‘Environmental credibility’ needs more than just public gardens, you know…

Ever been in that awkward situation where someone says: “Hi, how are you?’… and you’re tempted to reply:

“We-e-ell: if you close an eye at the fact that I’ve just lost my job… my wife left me… my dog was run over by a car… the doctor accidentally amputated my testicles, instead of my tonsils… oh, and Facebook came back online today, after a 24-hour outage (AAAAAAARGH!)…

…why, fine and dandy, actually! Never felt better in all my life!”

Probably not, huh? Me neither, as it happens. But that’s only because those particular ailments or misfortunes don’t actually apply to me right now (except the one about Facebook, of course. Good things never last forever, do they?)

I’m fairly certain, however, that we’ve all been occasionally tempted to give precisely that kind of answer, on a particularly bad day. And something tells me that the Maltese environment – more than most of us - would do exactly the same, if it were possible to enquire ‘how it feels’.

In fact, I can almost hear its reply already:

“How do I feel? Oooh, let’s see now. If you overlook a few minor little details… such as, for instance:

…that an unprecedented percentage of my natural state has been obliterated by over-development in the past 20 years; and what little remains of it is either threatened by more development; or (even worse) by another government ‘embellishment project’, that will basically just destroy it anyway…

…that my atmosphere has become so heavily polluted with particulate dust from construction – and exhaust fumes from traffic congestion – that Malta now suffers from the highest levels of respiratory disease in the EU…

… that my natural water-table is being depleted (and over-salinated) by a combination of uncontrolled extraction, under-replenishment, and the general lack of anything resembling a National Water Policy (of the kind that we’re going to need pretty darn soon: what with Climate Change reports warning that Malta will be an ‘uninhabitable desert’ by 2050)…

… that over-use of plastics has contributed to an already burgeoning waste-management problem (which is only going to get a lot worse, when they start drilling all those tunnels right through my sea-bed…)

… that my wildlife has been decimated by habitat-loss, hunting, industry, and invasive species…

… oh, and that all these problems are the direct result of environmental mismanagement by successive Maltese governments: which consistently pander to the same old lobby-groups; whose policies are always riddled with the same old loopholes… and which, above all, have no real idea of how to actually administer an economy without… erm… ‘raping me’ on a daily basis…

If you close an eye at all that… why, I’m doing just great, thanks! How are you?”

Oh, Ok: I’ll admit that’s more how I would answer that question, if I were able to put words in Mr Ambjent’s mouth. And for all I know, I might even be giving the wrong examples; or exaggerating the importance of certain issues, at the expense of others… after all, I can’t exactly claim to be an ‘environmental expert’, myself.

Nonetheless: that are certainly some real experts out there, who would include a few of those things in a list of “Malta’s most urgent environmental problems today”. (In fact, I lifted most of them from reports like the EU’s Environmental Implementation Review 2019; The Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Index 2020 - which actually rated 100% of Malta’s natural ecosystems as ‘fragile’ - and even the ERA’s own State of the Environment Report 2018…)

But of course, others might answer differently. People like Finance Minister Clyde Caruana, for instance… who, in an interview with this newspaper, was asked: ‘Can you mention three measures, introduced by Budget 2022, that specifically address any of Malta’s major environmental challenges?’

His reply was so concise, that it can (almost) be reproduced here in full:

“The first is the measure to address the issue of neglected properties in Urban Conservation Areas. To be surrounded by renovated buildings, in the traditional Maltese style we are used to, is also an environmental concern. This measure will help to beautify the visual impact of our village cores….”

“Secondly, we will soon be starting the process to create the so-called ‘Buskett of the south of Malta’: which will transform the coastal area known as ‘Imnadar’ – an enormous stretch of land, from Xgħajra to Żonqor Point – into a marvellous public park…”

And the third is basically just an extension of the second: “we are seeing to it that there will be new public gardens, and green spaces, in several different localities…”

Hmm. Now: where, oh where have I heard this sort of thing before? Which other Maltese politician, before Clyde Caruana, seemed to likewise permanently confuse the State of the Environment… with the equivalent of a ‘beauty pageant’ for roundabouts and public squares?

