No doubt you have heard and read it, but I hope you have not repeated it. 

You know the trope: why should I (or little, tiny Malta) do anything about climate change when China (and others) are doing little or nothing?

Despite the total inaccuracy of the claims about China and others, it is the underlying sentiment and perspective that is deeply troubling.  It reflects that common, if entirely self-defeating search for that ‘get out clause’ that absolves us from responsibility: ‘because they are not doing enough, we shouldn’t bother either’.

Maltese people are now fully aware of the serious degradation of their environment in the name of progress and development.  They are very specific about the core cause of that deterioration – the model of ‘development’ let loose on the country in recent decades. 

Barely a day passes without one group or another calling for a fundamental change of model.

Many are also fully aware of the responsibilities they have to not just protect and preserve their environment but also to directly challenge those who continue to rape it on a daily basis.

This implies not just challenging and opposing so-called ‘developers’ but also a government and its institutions that not only permit the rape but actively encourage it and even participate directly in it.

The international agenda on tackling climate change is no different – it is precisely the same as the agenda in Malta only on a larger and deeper scale. 

Just as we must oppose the rape of Malta, so too must we oppose the rape of our planet.

Just as we also know what needs doing here in Malta, so too do we know what needs doing planet-wise. 

For those who continue to feel we are powerless to act, a passing acquaintance with the detailed change agenda outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change here and here (page 27) offers empowerment.

As with the rape of Malta, so too with the rape of the planet – we are not in any meaningful way powerless. 

At the individual, community, regional, national, and international levels, we have the tools and the means of empowerment.  If we choose to use them.

Maltese people rightly feel passionate about their country’s future.  Many are publicly passionate about not just the ‘big’ agendas that shape that future but also about the ‘little’ agendas that are the daily building blocks of that future. 

Words and sentiments flood the public information landscape in all corners of Malta and increasingly those words are promoting civic action… with results.

We recognise that time is of the essence in addressing our own country’s needs; we also recognise the dangers of doing nothing and how difficult it will be to undo the damage in the future if we do not act now.

What is happening to Malta is neither inevitable nor irreversible – everyone (even many apologists) recognises that what has happened is the result of human agency, albeit much of it malign. 

That human agency can just as easily be applied to rectifying what has happened and to mitigate many of its most obvious and immediate damage.

Malta has the experience, the skill, and the capacity to rescue itself should it choose to do so.  The motivation for doing so is not hard to identify and harness – the future well-being of each of us, our families, extended communities, and future generations.

The parallels with the climate change challenge could not be stronger or more obvious.  We know the landscape and the contours of the climate change agenda; we know its principles and its driving forces, and we know what we have to do. 

We have the experience, the skill, and the capacity to rescue ourselves should we choose to do so.

Challenging those who continuously search for that ‘get out clause’ that absolves us of our responsibilities to Malta, and to the planet is a crucial starting point. 

Taking responsibility rather than sub-contracting it to others is paramount.

Waiting for others… the Chinese, the US, the Maltese, the government, the people next door… before acting on our own responsibilities is both dishonest and folly.