Marie-Esther, déléguée ONU pour la biodiversité, était présente à la 7ème conférence ministérielle sur l’environnement et la santé durant le mois de juillet 2023. Voici son discours lors de la première session sur le lien entre la crise covid et la triple crise environnementale.
March 2020, our lives on pause. Forced to stop our activities, our schools, our jobs. At first, it seemed for many of us like a gift. A precious moment to rediscover things we no longer took the time for enjoying: music, pastry, reading, gardening, etc. We rediscovered local producers from around the corner, we learned to sew masks, and at 8 pm, we applauded our healthcare professionals. But very quickly, it became too much. We couldn’t breathe anymore, we needed social contacts, especially for the younger generation whose development is entirely based on social contacts with their peers.
Mental health problems exploded. We, as young people, were and still are lost. What is our purpose in life ? Where is the world going? What future awaits us? We are afraid for our lives and the living world. We notice that our so-called « safe regions » are no longer safe. The increasing human overuse of nature and the biodiversity collapse made us face a pandemic we would never have expected outside our books and movies.
Our leaders sort of got the point and tried to provide us with short term solutions, such as a few additional psychologists sessions, but this was only a small band-aid on a wound that is already far too deep. Indeed, they like to refer the problem back to us, to individualize it, but what we want and what we massively need are ambitious collective measures, beneficial for our health and the living world. We want access to nature, we want to restore nature, we no longer want to be exposed to hazardous chemicals and other sources of pollution, we want clean air and water, we want to stop the deliberate destruction of our planet and our health.
In contrast to the individualisation of our actions, these ambitious collective measures are the only possible way to tackle this triple planetary crisis and let young people, and other generations, breathe again.
I thank you !