Full text of the monologue at the Sostenibilidad XL event. Caixa Fórum, Madrid, May 2018.

Forgive my boldness in showing up here this afternoon with barely any notice. I believe I owe an apology to Isabel — I know you have been preparing this gathering, this event, for a long time, and to arrive without being part of the official programme is indeed an act of daring… but look, I had the need to meet again with all of you: colleagues, peers… I see so many faces I had not seen in years, and I had the need to share with you the doubts that have been haunting us, unsettling us for years… the answers to questions that are still out there, waiting to be answered. And that is why I am here, because I was trying, hoping to find those answers in your company, in your eyes. And now that I see you, and see the depth of knowledge, the academic and intellectual level in this room, it becomes even harder for me to understand what we did wrong.

We have been asking ourselves for a long time what was the variable we left out of the equation with which we believed we would solve everything.

What was the missing ingredient in that magic recipe that was supposed to get us out of this mess?
It is hard to spend so many years thinking and having to accept that all that past effort barely served its purpose, or that it served very little — enough perhaps to allow me to be here speaking to you today… all those efforts of hundreds of thousands of volunteers, associations, activist colleagues trying to lift hundreds of millions of people out of ignorance, trying to mobilise them… looking back and counting the years we have already been insisting and working… some more than others… some enormously so, when you think of Greenpeace, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the Club of Rome, the Global Alliance for Building and Construction… they are not few, are they? It is an enormous aggregate of effort. And I still have no answers…

The truth is that most of those present here, I am confident or certain of it, right?… we have the feeling of giving everything we have, of being part of that collective that tries to challenge and argue with the denialists who, no matter how much evidence we present them with, remain in constant, unrelenting denial; that we try to alert those who live comfortably in passivity, those who believe nothing can be done, that decisions and actions are the responsibility of others… or to encourage and inspire those naïve souls — as I understand myself to be — the proto-optimists, we used to call them… those who still think or used to think that in the end, one metre before the cliff, one second before the tragedy, the planet's sapiens would end up solving everything. And I, like you, believed we were doing things right; we believed that with our attitude, our commitment, by writing articles, helping to draft laws, producing reports… that with all that, we were doing what was expected of us, what was asked of us… we believed and argued that if everyone did things the way we did, the world would change. There would be a change of course. And that gave us a certain pride. We belonged to the club of the good, to the right side of the decent, of those who were sensitive, of those who knew what needed to be done — and let us not deny it — we sometimes addressed others with a certain moral and intellectual authority that, at least for me, with time, I recognise was entirely unjustified.

There was no merit in any of it. Being here today holds no merit. In all likelihood, each of us, with our own particular circumstances, is the result of those who worked and strove so that we would have access to knowledge and could develop our talent. The question is whether we then did enough with the legacy they left us. These few shared minutes give me the feeling that I am getting closer to that answer I have not been able to give for years.

And I have the feeling that the answer is: we lacked determination. And if that is so, a torrent of doubts assails me, right? A torrent of doubts. Look, I have not mentioned it yet, but I come from 2058. Things there are not easy — not easy at all.

And the hardest of all is living with the knowledge that we did not do what was necessary.

Let us think that today a new decade begins. Let us not wait for the first of January 2020, let us not wait for that calendar to set our rhythms and tempos. Today a decade begins that demands the best of all of us, that we take that determination and use it with enthusiasm, with force, each in our own area of competence. Architects, design, draw, think in terms of the planet; there cannot be, there is no room for a greater priority than that. Think in terms of demand. Engineers, be bold with that ingenuity, that innate talent you have, to satisfy that demand with zero consumption.

And I say zero, not near zero. Near zero is not zero and the planet needs zero.

We must cut the timelines. And you, builders, crews, tradespeople, plumbers, carpenters — you also have a responsibility. You have a stake in this. Do not stand aside. Every kilowatt not consumed. Every litre of water not wasted, every kilogram of CO₂ not emitted counts. Every single one counts. Pay no heed to those who say small actions do not matter: multiply by 7 billion and tell me what you get.

And you, the industry that manufactures building materials: you have an enormous capacity to transform the sector. Use it, apply it, be brave. Colouring your websites and catalogues green is not enough. Putting an eco, a bio, an organic in front of the name of each of your products is not enough. Do not think only of this year's and next year's operating accounts… let us give those who come after us the chance to calculate their operating accounts too. Use that muscle. Investors, financial institutions, developers: not everything goes, not everything deserves to be financed. The IRR is not the only thing that counts; ask the planet what its IRR is, or you will financially strangle the projects that are not in solidarity with the planet, or you will strangle the planet itself.

And you, those dedicated to governance and political action, to regulating and defining our legal framework, to managing public resources, you who ask us to entrust you with our confidence election after election, who present your undeniable vocation for public service as the guarantee of your good work, who put yourselves forward to work for and in the service of the common good. Know that today there is no clearer common good than this: to work to make possible the preservation of all the living beings who inhabit this planet, and of all those who are to succeed us. Do not look for shortcuts. Do not try to simplify or cheapen the challenge. Draft the necessary laws and accompany them with the mechanisms for implementation and the optimal budgets to achieve the solutions the problem demands of us; be brave, be bold. Begin every parliamentary session, every working group, every municipal council meeting by reminding yourselves of this. And know when to say no, and press firmly with yes when the situation requires it.

But forgive me — I did not mean to turn this into a litany of reproaches that may have got out of hand… but from the perspective afforded to me by being 37 years ahead of you, I tell you that there is time — if we take hold of that determination, if we believe in it and apply it with force, with conviction, with leadership… there is time.

We must demand of ourselves the best version of each of us. A version that we ourselves do not know exists, because most likely the situation had not asked for it, because the urgency is not that of today. And because what is at stake today is everything; and everything, never before, has had such full meaning. Say it to yourselves: everything. Seek enthusiasm, hope, passion.

Perhaps we left them behind, decades behind… they left with our youth. It saddens me to see barely anyone under 30 in this room. We cannot do this without them. We need their recklessness. We need their enthusiasm, their belief that the impossible is possible. Bring them on board, or step back from the cart and push it; being here obliges.

Life, whatever the reason that brought you here, has placed us here. And that obliges us to lead, to push, to become an example — without fear. Let us step outside our circles. We are always seeing the same faces, the same names… yes, we do things, but let us admit it, endogamically. Let us step out of that. We need to generate more movement, much more. Let us turn every small action into an act of commitment.

Every gesture into an example… down to the smallest, the most private, the most singular, the most silent. There is no capacity for, no possibility of neutrality. Our decisions and actions either bring us closer to the planet's solution or take us further from it. There is no middle ground.

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