{"id":3421,"date":"2023-12-12T11:34:07","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T10:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agora-humanite.org\/?p=3421"},"modified":"2023-12-28T14:09:33","modified_gmt":"2023-12-28T13:09:33","slug":"lettre-ouverte-au-secretaire-general-de-lonu-la-vie-de-la-planete-en-question-une-proposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agora-humanite.org\/en\/lettre-ouverte-au-secretaire-general-de-lonu-la-vie-de-la-planete-en-question-une-proposition\/","title":{"rendered":"The life of the planet in question.  A proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Secretary General,<\/p>\n<p>whatever the global issues and problems under consideration, a dramatic fact emerges: humanity is not capable of giving concrete, immediate and common answers. The institutionalized powers of the current system are unable to do so because the system is structurally in crisis.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The two fundamental questions for the future of life<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We want to call your attention and intervention to two key tenets of the current dominant worldview: the private, for-profit patenting of living organisms and artificial intelligence, and the financialization of nature and the global public commons. The power of the global capitalist market economy is increasingly based on these two principles. Their role in the planetary regulation of life is fundamental and crucial, which explains their absence from questions and debates\u00a0 (see COP28 results) on how to manage and emerge from the current crises. For the strong powers, these are two axioms that cannot be discussed.<\/p>\n<p>Legalizing\u00a0 private intellectual property in living organisms in 1980 meant reducing knowledge \u2013 the spirit of human creativity \u2013 to a commodity, a matter for rapacious merchants and owners. It has transferred control over life to the masters of data, reducing knowledge to raw material for economic activities. This is one of the greatest historical mistakes made by the leaders of humanity.<\/p>\n<p>Likewise, theorizing that nature is a set of \u201cnatural capitals\u201d, the \u201cnatural capital\u201d of the planet, has reduced nature to a particular category of the market economy, capital. But this is not the only possible form of economy, nor, in our opinion, the best. Nature has always been seen as the existential framework of life. Today it is essentially seen as an asset of great strategic value to the dominant global economy. It is a theft of life and the human species.<\/p>\n<p>The experience of the last 50 years shows that unless these two principles are abandoned or seriously repositioned, the protection and promotion of universal fundamental human and social rights and the rights of peoples will be less and less guaranteed. Consequently, the elimination of the factors that generate impoverishment in the world will no longer be an objective of our societies!<\/p>\n<p>There will not even be true sustainable development, as demonstrated by the current regression of CO\u00b2 emission reduction targets, the increase in investment in fossil fuels, the failure to ban plastic bottles, the lax regulation of highly toxic chemicals, in particular pesticides\u2026 The EU\u2019s ten-year extension of the authorization of glyphosate is an example of this.<\/p>\n<p>The financialization of nature reached its most advanced formulation to date, at the United Nations COP15-Biodiversity (Montreal, December 2022). The international community approved the proposals put forward in January 2021 in the \u201cNatural Capital Protocol\u201d by the Natural Capital Coalition (more than 450 world-class private companies!) and known as s 30+30+30. That is: the attribution to the Natural Capitals Corporations (created by the New York Stock Exchange in October 2021) of the management of 30% of the planet\u2019s natural world, including 30% of the most degraded elements, for their protection and restoration by the year 2030 (the year in which the UN Agenda 2015-2030 will end).<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Secretary General, you will understand our concern, increased by the fact that the UN chief economist is openly one of the promoters of the financialization of nature, citing the same arguments as the authors of the Natural Capital Protocol.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Our proposal.