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| Slash and burn farming, Westmoreland, Jamaica |
The human species, Homo
sapiens, is one of the most successful species on planet earth, that is if you
measure success by ability to live almost anywhere on earth and for young ones
to have the expectation of living to average old age. However, if you measure
success by the length of time a species has remained unchanged, humans cannot
compare with the chambered nautilus, which has been around for 500 million
years, and the horseshoe crab 445 million years. Humans in their present form
have been around for about one million years and are unlikely to be here for
another 499 million years, the way things are going. If you measure success by
numbers, we cannot compare with ants which E.O. Wilson has estimated at 10,000
trillion with a combined weight more than the combined weight of all humans.
Actually, it isn’t fair to compare the one species of humans with the many
species of ant, but for an individual ant species, the numbers would still be
impressive. If you measure success by length of life, humans cannot compare
with the bristle cone pine which can live for 5000 years, or giant tortoises -
over 200 years, or Ming the clam which reached 507 years, before humans killed
it trying to find out how old it was. If you believe that Methuselah lived for
969 years, we have certainly regressed, as nobody lives that long nowadays.
The success of the human species can be attributed to the
use of tools, agriculture and fire. These have enabled us to live almost
anywhere on the planet, by altering the environment. Instead of having thick
fur coats and depositing insulating layers of blubber which enable other
animals to live in cold climates, we have built houses and heated them. Instead
of hunting and gathering as in the early years of man’s existence, we grow
crops and herd animals. There is evidence of agricultural practices going back
ten thousand years, so for that long man has been altering the environment.
However, the last two hundred years have seen massive developments in
agriculture, with machines used to clear vast tracts of land, to prepare it for
planting and for harvesting of crops; the manufacture of fertilizers,
herbicides and insecticides; and the production of higher yielding crops. These
developments have resulted in better nutrition for millions of people, which,
coupled with advances in medicine which have reduced infant mortality rates and
extended life expectancy, have led to a population explosion.
The first agricultural practices resulted in a surplus of
food, which resulted in a division of labour. Not everyone had to grow their
own crops, so people were available to do other things, including building.
This in turn led to the construction of cities and the development of
civilizations. We have been brought up
to believe that civilization is a ‘good thing’. However, civilization concentrates
power in the hands a few individuals, giving them control over other human
beings and over the environment. Many people have benefited, but vast numbers,
from the dawn of civilization until today, endured and are still enduring
deprivation. At all high points in the expansion of Western Civilization there
were slaves. The ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman Civilizations also depended
on slavery.
Another pervasive aspect of civilization is war, which can
hardly be considered to be a civilized activity, and is one of the most
anti-environmental endeavours that man undertakes. In the last three hundred
years, and more so in the last hundred, with the development of weapons of mass
destruction, mankind faces the possibility of total annihilation. There is no
such thing as a limited nuclear war. The products of burning resulting from any
nuclear war would result in a ‘nuclear
night’. Sunlight would be blocked from the planet for so long that all plants
would die. Being aware of these negative effects of civilization, individuals
have informed others and led movements, such as the ban-the-bomb protests and
anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, to discourage those in power from exposing all
of us to these dangers.
Other not quite as harmful results of human practices have
been highlighted by individuals and groups, and a stop has been put to them. In
nineteenth century Britain, the pollutants spewed out by factories resulted in
smog and damaging air quality. Clean Air Acts controlled this. Unfortunately,
building taller factory chimneys, so that the pollutants blow further away, results
in acid rain causing destruction of forests, and damage to life in lakes and
rivers. Legislation to control acid rain is slow in coming.
All development impacts the environment in some way, but
given the intelligence we possess as human beings, we are able to assess impact
and predict outcomes. We also have the capacity to disseminate this information
to educate and inform large numbers of people. What we are not so good at is
having the will to make change, especially if one is a politician and the change
is not popular.
In Jamaica, those of us who have cars would be loathe to
part with them, and we are grateful for good roads, although internal
combustion engines and road building are damaging to the environment. Those who
don’t have cars aspire to car ownership, meanwhile utilizing public transport.
We bemoan the cost of gas instead of asking ourselves whether we could travel
less. Children attend schools far from their homes, while near their homes,
schools are under populated. Many other developments, such as the construction
of hotels are popular because they provide employment both in the construction
phase and when they are operating. However, the environmental damage which some
of them cause is irreversible.
Other developments such as the Hunts Bay Power Plant and the
Montego Bay Freezone have severely damaged fish breeding grounds. In addition, Jamaica’s
waters are overfished, and the large numbers of fishermen are catching fewer
and smaller fish, but efforts at improving fish stocks have been limited rather
than drastic. The fishermen themselves are aware of the problem, but few have
an alternative source of income. Deforestation is a serious problem, but
continues in spite of laws to prevent it. It is hard to catch a man cutting
down a tree, which he is able to turn into charcoal or sell quickly. The same
people who cut down the trees are among the first to demonstrate because of
lack of water or poor roads, both of which result from water running off
hillsides too quickly after they are denuded of trees.
An enlightened leadership with a well-informed followership could
do more to prevent environmental degradation in Jamaica, by looking at
long-term consequences of choices for development. There are many people with knowledge
about the environment, and several, who are highly qualified to do so, disseminate
information. There are others, some of them in leadership positions, who not
only fail to listen to these experts, but describe them in the most derogatory
terms. They misconstrue what they say for the purpose of misleading less
knowledgeable people. They say that the environmentalists are more interested
in preserving lizards than in people getting jobs. What they fail to realize is
that what is bad for the lizard today will be bad for human beings tomorrow. The
discussion becomes fogged by the misconception that one has to choose between development
and environment, instead of between the type of development
which would have the minimal environmental impact, and one which would have more.
Jamaica isn’t the only country making unwise decisions. Worldwide,
one of the biggest threats to our planet is global warming, which, although
having its naysayers, is generally accepted. We know what should be done - cut
down the carbon footprint of every one of us - but again it is the will that is
lacking. Increasing carbon dioxide levels are likely to cause acidification of
the seas, which could threaten even the chambered nautilus with extinction. Will
unwise choices eventually lead to the extinction of Homo sapiens, too? Or will
the knowledge that we have about how we have damaged our planet enable us to
restore the balance before it’s too late?
