President Ader warns against pollution

Budapest (MTI) – Despite all promises to the contrary mankind continued its “warfare against the Earth” last year, “a war in which no one will live to declare the winner,” President Janos Ader said in Budapest on Monday.

At a New Year reception for ambassadors accredited to Hungary, the president said that Europe and all the other continents must make peace as well as major cuts to pollution in the years to come.

“Who would have thought a year ago that weapons would be thundering again in Europe, that the victims of a downed airliner would have to be mourned, and that words like ‘aggression’ and ‘annexation’ would return to the vocabulary of contemporary Europe?” he said.

Ader said that 2014 was a year of trials and tribulations not only in politics, citing continued wildfires, air and water pollution. “As if we wanted to prove year by year that our strength exceeds our wisdom,” he added.

The president said that there are still eleven months to go until the Paris climate summit designed to address climate change and draft a new agreement replacing the Kyoto Protocol.

“We have reached the eleventh hour in preparations for the summit and resolving the amassed environmental challenges. We have reached the eleventh hour to solve the problems heralded by scientists for some decades and form an alliance and agree on joint actions for our children and grandchildren,” Ader said, adding that denials of responsibility, dirty deals and false promises were still all too common.

Apostolic Nuncio Alberto Bottari de Castello said that the three elections expressing the Hungarian people’ sovereignty in 2014 had clearly confirmed public support for the governing coalition. Hungary will continue to need a stable government to meet the challenges it faces, the nuncio said. Hungary can draw strength for performing these tasks from its Christian heritage of which it was always proud, he said.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters