27 January 2025 – How did you get involved with The Club of Rome?
I knew about The Club of Rome for a long time. But I became very interested in the organisation in the mid 2000s when I started to be quite concerned about the environmental situation – mostly about what I saw in my country and the Amazon and the way it was being devastated and still is. I made enquiries as to whether there was a national chapter for The Club of Rome in Argentina and when I found out it didn’t exist, I started investigating the way to set one up. I am very grateful Ricardo Diez-Hochleitner who gave me the authorisation to set up the Argentine Chapter of the Club of Romein 2006. Since then, it has been very active and we never gave up, no matter the challenges, no matter the difficulties.
What activities does The Argentine Chapter of the Club of Rome engage in?
We have multiple areas we are focusing on and in a very pragmatic way.
We are providing access to water to rural and native communities in the northwest of Argentina. It is a very beautiful but desertic region. We have covered 24 communities so far and we are continuing with more. Since 2010, we have been part of collaborative programmes planting native trees all across Argentina. It’s been successful, and working with children and schools, corporate organisations and general society we have planted more than 600,000 trees already.
We have two ecological centers which we safeguard. One is in the Paranaense jungle in the northeastern province of Misiones. We try to preserve the fauna and flora there, as well as to regenerate it, because it has been devastated. The other one is a center of rescue of fauna in the south, in Patagonia, with penguins and whales, guanacos, flamingos and all kinds of birds. They are typical of the region and at serious risk due to pollution.
Education is incredibly important, so we also run post-degree courses, seminars and classes, for example, at the prestigious Austral University (Universidad Austral).
What do you see as the biggest challenge to humanity tackling climate collectively?
A great challenge to overcome is the greed of human beings. Greed leads to denying what is uncomfortable. We see politicians actively denying climate change. Some people are even against The Club of Rome, for example, because of the greed of concentrated economic powers and political personalities.
Another great challenge and very difficult to eradicate is corruption. This applies even to some media that are connected to economic concentrated powers and political interests. So, they disseminate climate change denial to society. In Argentina, it was recently said that climate change does not exist and that it is proclaimed by private institutions that hide selfish interests. We have to struggle against greed and corruption at all levels.
In what ways can The Club of Rome help drive a cultural shift?
The Club of Rome is already driving a cultural shift, but I think it must increase its reach to wider society and intensify its presence in several areas. This could include education and cultural areas to disseminate the work of scientists and researchers and make it accessible to non-scientists. Scientists must focus on their research and studies, therefore we can support them by disseminating their work to society. But we must do this wisely, because people are too busy struggling with sustenance and unemployment to be also available for a language that is so distant from their daily concerns. I believe that we could use art and philosophy as vehicles to reach more people. It would also help to make The Club of Rome’s presence and messages more visible.
What does a sustainable society look like to you?
There are some societies in existence already which are sustainable, but absolutely not on a global scale. I think a sustainable society is one in which there is a balance between what is material and what is spiritual. We should recover the spiritual dimension because it is a fundamental part of human beings. And there are so many paths to knowledge in that dimension. A sustainable society is one in which ethics is observed in every human activity. We are currently neglecting ethics because we have naturalised corruption and greed. As the German philosopher Martin Heidegger said, there is a balance that should be observed between utilitarian thinking and significant thinking, the thinking that goes deep into meaningful topics of existence, of life, of human beings, of the mystery and wonder of existence.
A sustainable society takes care of its rivers, oceans, lands, all its material resources, but also of its diverse human communities with their necessities. There is no sustainability in a society that succeeds in mitigating climate change, for example, but is indifferent to children’s starvation or to the growth of poverty. That is not sustainability for me. I think that a sustainable society is that in which life in all its manifestations is cared for and preserved, and in which justice, peace and happiness of the majority of the population, are fundamental variables of the GDP.
What would you like to achieve as co-president of The Club of Rome?
My aim is first to continue and enhance the remarkable work and legacy of Mamphela Ramphele and Sandrine Dixson-Declève, and to listen to the ideas of all of our members.
I am convinced that human beings are the key factor of all our difficulties and will be the cause of either collapse or renaissance. Therefore human beings are the main focus for me. The Club of Rome should be engaged in environmental and humanistic matters. When Aurelio Peccei founded the organisation in 1968, his goal was to take a systemic approach to the problématique of the world. There are elements and issues that cannot be neglected because they are paths to knowledge and human development. I want us to work together on developing a new humanism. A new humanism that will consider a sustainable way of living attained by science, technology and humanities. That was Peccei’s main wish and idea. Maybe this is our time to achieve it.
