For decades, humanity told itself a reassuring story: that technical progress and international cooperation These measures would be sufficient to repair environmental damage and guarantee sustainable development for future generations. But the reality we face today is different, much more uncomfortable and urgent. The data is clear and increasingly difficult to ignore.
Scientists warn that we have already exceeding a large part of the limits that keep the planet stableClimate change, biodiversity loss, disruption of natural cycles, chemical pollution, and unsustainable freshwater use are not future threats. It's happening now.
Almost ten years after the launch of the Sustainable Development GoalsThe world is not progressing at the expected pace. According to the United Nations, only 15% of the goals are on track to be met, while nearly half are stagnating or even regressing. Poverty is on the rise again, inequality is deepening, and environmental degradation is accelerating.
On the climate front, the data is even more compelling. The year 2024 was The warmest since records beganThe average temperature has exceeded 1,5°C compared to the pre-industrial era. We are heading towards scenarios of profound climate instability, with increasingly frequent and intense extreme phenomena.
And yet, international agreements—from biodiversity pacts to climate summits—still fail to achieve the expected results. Not for lack of knowledge, technology, or economic alternatives. As What is lacking is political will, a comprehensive vision, and the ability to challenge entrenched interests.
Of course there is progress: more accessible renewable energy, companies incorporating environmental criteria, cities with sustainable mobility, products with eco-labels. But all this is happening at a insufficient scale and speed. Degradation continues, extreme weather events are multiplying, and ecosystems are losing their ability to regenerate.
Therefore, "Being more efficient" is no longer enoughCurrent sustainability strategies are failing to reverse the trend. What we need is a civilizational change.
And there's something almost no one wants to talk about. Something avoided in official speeches, corporate campaigns, and much of the media: We need to fundamentally change our consumption habits and our deeply ingrained idea of what it means to live well.
Today Humanity consumes resources at a rate equivalent to 1,75 Earths. If we all lived at the average consumption level of the European Union, we would need about three. This is not a metaphor: it's ecological accounting.
We consume more than we need. Much more. Not only at the level of public policy or production systems, but also on a personal level. We buy things to belong, to show off, to fill voids. We turn desires into rights and advertising into a sense of purpose. And that way of inhabiting the world has material and ecological consequences.
If we want a habitable planet for future generations, Recycling, separating waste, or using reusable bags is not enough. (although all of that matters). We need to ask ourselves other questions: What do we really need to live well? What is enough? What is essential?
It's not about giving up quality of life, but about redefine it.
Caring for the planet is not just a technical act, but an act of conscience. A cultural shift. A profound transformation in the way we understand value, well-being, and purpose.
Not to save the Earth—which will continue without us—but to to save our chance of remaining in it. We are not spectators. We can still be protagonists.
Director of Environment area of the Faculty of Engineering.
