Clinging to hope
AS YET another World Environment Day slipped by last week, it is hard not to succumb to a sense of futility about it all. It may seem unnecessarily pessimistic to say so, but remember that within the environmental community there are top minds who have already gone to the point of viewing the process of destruction – indeed self-destruction – as unstoppable.
Take the plastic menace for instance, the central theme this year, clogging the oceans and killing off the marine life we depend on.
Add to this the additional pollution threats like massive oil spills, and the danger of overfishing to feed a human population that is growing exponentially and mindlessly, and the future darkens visibly.
On top of all the many other forms of destructive behaviour, there is of course that all-enveloping peril of human-induced climate change closing in.
It is a grim picture, made more so by having a cowboy president of mighty America who has pulled out of global agreements on curbing climate change.
But rather than yield to gloom, there is a bright side to look at, relative as it may be. Awareness of the harm we are doing to our life-giving environment is growing around the world. With the exception of the White House, where the trend is the opposite, governments and states and cities are feeding protective measures into their legal and administrative frameworks.
Major sections of the business community are showing increasing sensitivity to the environmental cause, partly of their own volition and partly under pressure from the buying public. Down on the ground – and this is where ultimately it will count most – you see more and more folk joining local and global pressure groups, much of it through use of the internet.
Our own politicians, and others, are not properly attuned yet to the environmental cause. But that day will come. And while it is heartbreaking to see plastic bags carpeting towns, it is a joy to visit those where civic pride has won.
For all the reasons for despondency, there are signs that bode well for the future.