The debate about the installation of macro-farms has a very interesting background and is much more transcendental than the tiresome electoral wars.
Except for the deranged denialists, impervious to knowledge and scientific evidence, the reality of collapse is imposed in all areas in which the existence of humanity develops. The action of humanity, the activities of the people who inhabit this world, is seriously affecting the natural balance of the planet. In the last century, the production model and what has been erroneously defined as economic development has ignored the physical limits of the earth. The economic system of the first world has focused solely and exclusively on the uncontrolled development of capitalism, on consumption, energy expenditure and the misnamed welfare society.
Economic policies, lacking any type of control, have promoted "development" on the basis of consumption, spending and waste of raw materials. Once the resources of the "developed" continents were exhausted, the water contaminated, the air toxified, the land abused and the minerals extracted to exhaustion, the machinery of the capitalist economy turned to plunder the raw materials of the "undeveloped" continents.
Currently, Europe would suffer an immediate collapse if the borders of Africa, the Middle East and Asia were closed with the same walls and blades with which we prevent the passage of people. The pandemic has shown that Spain no longer produces anything more than bars and beach bars and that Europe is not prepared to supply the most basic needs of society (food, health or technology) without submitting to the Asian market.
While the planet's resources have been massively extracted to live more comfortably, enjoy leisure, show off luxuries and build theme parks to find happiness, the counterweight of social inequality has spread like an oil slick in our cities. The society of luxury and leisure has too many people who aspire to receive a salary for their work. The middle classes have lost their stability and economic security, job insecurity has been established in youth, child poverty exceeds all records, food banks are overflowing at the same rate as the raw materials market is depleted and wealth is concentrated in 1% of the population.
The liquidity of large companies has been massively invested in personal assets, diverted to tax havens or wasted in living here and now, so that a large part of the country's business fabric has not withstood the consecutive crises that we have been suffering since 2007. The country closes down or is sold in pieces, first the land, then the means of production, now the tourist industry.
Banks distribute profits among their shareholders while receiving billions of public funds for their bailout. The tax system does not promote the equitable distribution of profits and burdens. Public services suffer from severe malnutrition and public debt mortgages generations whose parents have not even been born or will be born in 2022. The same tourism industry survives thanks to tax incentives, subsidies and public promotion.
A country that produces nothing, does not value work, speculates with its wealth, devalues its institutions and promotes ignorance is a breeding ground for political-business corruption to take root in the system, cast sick branches of depression, loneliness, exclusion, incomprehension, division, polarization, and it is a matter of time before that system bears fruit in the form of racism, aporophobia, xenophobia, homophobia and, finally, deposits its frustration in the hands of radical groups of extreme fascism.
While we "grew unlimitedly" we inevitably contributed to our extinction. That uncontrolled development of an economic system based on the abuse of resources ended with a large part of our habitat, generated the sixth extinction of species on the planet, destroyed biodiversity, broke the balance turning a deaf ear to the voices that predicted a planetary crisis of environmental dimensions that would bring with it socioeconomic, health crises, and a climate change that would make this world a place incompatible with human life. Living to have, we forgot that life is unsustainable without clean air to breathe, clean water to drink and a land where to produce healthy food.
Lanzarote is the perfect laboratory for this crazy race to disaster: the Island imports more than 452,000 tons of hydrocarbons per year. Less than nine percent of the energy comes from renewable sources, more than 56 percent of the desalinated water is not billed - with the energy cost that this entails - and 94 percent of what is eaten comes from abroad. Of the almost 120,000 tons of garbage that are generated, only 12 percent is recycled; the rest is buried in Zonzamas.
It is true that the denialists of life will question the greatest and, as Hoollywod says in "Don't look up", many will believe that technology will save us at the last moment, or that this is very hard to assimilate and those who preach it are nothing more than doom-mongers with a lot of drama in their veins but I assure you that analyzing reality with criteria, applying reasoning and knowledge and acting in the personal sphere of each one, contributing a grain of sand, anxiety is mitigated, doubts are cleared and insecurity and uncertainty becomes stimulus and security.
Only the change of the economic system, of the relationship with nature and of the transformation of the development model can help to be more with less, to include instead of excluding, to live instead of surviving. Betting on a new paradigm is not a utopia, the utopia is to continue betting on this economic model based on the bubble of excess.
Macro-farms are an example of that polluting, extractive and unhealthy industry. In the hands of large investment funds they generate poverty and destruction of employment. Extensive, ecological agricultural exploitations, integrated in the community, generate quality food, stable employment and contribute to the preservation of biodiversity in the space where they are located.
The position of the political parties that govern us and must adopt the decisions on the economic policy of this country are the ones that can change the course of things. Betting on a production of wealth that protects the environment, stable work and local commerce is betting on life. We need to face the paradigm shift.
Look at them well, listen to what they say, analyze the position they adopt with full critical capacity because not wanting to see, not wanting to read, not wanting to know, not wanting to demand makes us governed by pigs with two legs who militate in macro-farms thirsty for money to finance electoral campaigns. The fear that paralyzes us feeds the cynic who maintains the discourse of the defense of life with his left hand but with his right hand he gets the bag. Not wanting to know allows the hoax to become an electoral program.
Postscript: For Leticia, Carmen and Lala, who taught me the importance of assertiveness with a humor and generosity that is priceless.
