5th October 2023, Kuala Lumpur/Malaysia  -  Wishes 73 / 74 / 75

In the name of Peace and Justice.

I have three wishes today, which I present to you in the name of Peace and Justice - in the hope they may be fulfilled.

My first wish for today is about tropical forests. Tropical forests are the lungs of the earth. If tropical lungs stop breathing, no human will survive.

That's a simple truth. And yet: Year after year, huge chunks of tropical forest are being destroyed, by greedy entrepreneurs who are protected by corrupt politicians. And it's going on and on and on, despite many well-meaning international agreements that, yes, of course, this has to stop.

When will it stop? When the last tree has been cut down, and the last human takes his last breath?

I think something much more drastic has to be taken into consideration in order to stop the massacre of tropical forests. First, the exact extent (the original extent, let's say, fifty years ago) of all tropical forests worldwide has to be reconstructed and defined. Then, this total area has to be put under permanent international protection, under the control of a special UN agency. And then a specially trained UN Tropical Forest Police (we're talking about tens of thousands of policemen equipped with state-of-the-art arms, means of transport and surveillance) will have to make sure that deforestation stops one hundred percent, and efforts to restore the forest in its original expanses can be undertaken unhindered.

The costs will be immense, but the UN will find ways and means how to finance it, the corrupt political elite of the past half century and the involved criminal "entrepreneurs" will certainly have to pay the lion share, but many philanthropists the world over might be willing to contribute financially to preserve the earth's lungs, which will guarantee the survival of the human race.

And with this I'm coming to my second wish for today.

It's not just tropical forests which are being massacred. It's forests in general that have been decimated over the past few hundred years, almost everywhere in the world. Despite the great efforts that are being made in some countries to replant tree, the loss of forests continues.

This has to stop. And it has to stop NOW!

What to do? Hope for the better?

As in the case of tropical forests, greed and corruption are just too strong. How to intervene in some of the most corrupt countries in the world to stop deforestation and launch some very strong programs of afforestation?

My wish is that the proposed International Criminal Court for Nature's Rights take up the matter quickly and impose harshest fines on political leaders of such countries that fail to stop deforestation on their soil. A minimal goal of afforestation must be set for each country to reach the same percentage and quality of forest extent within their borders as, say, two hundred years ago.

The overall goal must be to reach a minimum forest extent of some fifty percent of the world's habitable land, worldwide. That's a long way to go - and it has to come true NOW!

And with this, I'm coming to my third wish for today. And this is about green cities.

More and more people live in urban areas. In Western Europe, North and South America it's already more than 80 % of the total population living in cities.

But cities are not always very livable. One important aspect of making a big city livable is it's share of green space (parks, forests, botanical gardens) as a percentage of its total size in square kilometers.

My wish is that EVERY city, big or small, should have a share of green space of at least ten percent (to be increased, hopefully, to twenty, thirty, forty percent, as time goes by), in order to contribute to a healthy environment, to enhance quality of life, and to advance our quest for a Paradise on Earth. 

Such are my three wishes for today, which I present to you in the name of Peace and Justice, in the hope they may be fulfilled.

In the name of Peace and Justice, thank you!