The announced third wave of COVID-19 is already among us and demands a new effort from citizens. It will not be the last, since the World Health Organization (WHO) has been warning for years about the arrival of pandemics like the current one, whose presence would be nothing more than a logical consequence of the serious environmental and ecological events that have developed on the planet in recent times. In the end, we are verifying that the trafficking of wild animals, deforestation or the fossil fuel industries violate the health of the human population and worsen the health and environmental crisis.
The combination of the biodiversity crisis, climate change and the presence of eventual pandemics - such as the one that is now ravaging humanity - requires us to temporarily put aside from our lives that which is not essential. Everything indicates that the future is increasingly uncertain and that we have to be prepared for successive crises. Resilience, it's called. So, to prevent and adequately face possible future pandemics, we have to fight today against climate change and against the loss of biodiversity. These two tasks are essential and require our continued effort.
During the next few weeks it is up to us to take care of ourselves and take care, protect ourselves and protect ourselves by scrupulously observing health regulations, until the vaccination process is extended. But, at the same time, we must all be pushing our country to accelerate the ecological transition of the economy, thus avoiding the serious consequences for public health and environmental sustainability that derive from greenhouse gas emissions, since they fuel global warming and climate change.
The collective push must also be aimed at reversing the loss of terrestrial and marine biodiversity, and reducing the consumption of non-renewable resources, to maintain and restore the richness of our ecosystems. We must all be committed to incorporating the guiding principles of sustainability into our daily lives, such as the consideration of planetary limits as a condition of economic progress, and the principles of precaution and non-regression in the preservation of our natural capital.
As is logical, the collective commitment must be matched by the rulers. The answer is in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan of the Spanish Economy - or Plan España Puede. This Plan will not only contribute decisively to reactivating our economy, but will also lay the foundations for the profound changes that are coming by contemplating four priority areas of action: the ecological transition, the digital transformation, gender equality and social and territorial cohesion. The penultimate effort that life on Earth asks of us will be long in time.
Fco. Manuel Fajardo Palarea, PSOE senator for Lanzarote and La Graciosa.