A Week of Respite for the Planet
Let’s give the planet a week’s respite.
We believe that it is very important to reduce, even if it’s only a little bit, the mistreatment that our planet is suffering from us and which is leading to the current climate crisis. Therefore, the objective we propose is to give the planet a break of one week a year, stopping all activities – very similar to what happened at the beginning of the lockdown due to COVID – except those activities, that were considered essential at that time, and also excluding those that do not generate any type of contamination.
Although it sounds utopian, in some sectors something similar is already being done, for example those mentioned below, in the proposal.
We are aware that right now what we want seems like utopia, but it is also a reality that the lockdown during the COVID pandemic has taught us that no measures are impossible. Everything depends on the urgency of the danger that threatens us. And the paradox is that the planet is already in a state of alarm, although many are not aware of it or still doubting.
TODAY WE ONLY ASK FOR YOUR SIGNATURE, but an ecological attitude is a daily task that must be applied by all of us to all possible areas.
COVID 19
Proposal to submit to the United Nations
It is impossible for humans to live a healthy life on a sick planet, but the Earth is not an inert object, it is a living organism capable of healing.
In just five days, from March 14, 2020, when the lockdown due to COVID began in Spain, for example, nitrogen dioxide concentration levels in the main cities decreased by 64% on average. This means that the planet has a great capacity to recover partly from the damages that human beings are causing to it on a daily basis
That is why we ask the UN to endorse the commitment to urge and insist on all governments to legislate the respect of “the week of respite of the planet”, stopping, exclusively, all non-essential polluting activities for seven days a year in the interests of our unique, irreplaceable, and very deteriorated, collective home. Because the suicidal option of doing nothing on a general level… is neither logical, nor coherent with our global health nor with the current tragic situation of the climate crisis.
Something similar to the periods of biological rest due to temporary closures of some marine fisheries, for the recovery of the species, and to the fallow, cultivation system that consists in stopping the sowing of the land periodically so that it regenerates.
This measure is intended to benefit the ecological wellbeing of the entire planet and of all human beings. We think it would be very unfair if only some sectors of society would have economic losses because they pollute and others would not, because they are essential or not polluting. Therefore, and in order to balance this situation, we also request that in this particular week, anyone who belongs to these last two groups (essential or not polluting) and who receives economic remuneration for their work, or as an aid or pension (with minimums that would be specified in due course), collects only the minimum interprofessional wage, to compensate those workers whose economic loss exceeds said minimum wage, and allocating the rest, if any, for ecological improvements.
We are aware that this small reduction in income is an inconvenience to achieve signatures, but the reality is very threatening, even very alarming, so we must all collaborate, since we cannot achieve different results by doing the same. It’s a small renouncement to get a much greater good. Moreover, the reduction would not be the same for all but progressive, depending on the level of income.
If the minimum interprofessional wage were not in force in a country, it could be replaced by a percentage to be quantified of that week’s salary, which would be valued by expert economists of the government of each country. The definition and choice of the sectors that should stop would also be the responsibility of each government, although it would be advisable for the UN to prepare a general ecological and economic study to facilitate decisions.
The problem we have with the current situation of the planet, is that it exceeds any action that we can take at an individual level. This does not mean that all personal measures are useless, because every single action counts.
What we propose with this movement is not a solution, this is evident, but an approach to the awareness that we have to slow down our activities in order to minimise the risk of losing everything permanently. Of course, it would be extraordinarily significant if we were to succeed, with the UN in the lead, in getting most countries to give the planet a break for at least one week by now, because environmental experts say that we have reached a turning point where it is key that we work seriously on urgent solutions, not only for future generations, but even for ourselves right now.
The current model of economic growth is unsustainable for the planet, because we deplete its resources almost twice as fast as it produces them, and although the main responsibility lies with governments, we citizens also have to propose and demand solutions, because we are all concerned and living on this planet. The earth doesn’t belong to us, we’re only passing by, and we should leave it in best possible conditions.
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