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 selfdestruction as – unstoppable.

Take the plastic menace for instance which was the central theme of this year’s World Environment Day. On its own, it seems, it is enough to bring the human race to its knees through the killing of the marine life we depend on by the inordinate amounts we float into the oceans. 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.

Then, on top of all the many other forms of destructive behaviour, there is of course that all-enveloping peril of human-enhanced climate change closing in. It is a grim picture, made more so by having a cowboy president of mighty America who seems to think that showing care towards nature is a sissy thing to do.

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 Washington 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, as seems the case in many other countries, are not properly attuned yet to the environmental cause. But that day will come. It is encouraging for instance to see Joburg’s mayor joining in river clean-up outings and Pretoria’s mayor making a point of promoting the planting of trees. And while it is heartbreaking to see plastic bags and other filth carpeting so many of our towns and villages, it is a joy to drive through or visit those where civic pride has obviously won over and hardly any litter is seen fouling up the sidewalks, streets or outer edges of town.

For all the reasons there are for despondency, there are indeed signs, big and small, that bode well for the future.