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>For a cooperative and mutualistic regeneration of life\u00a0 based on Water, Food and Health<\/strong>, \u201c<strong>The WFH Planet\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Faced with the system\u2019s inability to provide answers to crises, humanity can be reborn only by applying values and principles opposite to those that are leading the world to ruin.<\/p>\n<p>The inspiring principles of \u201cThe WFH Planet\u201d: cooperativism and mutualism away from the predatory capitalist system.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cconstitutional\u201d values and principles of cooperation and mutualization were capable of regenerating the 19th century world and promoting the 20th century welfare society at national level , particularly in its Scandinavian version.<\/p>\n<p>Today the planetary horizon obliges\u00a0 the mankind\u00a0 to foresee a regeneration of cooperativism and mutualism. We must strongly go beyond the pragmatic\u00a0 approach of multilateralism. We must be guided by vision and passion.\u00a0 From\u00a0 socioeconomic forms parallel to the dominant market economy at the national level, corporativism and mutualism must become , on a planetary scale, the intrinsic expression of social life. Cooperation and mutualization must become the spirit that inspires the processes of building Earth\u2019s global community of life.<\/p>\n<p>Three priority areas for regeneration: water, food and health.<\/p>\n<p>Initially, the operational implementation of regeneration processes will be based on three key areas for life and justice: water, food and health, hence the project\u00a0 \u201cThe WFH Planet\u201d. Their development will have a strong impact on the rest of society.<\/p>\n<p>The objective is to address the implementation of universal rights to water, food and health in\u00a0<em>an integrated\u00a0<\/em>(essential) way, especially in terms of principles and means of action;\u00a0<em>rooted in<\/em>\u00a0the territories of basic communities and local authorities;\u00a0<em>and based on solidarity<\/em>, that is, on the sharing of responsibilities between communities, territories and institutions. The implementation of universal rights has been reduced to an outcome of (to be considered) higher goals in the mind of the dominants such as economic growth, economic and financial efficiency, the achievement of technological innovation, absolute entrepreneurial freedom and market liberalization. Only the regeneration of the three vital dimensions of Water, Food and Health will be able to free life on Earth from the devastating effects of current predation.<\/p>\n<p>Tools and resources\u00a0 for the WFH Planet<\/p>\n<p>This will happen by creating, at a local level, a\u00a0<em>new generation of cooperative and mutual enterprises,<\/em>\u00a0supported by local\u00a0<em>networks of public savings banks and collective credit.<\/em>\u00a0Experience shows that when a territory is able to guarantee water, food and health to all its members as a right, the most important part of the life journey is completed. In this way,\u00a0<em>collective security<\/em>\u00a0of existence will be achieved, thanks also to a\u00a0<em>shared capacity for social, financial and technological resilience<\/em>, and\u00a0<em>effective participatory democracy<\/em>\u00a0will be achieved.<\/p>\n<p><em>Regeneration cannot be achieved<\/em>\u00a0in the current framework of global markets and finance. We must work towards a political and institutional system based on the development and primacy of a\u00a0<em>global public financial system<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Today finance is in the hands of unelected private individuals. Elected public authorities no longer even have the power to create money.\u00a0<em>We must create a new global public financial institutional framework\u00a0<\/em>consistent with the objectives of \u201cThe WFH Plandet, i.e. the Global Deposit and Delivery Fund and the Planetary Fund for the guarantee of common goods and services essential to life, under the supervision of a World Council for the security of universal rights.<\/p>\n<p>We know that the UN recently approved the proposal to declare 2025 the International Year of Cooperatives. .<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Secretary General<\/p>\n<p><strong>Would it be possible to support the creation of an independent global working group that would delve deeper into the issues addressed here and present a proposal by the end of 2024 on the relevance and feasibility of\u00a0 The WFH Planet\u201d project?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary General, for your kind attention.<\/p>\n<p>In the hope\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Signatures (members and friends of the Agora des Habitants de la Terre)<\/p>\n<p>First signatories<\/p>\n<p><strong>Argentina.