The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, on the occasion of World Environment Day, issued the following statement:
“The recent dramatic events that have affected our planet as a whole compel us to acknowledge the essential link that exists between the balance of nature and our survival. Our actions, our production and consumption model have led to a reduction in the ability that ecosystems have always had to adapt to changes, while continuing to perform indispensable functions, such as – for example – protect the soil, control the climate as well as pathogenic agents.
Today is dedicated to biodiversity, that is, to the richness of the living environment that surrounds us. Protecting and restoring biodiversity means promoting life and balance in its various forms, it its connections, through the variables of species and ecosystems. Rich biological diversity is a source of resilience for our societies. Jeopardizing all this means increasing the chances that environmental changes will come to us as disasters.
Losing this biological and environmental wealth also has other harmful effects, such as depleting the foundations whereupon rests a considerable part of the scientific knowledge we have of the world. However, research and scientific culture are precisely what is needed in order to recover from the difficulties we are facing today, in addition to forward-looking policies that envisage sustainable prosperity and make it readily accessible in the near future”.
