Page 5 - DIVA_3_2023

EDITORIAL

While the General Assembly’s High-Level Segment
was going on in the United Nations Headquarters
in New York, some journalists started to wonder
why the world leaders were talking about only
the negative things happening in the world.
There was a catastrophe and an end-of-the world Once people start cleaning up, they find all kinds
attitude among many of them that dismayed of rubbish: plastic of all sorts, cigarette stubs,
many journalists and seemed to surprise them. bikes… You name it and you will probably find
Yet it is true that when you turn on the TV, listen it in the sea. Researchers have found microplastic
to the radio, or read the newspapers, bad news is particles in fish. Some have found radiation in
everywhere. drinking water, and many plants have lost much
of their nutritive value. All this has happened on
Climate change, or as a friend insists, climate our watch during the last 40 to 50 years.
disruption, catastrophes, wars, refugee crises – the
list is long and definitely expandable. It simply So, what we really need is to get together, we the
does not seem to stop. However, in the middle of people of the planet, and start cleaning up the mess
this, there are positive things happening, but we we have been so negligent in making so that Planet
do not hear about them. Professor Taalas of the Earth – or the Good Earth as the Nobel Prize
WMO said at a press conference recently that winner in literature Pearl Buck called it – will get
we are not heading towards the end of the world back on track and hopefully recuperate from some
as many may think, and, despite all the climatic of its illnesses. Only then can we hand it over to
challenges and disasters, the good news is that the future generations in better shape than today and
ozone layer has started to return to normal. So, with a hope of the survival of our species.
there is a glimmer of hope, and it only shows that
awareness and concrete actions can bear fruit. Negativity does not help, and it definitely does not
help to talk and talk when all we need is to get our
In other words, what we need is to work hand in act together and start doing something positive.
hand and not let anybody be left out. The ozone Only together we can succeed and make the world
layer recovery is an example showing that it pays leaders listen to us, “the people” – and listen to the
to take action. The planet is angry, a simple soul Good Earth.
would say, therefore extreme weather events of all
sorts are heading our way. We have polluted nature, Upon these thoughts, I wish you all a very pleasant
the water, the air, the soil – there seems to be no day!.
limit to what our generation has managed to do, Marit
often in the name of progress. For years and years
(or should we say decades and decades?), not only
has the sea been a graveyard for the thousands of
migrants dreaming about a better life, but it has
also been turned into a trash bin without limits.

w w w. d i va i n t e r n at i o n a l . c h