Your Excellency the President of the Republic,
Professor Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa,
Your Excellency,
It was with extraordinary pleasure that we witnessed your signature of the Appeal for the Mediterranean: in the face of the ongoing climate crisis (if not catastrophe), it is indeed essential that the highest representatives of the various States take it as their "duty" to act in the "collective endeavour to halt and reverse the effects of the climate crisis"[1].
Indeed, extreme natural phenomena are destroying the ecosystem and threatening the Mediterranean way of life, and there is "no time to lose" or "to compromise for political and economic reasons".
If the European Union highlights Southern Europe, mountain areas, coastal areas, deltas, floodplains, the far North of Europe and the Arctic as regions particularly vulnerable to climate change, it is essential that Portugal immediately gets involved in taking political decisions to halt/reverse/impede the situation we are all already suffering.
To this extent, and also bearing in mind the enlightened words and appeals of Pope Francis, namely in the first official speech of his visit to Portugal, on the occasion of World Youth Days, we consider it essential that the "collective effort to halt and reverse the effects of the climate crisis" be seriously carried out here, close to us, where we live.
Given that the Cascais City Council approved, on 18 July 2023, the necessary resolutions to implement the plans that will lead to the destruction of the 50 hectares of Quinta Nova de Santo António (or Quinta dos Ingleses), and although this is not the first time we have called on you to intervene, we come, now more than ever, to ask you to act in line with the principles you have just endorsed in the Mediterranean Appeal: acting immediately and in a way that is not compromised by political and economic reasons to save Quinta dos Ingleses, the green lung, with remarkable biodiversity, whose importance of safeguarding was recognised by Resolution of the Assembly of the Republic, of 19 July 2021 and which is so close to you.
Your Excellency, help us to save Quinta dos Ingleses, preserving the quality of life of the local population and fighting against the aggravated effects that its destruction will bring in the context of the climate crisis.
Saving our Common Home starts here, in Cascais, at Quinta dos Ingleses.
O SOS Quinta dos Ingleses
