President George Vella yesterday joined the chorus of voices calling on the authorities to protect our natural environment, which is shrinking at an alarming pace.

Speaking at an event organised by the Environment and Resources Authority, President Vella warned that if we do not take care of the natural environment, soon our children and their children will be the ones suffering the consequences of our actions. The environment is not an infinite resource, he said.

He also expressed concern at the fact that agricultural land is being bought by families to serve as recreational land, adding that one must see what the reasons and implications are.

We are sure that one of the reasons why this is happening is the fact that many Maltese families are desperate for green open spaces where their children can play. Those who can buy their own little slice of heaven are doing so before their opportunity flies away.

But one must keep in mind that this is only an option for those who can afford it, and agricultural land does not come cheap nowadays. Even if it did, there is not enough of it for everyone.

Buying agricultural land should not and cannot be the solution to our lack of green open spaces. Such measures only benefit a few families. They change nothing for the rest of the population.

Malta is mostly built up and we have to use the few open spaces that we have wisely.

We cannot continue gifting our last remaining public spaces to dodgy local and foreign companies for development.

We cannot turn all our bays into yacht marinas, and we cannot sacrifice places like Comino to the tourism sector.

We cannot close off entire areas like Mizieb and Ahrax during the hunting season, giving exclusivity over these sites to a select group of people.

We cannot continue accept situations where supposed nature trails end up in somebody’s ‘privately owned’ bird trapping spot.

We cannot keep turning a blind eye to individuals who suddenly decide to close off parts of valleys and other public spaces and declare them as their own private property.

We must not continue eating up agricultural land to make space for Ian Borg’s road-widening projects.

We should not have policies that allow the construction of sprawling villas on ODZ land on the premise that the area was inhabited at some point.

We cannot keep blaming the policies while doing nothing to change them for the better.

And we cannot continue to promise to give the people green open spaces and deliver ‘gardens’ made of cement and metal instead.

In an interview published today, chief PN spokesman Peter Agius declares that the government’s idea of open spaces is “concrete, asphalt and steel,” and he is right.

Just look at the new ‘park’ that is under development in Ta’ Qali.

Just look at the lack of trees is most of the greening projects that have been announced.

The unfortunate truth is that, despite all the pledges by all the parties, the environment always comes out as the loser.

The PN has come up with an interesting proposal to protect ODZ land, but the government was quick to shoot it down, coming up with all sorts of excuses, such as that Parliament would be taking over the role of the ‘independent’ Planning Authority.

Then again, the same PN has said it would not go back on the 2006 rationalisation exercise, which is regarded as one of the biggest environmental tragedies in the past two decades.

The fact is that the construction lobby is just too strong. If we ever needed any proof of this, we saw it just a few days ago.

Finance Minister Clyde Caruana said last week that the country cannot remain dependent on construction, that people are tired of seeing concrete and cranes. For a minute, it seemed like something would be changing. But Caruana was immediately contradicted by Prime Minister Robert Abela, who was quick to reassure developers that their bread and butter is safe.

When he spoke about making the construction sector sustainable, Abela did not speak about renovating old buildings instead of building news ones on virgin land.

No, he spoke about the scheme that helps (already rich) contractors invest in new machinery that makes less noise and dust.

Yes, this scheme is beneficial to communities because it addresses some of the main annoyances of construction, but it does nothing to preserve the little environment we have left.

What Malta needs is a strong pledge by both political parties that the environmental destruction will stop.

What we also need is a strong, united voice against the degradation of the environment.

The NGOs have spoken. The Church has spoken. The President has spoken. It’s up to each and every one of us to speak up too.