<\/strong>\u00a0An\u00edbal Ignacio Faccendini, Interdisciplinary Water Centre, National University of Rosario UNR.\u00a0 Daniel El\u00edas, Professor UNR. Flavio Faccendini, Water and Environment Diploma, UNR.\u00a0<strong>Belgium<\/strong>Pierre Galand, former Senator, President of the North-South Forum.\u00a0 Christine Pagnoulle, Professor Emeritus, University of Li\u00e8ge. ATTAC Brussels 2. ATTAC Li\u00e8ge. Catherine Schlitz, President of Pr\u00e9sence et Action Culturelles d\u2019Angleur. Kim Le Quang, Rise for the Climate. Marl\u00e8ne Wiame, Rise for the Climate. Pietro Pizzuti, actor and writer. Bernard Tirtiaux, sculptor and writer. Maria Palatine, harpist, singer. Alain Adriaens, activist for sobriety.\u00a0 Fabrice Delvaux, Kr\u00e9ativa. Jean-Claude Polet, professor emeritus, UCL. Anne Rondelet, pensioner. Riccardo Petrella, Professor Emeritus, UCL. Vincent De Cat, entrepreneur. Paola Pizzuti, Professor of Education. Anne Molitor, citizen. Fran\u00e7oise Deville, citizen. Anne Sylvain, actress. A\u00efka Mittler, writer, translator. \u00c9ric Brucher, writer, teacher. Lisa Cogniaux, artist. Susann Heenen-Wolff, prof. dr. phil. Marie-Paule Kumps, actress and writer. Soumaya Hallak, soprano. Bernard Cogniaux, professor. Olivier Bastin, architect, president of the Federation of Belgian Architects\u2019 Associations. Sylvie Lausberg, writer and historian. \u00c9ric De Staerck, director of the Th\u00e9\u00e2tre des Riches Claires. Victor Lefevre, actor and director. \u00c9ric D\u2019Agostino, director, musician. Roda Fawaz, actor, author. Karine Watelet, technician, audiovisual.\u00a0<strong>Brazil<\/strong>. MarcosP. Arruda, Moema Viezzer, writer, feminist. Armando De Negri, doctor, Latin American Health Organisation. Marcelo Barros, theologian, Benedictine monk.\u00a0<strong>Canada-Qu\u00e9bec<\/strong>. Martine Chatelain, educator. H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Tremblay. Narrator for l\u2019Humanit\u00e9. Pierre Jasmin, pianist, Secretary General of \u201cArtistes pour la Paix\u201d. Jean-Yves Proulx, committed citizen.\u00a0<strong>Chile.<\/strong>\u00a0Luis Infanti De la Mora, Bishop of Ays\u00e9n. Nicol\u00e1s Labajos, educator, Ays\u00e9n. Justice and Peace Commission, Ays\u00e9n de la Patagonia. Carlos Andrade Oporto, evangelical pastor, Coyhaique. Adriana Fern\u00e1ndez, educator.\u00a0<strong>Egypt.<\/strong>\u00a0 Hoda Houssein, writer, environmental activist. Mamdouh Habashi, architect, founder of the KIfaya Movement (Enough). Anwar Moghith, teacher and philosopher.\u00a0<strong>France.<\/strong>\u00a0Melissa Gingreau, la Boisseli\u00e8re, spokesperson for \u201cMega-Bassines non merci\u201d. Philip Veniel, sociologist. Laury Gingreau, la Boisseli\u00e8re. Jean-Pierre Wauquier, President, H\u00b20 sans fronti\u00e8res. Alassane Ba, Director, European Humanist Centre for Pharmaceutical Professions.\u00a0 Jean-Claude Oliva, Director of the EAU Ile-de-France Coordination, President of the public water authority Est Ensemble. Yovan Gilles, theatre artist, \u201cLes p\u00e9riph\u00e9riques vous parlent\u201d and Universit\u00e9 du Bien Commun de Paris. Cristina Bertelli, \u201cLes p\u00e9riph\u00e9riques vous parlent\u201d and Universit\u00e9 du Bien Commun. Annie Flexer, documentary filmmaker, linguist, UBC, Patrick Viveret, philosopher, founder of \u201cLes rencontres en Humanit\u00e9\u201d. Corinne Ducrey, President of the Chemin faisant Festival, Jordan.\u00a0 Abla Abou Elbeh, former MP. Iraq. Hazem Mohamad Shoker, writer. Ibrahim Doulaymi, journalist specialising in environmental issues.\u00a0<strong>Italy.<\/strong>\u00a0Roberto Savio, world-renowned communication expert, president of Other News\u2026 Paola Libanti, Monastery of the Common Good, Verona. Luca Cecchi, commercial agent, retired, water activist. Marinella Nasoni, former trade unionist. Sergio and Clara Castioni, booksellers. Antonino Russo, civil servant.\u00a0 Domenico Rizzuti, former trade unionist researcher, Italian-Tunisian Forum.\u00a0 Consiglia Salvio, teacher, water activist.