Since 1992, the United Nations has tried to mediate agreements between countries in order to consolidate a global alliance to minimize the devastating effects of climate change on our planet.
In December 2009, a group of citizens organized in Faro a vigil, as part of a worldwide action coordinated by Avaaz – “The World wants a Real Deal”, to challenge the failure of the Climate Summit – Conference of the Parties (COP 15) in Copenhagen, where world leaders failed to reach a solid agreement to stop climate change. The vigil with sails and canoes took place on the dock of Faro and, as a result of this action, the glocal Faro.
Since then, a lot of water (not) has flowed under the bridges and, several Summits later (we are already going to COP 25, which took place in Madrid in 2019), the environmental problems arising from climate change have been drastically worsening. Despite this, the results of the summits continue to be frustrating and the time available to humanity to reverse the situation is increasingly short.
David Attenborough, in his recent documentary “One Life on Our Planet”, states that “the way we humans live on Earth is causing it to decline. Human beings have devastated the world”.
No glocal Faro, we fully agree with this finding. In these eleven years of action, we have been committed to fighting climate change, defending a new energy model and disseminating and using environmentally friendly practices that can promote a balanced relationship between man and ecosystems that guarantee our survival on Earth.
It is in this context that we were one of the active members of the Algarve Livre de Petróleo Platform, we developed sustainable mobility actions, we proposed the first urban biological vegetable garden that operates in the old town in Faro.
We carry out awareness-raising interventions, rehabilitation or the creation of urban green spaces, exchange markets and we have several elements associated with COOP57 in Spain, dedicated to the provision of ethical and solidary financial services.
Many of these actions are carried out in partnership with other civil society organizations, public and private entities and with local authorities.
Other interventions involve contesting political decisions that we consider to be harmful to the public interest, with their own actions or in support of other civil society organizations and initiatives.
Active citizenship has been growing in the Algarve and in the country. We have countless instruments that citizens can use to build a fairer and more sustainable world.
However, we are aware that the lack of knowledge of these instruments, bureaucracy, the lack of transparency of some public actors, the slowness and costs of citizen intervention processes in public life are obstacles that sometimes seem insurmountable to us.
Thus, it is essential that we talk to each other, share information, learn from experiences of citizen intervention that have worked, but also those that have failed, increasing our chances of success.
In short, to increase awareness of our role as citizens, relearn the value of mutual help and strengthen our ties as a community, to ensure an effective change in behavior that guarantees the future of new generations and our continuity in Planeta Azul.
We are aware that our action is a drop of water in the ocean, but the ocean is composed of drops of water and we believe that only with an increase in environmental awareness and the active contribution of each one it is possible to build a better future for everyone.
That's why we enthusiastically accepted the challenge of Sul Informação to share, in a monthly chronicle, our reflections and experiences, which can be on matters of general interest, national or local, living up to our motto of Think Global, Act Local.
Author: Alice Pisco is an agricultural technical engineer, co-founder of Glocal Faro, committed to building a better world.
glocalfaro@ Gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/glocal.faro/
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