Although there is still a dilemma about the ''culprit'', the prevailing belief in the whole world is that the man, with his uncontrolled exploitation, has influenced the emission of harmful gases leading the Earth into the process of global warming.
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Can Anthony Giddens's book ''Politics and Climate Change ‘‘, by its dramatic features and pessimism be compared with the Judgment Day? In other words, is the man – insatiable in his wishes – going further away from the nature and thus provoking the Apocalypse? Or, actually, is it that climate changes are part of a natural cycle, and the scary stories about them are just part of a scenario for another high profit on the account of human gullibility?These and similar questions were discussed yesterday by 15 participants of the festival's round table discussion named after the book of the English sociologist.
If we want to deal with the first question, we will find very helpful the words of Vukašin Pavlović, PhD, from the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade. He said that the turn of the 20 and the 21 centuries has been marked exactly by the fear of the threat of cataclysm in the near future. As he pointed out, although there is still a dilemma about the ''culprit'', the prevailing belief in the whole world is that the man, with his uncontrolled exploitation, has influenced the emission of harmful gases leading the Earth into the process of global warming, and at the same time to the verge of catastrophe. As the most responsible, the man – that is the state – is obliged to stop the excessive development that harms every living being on the planet, and none of the projects for that cause is as expensive as the possible consequences unless something is done about the matter.
Jovica Trkulja, LLD, from the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, has a similar opinion. He says that the man has treated the nature like an apprentice-sorcerer and, playing with it, he set free the force which he can no longer control. Giving the example of the Gulf War, he mentioned that the political screen was supposed to hide away its real cause: the fight for water. And that scenario is soon ahead of us.
According to Tereza Horvat-Skenderović, PhD, from ''Terra's'', Subotica, agriculture is the most serious victim of the growing climate changes. Intensively oriented in itself – Horvat-Skenderović says – agriculture is also part of the global process of the Earth pollution. Because of that, in her opinion, we should turn again to organic agriculture and production within small family farms.
A number of speakers believe that the story of climate changes belong to the domain of manipulations, while Ljubinko Pušić, PhD, from the Sociology Department of the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad points out that every story with a similar topic has the background of genuine mystification, which can assume the form of scientific explanation if there is enough financial interest. On the other hand, Petar Đukić, PhD – giving the example of three blind men seeing one elephant differently – says that ''we do not know everything''. Expressing his disagreement with Giddens's support to sustainability and defiance to further development of wealthy countries, Đukić asks who is to say what excessive development is and who can forbid it.
Similar questions without answers were asked by Zoran Vidojević, PhD, from the Institute of Social Sciences. The ideas that should be further thought about, and not only by the discussion participants, are definitely his questions: is there a possibility of the establishment of new socialism and ''what is the purpose of knowledge, for whom the knowledge exist and what should the knowledge be used for?''.
Furthermore, another idea to be thought about will be, by all indications, the appeal of the discussion participants – initiated by Vladimir Vuletić, LLD, from the Faculty of Law in Belgrade – to the mayors of local governments in Serbia to bring in the laws that will influence the decrease of the harmful gases emission, primarily in relation to traffic and energy sources.