Ah yes, of course. Eddie Fenech Adami: the prime minister whose response to any form of environmental criticism was always: “What do you mean, ‘I’m neglecting the environment’? Haven’t you even noticed all those petunias we’ve just planted on the Regional Road centre-strip…?”

But at least Eddie had an excuse, of sorts. He was born in 1934… that is to say, some 50 years before the birth of the Global Environmentalist Movement itself. Clyde Caruana, on the other hand, not only belongs to a generation that grew up acclimatised to all the real environmental issues… but he also gave us the impression that he did, in fact, understand what those ‘major challenges’ are.

As recently as September 25, he even said that: “Malta must change its economic model to deprioritise construction, and find new ways of generating growth that do not damage the environment…”

So I have to admit I was a little confused, to hear the same Finance Minister suddenly promising to dazzle us all with a ‘magnificent’ public garden at Zonqor point… and a few fiscal incentives to encourage renovation projects in Urban Conservation Areas (in other words: the areas that actually require the least environmental protection… seeing as they are already scheduled anyway…).

Naturally, all the usual disclaimers apply here, too – don’t get me wrong, I’m not against more public gardens (far from it, in fact); and yes, the UCA proposal is a splendid idea, which someone should really have come up with years ago; and so on, and so forth, and so fifth…

But… what, is that it? Are those the three measures – all of them purely cosmetic, by the way - that Clyde Caruana genuinely thinks will ‘reassure people who are concerned with the environmental situation’?

OK, tell you what. Let us overlook, for now, the fact that Clyde Caruana managed to - quite literally – ‘miss the wood for the trees’. (I’ll come to why in a sec). One other small problem is that… those measures do not even begin to address the real issues that they were actually designed to solve.

The UCA proposal, for instance. Yes, of course it would be far nicer to live in village cores which do not resemble the set of a Post-Apocalyptic zombie movie… or in fear of ending up crushed by a collapsing balcony (as nearly happened in my own neighbourhood, quite recently)…

But unless such initiatives are accompanied by measures to control over-development OUTSIDE urban centres… like in ODZ, for instance; or on agricultural land, which remains unprotected by the Local Plans…

… all it would mean is that we’d end up living in ever-more ‘beautified’ town and village cores… but surrounded by an ever-increasing, ever-more uglified, and ever-more encroaching wasteland of urban sprawl…

Needless to add, the same applies to the ‘public park’ at L-Imnawar. Sure, we’d all love to have a ‘magnificent’ woodland park to visit in the south of Malta – even if an environmental expert might question the choice of location: seeing as it is actually garigue… and would therefore require a terra-forming project of ‘Surviving Mars’ proportions, to make it suitable for afforestation; which, in turn, would only… um… destroy a massive chunk of Malta’s natural landscape anyway…

Leaving all that aside, however: I think we can all safely agree with ‘more green spaces’; but not at the expense of what little remains of our REAL countryside; and certainly not if these ‘green spaces’ are only intended for the same purpose as all those petunias on the Regional Road centre-strip.

Eye-candy, to distract us all from the more pressing issues…

Speaking of which: sorry, but… what about the need to scale down Malta’s ever-growing mountain of plastic waste? Where are all the policies to protect the water table… and to start preparing for what will no doubt be a bone-dry future? And what about air pollution… biodiversity… traffic…

To be fair, some of those issues are at least mentioned in the actual Budget document itself… there are, after all, incentives for non-polluting vehicles; for renewable energy; not to mention the ‘free transport for all’, which should – in theory, at least - reduce traffic congestion quite drastically in future…

But that the Finance Minister would highlight specifically those three (monumentally unimpressive) measures as…

… wait for it…

… “the first of many signals, that […] just as we have absolute credibility when it comes to employment, the economy, and managing the country’s finances… now, we will have a fourth credibility pillar: that of the environment.”

Oh, I don’t know about that, Clyde. Something tells me that ‘environmental credibility’ is built on slightly sterner foundations…