What on earth are we doing?
We've got one planet, one only for the human race. It's getting more crowded, more depleted of resources, more ecologically stressed as each day passes. Why are we messing up our earthly house like this? I suppose that if we have to pass municipal and provincial by-laws in an attempt to persuade residents not to scatter their garbage hither and yon, the answer to that question must be that we just don't care. Once we toss the garbage out the car window, it's "out of sight, out of mind" and it won't come back to haunt us. From such small beginnings grow larger insults to our earthly home.For heaven's sake, now we read that Equador is permitting over-fishing around the Galapagos Islands, a World Heritage site. In so doing, the breadth and depth of the problem is threatening its delicate ecology, from its unique flora and fauna to its very existence as an ecology apart. Equador has not yet responded energetically to the concerns being raised.
The Brazil rainforest is slowly being cut down. Brazilian landowners who enjoy a thriving cattle business like to encourage this deforestation for greater pasturage for their herds. Brazilian peasants, living in dire penury, know they can make a subsistence living when no other is available to them, by surreptiously cutting down the forest. Surreptitiously, because the Brazilian government has made some attempts to halt the deforestation (and with time the inevitable desertification). To legally cut trees, loggers must have permits. Permits are given out carefully, to ensure that a critical balance is maintained. However, in many areas permits are not to be had since it is recognized that in those areas the situation is dire. This does not stop the loggers, fearful of discovery, but more fearful of starvation for their families. The government knows very well that within these areas where permits are disallowed there exist many sawmills to service the surreptious, illegal logging. How's that for a no-win situation? Um, why not offer the loggers paid positions to plant trees?
Over-fishing and government inaction in Canada led to the depletion of West Coast salmon fisheries in British Columbia. Now we have fish farms instead, where Atlantic salmon are being farmed. The farmed Atlantic salmon occasionally slip by the bonds of their ocean prisons to mingle with native salmon. The fear being that the larger, farmed fish will threaten the existence of the wild salmon. Farmed salmon are rife with sea lice, and they spread sea lice to wild salmon in greater than naturally-occuring numbers. Severe infestations of sea lice imperil the survival of salmon.
Over-fishing and government neglect in Canada led to the destruction of the cod fishery in the East Coast of Canada. Fish factories which once thrived, employing thousands of people are no longer in operation. New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia have all been dreadfully affected by the collapse of the cod stock.
President Bush has now made it legal for oil companies to drill in the Alaska Wildlife Preserve. What is a natural preserve meant for, but for its preservation in as pristine a state as possible for future generations? Instead, his obliging acquiescenc to his energy buddies is resulting in that preserve, as with others, to be drilled for oil.
What do we know about Mount Everest? Why, it's the highest point on earth, isn't it? And because we must have our thrills, our conquests, our reputations to flaunt and uphold, it is also littered with thousands of tons of spent equipment and garbage (not to mention human excrement). And, sadly, corpses of would-be conquerers.
Do we even want to take seriously Species at Risk measures? We're losing organisms, large and small, on this earth at an alarming rate. Do we care? I mean collectively? Everyone's too busy making a living, trying to enjoy their all-too-brief time on this earth to give it much thought. So we don't. How about remedial measures like the Kyoto Accord? Good grief! This has big business screaming at the potential incursion into their freedom to loot the earth of its resources, and regard the bottom line. Why bother.
Are we mad, or what?
posted by Pieface @ Friday, April 15, 2005
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