LOS ANGELES—The PAEF (Pan-Armenian Environmental Front) has organized a movie screening of “Armenia’s Breaking Backbone”, an environmental documentary that will be featured at the Ararat Eskijian Museum on November 17th. The documentary will display Armenia’s internal oligarchy and greed behind the over-exploitation of our nation’s natural resources. Also, viewers will get a close-up of the many ecological disasters, such as tailing dumps and pollution caused by excessive mining mostly in the Syunik region, that reduce Armenia’s air quality, serve as a source of emigration and quash any chances of having an ecologically and economically secure nation. The documentary aims to reach out to native and diasporan Armenians worldwide, exhibiting current trends and the consequences of ignorance. Without persistent environmental activists and a caution light to all Armenians, we will have to fight an unconquerable war to regain the health and beauty of our motherland.
PAEF’s motto “Protection of our environment is the protection of Armenia” represents their main goal, which is the preservation of nature, the sustainable development of economy and the ensuring of social justice in Armenia. To achieve these goals, the PAEF will assure rehabilitation and development, reproduction and sustainable use of natural resources, elimination and prevention of negative effects of economic and other activities on the environment, and socially just distribution of natural resources.
Its prominent environmental activists, Yeghia Nersesyan, Anna Aglamazyan, and Levon Galstyan, gave a lecture at UC Irvine last month exposing Armenian youth to the dangers our homeland currently faces. They stressed the importance of more Armenian youth becoming involved with our homeland’s concerns to prevent loss of discourse and work towards a secure Armenia for Armenians everywhere.