As part of the 1st Sustainability Week, Eduardo Rêgo visited UCP, where he highlighted the need to restore balance to the planet.
Eduardo Rêgo, the broadcaster who has been the official (and unmistakable) voice of BBC Wildlife documentaries for over thirty years, was at the Braga campus of the Portuguese Catholic University (UCP) yesterday, where he promoted “Loving the Planet”, a global environmental awareness and activism project that promotes balance between humans and nature, fighting against damage to the planet and encouraging sustainability actions.
“In search of lost balance - A vision that dismantles the global lie we live in” was the motto of a presentation that captivated the audience from start to finish in the Isidro Alves auditorium.
Speaking to an audience made up mainly of students, Eduardo Rêgo warned that ‘it is urgent to save what remains of the planet’ and ‘combat the negligence with which we treat the planet and human life itself’. He called the students ‘rough diamonds’ and asked them to allow themselves to be “cut” and contribute to ‘restoring hope in lasting balance’.
‘Sustainability is now a “religion” with more preachers than followers,’ he pointed out. "When 8,500 children die every day from hunger and an even greater number from overeating, humanity has lost respect for itself. Sustainability does not accept such unequal dishes at the same table,‘ he said, explaining that the project he mentors ’has embraced the audacity to believe that it is possible to reverse the suicide of hope, that it is possible to reverse artificiality and refocus the virtual GPS that is leading us into the abyss."
In this context, he also warned of the consumerist frenzy that is leading the planet into the abyss: ‘We have never had so much and we have never been so unhappy.’
The ‘excessive acceleration of science and technology’ was also criticised, recalling that ‘nature has rules that it does not abandon’, not agreeing with the frenetic pace we impose on our daily lives or with our deviant behaviour.
‘We are crossing the last frontier of balance,’ a warning that becomes clear when we realise that 600 tonnes of electronic waste accumulate every year in Europe alone.
The challenge remains for this community to join this global communication platform - “Loving the Planet” - which aims to combat the countless attacks on nature and the climate committed by the human species.
The session with Eduardo Rêgo was part of the 1st Edition of Sustainability Week, an initiative by the Catholic University that aims to raise awareness among the academic community about the environmental and social challenges of our time. For a week, Católica hosted debates, workshops, and practical activities promoted by schools, research centres, associations, and student groups.
