Saving the Planet

What clever clogs we are, geniuses, geniuses at spoiling the planet. Already there is the belief growing more and more that, if humanity is to survive, other planets need to be populated, no doubt sooner or later to go the same way as mother earth, human beings in some ways being as stupid as they are.  It’s like that list someone made up of the Muslim countries in which Muslims were unhappy followed by a list of where they are happy; the US, Britain, France Holland, Sweden, Australia,  etcetera, as they try to turn these host countries into ones similar to the ones they left in which they were unhappy.

It is estimated the Brazilian rain forest has been degraded 28% this year. 28% doesn’t sound so much until one realises it is over a quarter.

Whatever one might feel or not feel about the shark, it is a part of the eco-system and its numbers off the coast of Costa Rica are diminishing at alarming speed. This is because the fishermen believe they have found a way around the law forbidding “finning.” Before the law was passed the shark’s fins were cut off and the shark tossed back into the sea to bleed to death. Apart from the cruelty involved, the sheer wastage of using that small portion of the animal for a delicacy food is deplorable. The fishermen have evidently come to the conclusion they can bypass the law by not tossing the shark into the sea but leaving it to die in the boat before doing so.

American customs have crushed six tons of illegal ivory from small artefacts to full length tusks, the amount they reckon to have come from the death of 2000 elephants.

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Locals call the area between Naples and Caserta the "Triangle of Death" because of toxic fumes after waste burning. Some 10 million tonnes of industrial waste has reportedly been dumped in the region over the past 20 years. A spokesman for the environmental group Legambiente, which organized a protest involving 10000 people parading trough Naples, said nearly 440 businesses in central and northern Italy had been taking part in the illegal activity. As more and more illegal dumps are found, the Italian government says it is starting an extensive project of cleaning the contaminated area. The local mafia, the Camorra, is suspected of securing lucrative contracts to dispose of waste and then dumping much of it illegally.

But here are two contrasting stories, one of which gives out just the teeniest bit of light to illuminate our darkness.

 Melissa Bachman, an American hunter has sparked outrage from South Africans after she posted pictures on Facebook of herself smiling behind a dead male lion she killed on Nov 1.

Bachman has a hunting show on US television called Deadly Passion. Her recent hunting trip to South Africa has been met with outrage and resulted in petitions to stop her hunting and getting a visa to return to SA. One can’t help but notice in the photograph that the gun she holds is equipped with a high powered

telescopic sight so the lion was hundreds of yards away, probably static and there was absolutely no danger to the intrepid hunter! What kind of pleasure, what kind of thrill, what kind of satisfaction can that bring? You might as well be shooting at a fair ground target.

And here is the contrasting story. A group of Somalis over a four mile run ran to earth a pair of cheetahs that had been killing their goats, captured them and handed them over to the Kenya Wildlife Authorities. How, one wonders did they manage to pit themselves against one of the fastest animals on earth? Evidently they waited  until the hottest part of the day and then simply kept going until the animals were exhausted – exhausted but still alive – no fucking stupid, grinning American bitch here with her high powered rifle and telescopic sight. Just, what you might call, a bunch of primitive herdsmen who showed her up for what she’s worth and who for me, gave the world, momentarily, that tiny spark of light.

When the last tree has been cut down,

When the last fish has been eaten,

When the last river is poisoned,

Only then will you realize that one cannot eat money.