\u00a0 Francesco Comina, writer, teacher. Roberto Musacchio, former MEP, Transform Italia. Roberto Morea, European Committee of Transform Europe. Elena Mazzoni, left-wing political activist. Patrizia Sentinelli, former Minister of International Cooperation, founder of Altramente. Guido Barbera, President of CIPSI-ETS. Roberto Colombo, former mayor and former president of a public water company in Lombardy. Maurizio Montalto, lawyer, President of the \u201cBlue Movement\u201d. Loretta Moramarco, lawyer, water activist. Michele Loporcaro, organic farmer. Christian Troger, trade unionist. Anton Auer, environmentalist, retired. Gina Abbate, Pax Christi. Mario Agostinelli, physicist, president of \u201cLaudato sii\u201d, Emilio Molinari and Oreste Magni, also members of \u201cLaudato sii\u201d. Daniela Padoan, writer and essayist. Paolo Ferrero, former Minister of Labour, essayist. Paolo Ferrari, councillor, peace activist. Paolo Rizzi, environmental activist, poet and singer. Carmelo Corso, teacher. Alfio Foti, President of L\u2019Altra Storia, Pina Ancona, pensioner. Giuseppe Ungherese, head of Greenpeace, Florence. Giovanni Battista Novello Paglianti, pensioner, Cristina Stevanoni, pensioner. Silvana Risi, citizen and member of CLC. Bruno Risi, citizen and member of the Murolo Association of Naples. Maria Bertone, pensioner, CLC Italy member, Virginia Maroni, Anna Righetti, Claudia Marcolungo, Federico Russo, Mariella Marchezan, Diego Todeschini.\u00a0<strong>Lebanon.<\/strong>\u00a0Lilia Ghanem, anthropologist, editor-in-chief of \u201cThe Ecologist\u201d in Arabic. Saad Mehio, journalist, President of the Regional Dialogue Club. Ezzedine Kassem, journalist and editor. Houssine Kobeissy, journalist and translator. Joud Haidar, poet and doctor. Ahlam Baydoun, teacher and jurist.\u00a0<strong>Libya.<\/strong>\u00a0Abdallah Maatouk, columnist. Abdel Kader Ghouka, former ambassador and writer. Palestine. Anwar Abu Eisheh, former minister, writer. Sahar Quasmeh, Member of Parliament.\u00a0 Youssef Salman, President of an association.\u00a0<strong>Portugal.<\/strong>\u00a0Joao Cara\u00e7a, former Director of the Science Department of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation..\u00a0<strong>Syria.<\/strong>\u00a0Wagih Hamoud, engineer and activist.<strong>\u00a0Tunisia.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 Manubia Bengthahem, Lecturer and feminist activist. Rafic Boujdariah, Doctor and activist. Samir Besan\u00e7on, philosopher, doctor and environmental activist. Samira Ghedish, teacher and community activist<\/p>\n<p><em>This text is an open letter to the UN\u200c\u200c\u200c\u200c Secretary General by Agora of the Inhabitants of the Earth \u2013 a global civic organization, which promotes the idea of establishing humanity as a subject of international relations.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>An interview with Riccardo Petrella \u2013 one of the founders of the\u200c\u200c Agora of the Inhabitants of the Earth, can be read\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/friendshipbridge.eu\/2017\/09\/27\/riccardo-petrella-interview-en\/\">here<\/a><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Secretary General, whatever the global issues and problems under consideration, a dramatic fact emerges: humanity is not capable of giving concrete, immediate and common answers. The institutionalized powers of the current system are unable to do so because the system is structurally in crisis. The two fundamental questions for the future of life We [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3422,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,61,69],"tags":[],"chapitres":[],"structures":[],"class_list":["post-3421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biodiversite","category-eau","category-paix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agora-humanite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3421"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agora-humanite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agora-humanite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agora-humanite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agora-humanite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3421"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/agora-humanite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3435,"href":"https:\/\/agora-humanite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3421\/revisions\/3435"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agora-humanite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agora-humanite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agora-humanite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agora-humanite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3421"},{"taxonomy":"chapitres","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agora-humanite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chapitres?post=3421"},{"taxonomy":"structures","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agora-humanite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/structures?post=3421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}