Conservation Comment: Laying waste to our planet

Thick smog on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, on December 31. As winter approaches, a thick, soupy smog routinely envelops most parts of northern India, caused by dust, the burning of crops, emissions from factories and the burning of coal and piles of garbage. New Delhi now ranks as one of the world's most polluted cities. Photo / AP

Chooks and humans. Intelligence-wise, one might think that humans would win hands-down. We invented the wheel, electric lights and the radio.

It's possible to take from one's pocket a phone and talk to and see someone on the other side of the planet. Fifty years ago this was laughable science fiction.

With all this cleverness and scientific understanding, it would seem logical that we would protect the environment that sustains us, from keeping our water clean and not wasting it, conserving resources – soil and fish, for example and keeping the atmosphere clean and in balance.

Dave Scoullar wrote in his Conservation Comment on Monday, January 1, that the Pope considered climate change the greatest threat to the world. Except, perhaps, the potential pusher of the big(ger) red button in the White House.

In the 1950s, the obviousness of pollution and the risks that it posed were very visible as the London smog (smoke plus fog).

It was so thick that it was often not possible to see your hand in front of your face and so toxic that thousands died. This was so obvious that laws were brought in drastically limiting the causes, primarily coal smoke, and clearing the air so that now it's mostly pollution from vehicles, a lesser but still unhealthy problem.

Although it was not visible, the next threat was from what was known as acid rain, smoke without soot but full of sulphur dioxide, which became the acid rain that caused a denuding of many European forests until they "scrubbed" it from smokestacks.

The other assault on the air that we breathe was CFCs from refrigerants. Although it was in relatively tiny quantities, it was gradually destroying the ozone in the atmosphere that was absorbing a lot of the human and plant-damaging UV rays.

Once it was accepted that CFCs were the problem, it was encouraging how quickly the world changed away from CFCs, and the ozone is now well on the way back to its old, safe levels.

But now the atmosphere is again getting into imbalance, more seriously this time, with excess CO2. This is finally recognised by most people, including the Pope, as the major danger it is to life on Earth.

If we can deal with these other lesser risks to our one and only planet's atmosphere, why are we, supposedly clever humans, twiddling our thumbs while our home is at risk from an even greater threat? It has been shown that Exxon Mobil lied since 1977 when it knew about climate change and actively fought against the emerging science, knowing that to acknowledge climate change would affect their business.

Virtually all fossil fuel businesses have done the same. They could have begun change around 1980, but the immoral pursuit of profit was more important than a stable future. What wisdom.

"If you're not part of the solution, you are part of the problem" — wise words from Eldridge Cleaver in the 1970s.

If we are to solve the threat of climate change, we all need to become part of the solution. Everything we do should be working towards reducing our carbon emissions.
What about chooks and humans? We humans are laying waste to our planet, not just in our unwise efforts regarding climate change.

At least chooks lay eggs, something useful.

And then there he is, the inscrutable one, blindly laying waste to our environment in a different way every day while his finger hovers over that red button, much like a chook with its head off.

John Milnes

■ John Milnes is a grandparent who is very concerned about our future, and has been involved in the Greens (candidate in three elections), is founder member of Sustainable Whanganui and member of Plastic Bag Free Whanganui.