Vandana Shiva: “A democratic transition is imperative to get out of fossil”

“To reduce tensions and conflicts and create a democracy of energy and earth it is imperative to democratically plan an energy transition that makes us independent from fossil fuels, even from the oil hidden in what we eat in the form of chemical agents, that oil hidden in chains of procurement imposed on the world through the globalization of multinationals ”. Indian activist, environmentalist and physicist Vandana Shiva told Adnkronos, commenting on the current situation in the energy field, also linked to international tensions. “Several conflicts, especially in the Middle East, arise from oil”, observes the president of Navdanya International. The answer to all this, for Vandana Shiva, “is to operate within the cycles of renewal of the earth, to exploit the abundance of its biodiversity and its regeneration potential to build peace with the earth and peace between nations and peoples “. Regarding the German government’s decision to block the closure of the three remaining active nuclear reactors, initially scheduled for December, Indian physics comments: “After the Fukushima disaster, Germany had decided to abandon nuclear power. Nuclear disasters are no alternative to climate catastrophe, the atomic winter is no alternative to global warming ”. “As the example of France shows us today”, explains Shiva, “atomic energy needs rivers for cooling. If we continue to use the fossil, we continue to contribute to climate change and this leads to the drying up of rivers. Without water, we cannot operate nuclear plants “. In the face of all this, it is of utmost urgency to” stop pollution and at the same time reduce the excess CO2 that has accumulated in the atmosphere “, warns the president. by Navdanya. One of the strategies to be implemented to reduce pollutants is reforestation: “Photosynthesis – explains Shiva – is nature’s technology to recycle CO2 and transform it into food and oxygen. We must increase photosynthetic biomass to mitigate climate change. , adapt to them and at the same time guarantee people the basic needs of food, water and oxygen. It is essential to intensify biodiversity and biomass in agriculture as in forests, in cities as in the countryside. “Climate change, observes Vandana Shiva, “are a consequence of the pollution of the atmosphere due to the greenhouse gases emitted by the industrial production system based on fossil fuels. Stopping pollution, really reaching zero is an ecological and ethical imperative “. Moreover,” the people who suffer the impact of climate change are not the cause, while the 1% of the world population made up of the super rich classes is responsible for 50% of air pollution. But that 1% is creating false solutions such as ‘net zero emissions’, which allow the rich to continue to pollute leaving the farmers and indigenous peoples to bear the brunt ”. For the Indian activist, the only serious way to counter the scarcity of raw materials, exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine, and to guarantee food security worldwide, is to “move from agriculture based on fossils to ecological agriculture, from monoculture to diversity, from the globalization of multinationals to democratic localization, from food insecurity to food sovereignty, from industrial and processed food that generates disease to food that nourishes the soil and humanity. “” Everyone eats, every corner of the earth provides food “, Explains Shiva.” Our health and the health of the planet stem from diversity and the ‘law of return’, both on the soil and on the local communities that produce food. For thirty years Navdanya has been promoting and practicing an ecological and well-founded agriculture biodiversity. When measured in terms of nourishment and soil health, biodiversity produces more food. Industrial monocultures produce goods that are empty from the point of view. nutritional ta. The rules of globalized trade weaken food systems and diversity. “Regarding the drought, fires, floods and the drying up of rivers that are affecting Europe and the whole world, the president of Navdanya comments:” We must observe the deep and common causes of the multiple and interconnected crises we face. To combat a trend we must first understand what moves it. “And what moves it, explains Vandana Shiva, is” an intensive model of resource and energy production initiated with industrialism based on fossil fuels, a model that externalizes energy costs. We must bring the economy back to ecology, to oikos, our home, if we want to prevent the criminal economy from destroying our home and our lives ”. “It is necessary to reduce the use of energy, water and other natural resources”, she continues the physicist, “and to commit ourselves to ecological efficiency. At Navdanya, we are developing a climate resistant agriculture model that can prevent floods and droughts through resilient seeds grown by farmers. Instead of defining the South of the world as ‘underdeveloped’ we should turn to the indigenous communities of that South to learn how to use fewer resources but at the same time enhance our well-being ”. “We are in a moment of transition in which our relationship with nature and with different cultures is redefined. On this depends the common future of all of us ”, is the warning of Vandana Shiva.