development of urban green spaces through Project Green and half-hearted schemes for PV panels and solar water heaters will never balance the damage being done to the environment through continued and unchecked urbanisation of agricultural land.

Initiatives like reservoir construction and well restoration mean nothing if no enforcement is introduced and unless heavy fines are imposed on buildings whose rainwater drain pipes are connected to the main sewage system.

Impunity is rampant not only in the building industry but, indeed, everywhere you look, to the extent that dodgy dealings have become the norm and do not shock anybody any more; unless one is a conscientious pilgrim of the Maltese countryside and notices the detail of nature’s slow demise.