Humans causing havoc on earth
SEVERAL important environmental issues were highlighted in the Argus yesterday.
First, there was the issue of 10 people being prosecuted after 22 000 units of abalone were confiscated from them. This tragic story of abalone poaching needs a new dimension to it.
Who are the poachers, which companies are involved in the export of abalone and who is the recipient on the other side? Are there any customs officials colluding with the poachers?
Also, what is the total number of poached abalone for the last 24 months? We need to see what is happening in a broader and wider context.
The routine reporting of the story undervalues the destruction that poachers are wreaking on marine life. As long as the market is able to profit and it is safe from identification and prosecution, perlemoen will be poached to extinction.
Second, there is the rapidly developing water crisis. I asked in the last meeting of the council for actual usage per household to be shown in the monthly invoices with a graph plotting the extent of water usage over a period of months.
If this measure is adopted with the immediate reduction of pressure, everyone will get the message. If that still doesn’t work, the city will have to shut down the flow of water at given times.
Third, there was the issue of scientists from the University of Aberdeen discovering high levels of toxins in shrimp-like creatures living in the deepest part of the oceans.
This is alarming. Although, as the Argus pointed out, governments had agreed in 2001 at the Stockholm Convention to outlaw a “dirty dozen” of organic pollutants, greed has continued to undermine that resolve.
These pollutants still exist. Therefore cancer proliferates and other health problems have continued to worsen significantly.
We are in a precarious position both on account of indifference and unjustified optimism about problems resolving themselves.
Government at every level must recognise that the staggering and unceasing assault on the environment by human beings is beginning to imperil our existence on earth.
It is only by intensifying pressure on businesses that more will be done to avert the misery .
We have overstepped the time for action by 20 years. If we don’t act, we will all be ingesting poisons and pollutants through the foods we eat and imbibing water and liquids injurious to our health.