'no matter how much we are told that every small individual act on our part can affect the world we live in, the whole environment game looks like one of big players, big countries with big money’


Yet another World Environment Day will be celebrated this month. There will be more alarming statistics doled out, more effects of environmental degradation brought to light, politicians around the world will engage in some more tokenism by launching programmes that vouch to save the world—and doomsayers will predict how close we all are to ecological Armageddon.

Big players in the new carbon politics game will think up new multi-billion schemes to offset carbon emissions by trading off the pollution they have spewed out for decades and are still spewing out by adopting so-called green technologies and processes.

All in all, no matter how much we are told that every small individual act on our part can affect the world we live in, the whole environment game looks like one of big players, big countries with big money.

Small countries like those of the Pacific Islands that have been at the receiving end of the effects of pollution by large industrialised nations seem to be increasingly left out of the equation with their voices drowned out in the cacophony of the shrill rhetoric of the developed nations.

While the Pacific Islands countries continue to be idolised as the last frontier of pristinely pure environments by the world at large, nearly nothing is being done in terms of mitigating the damage wrought by distant industrialised nations on this hapless part of the world.

Much of the ecological effects suffered by the islands, especially the atoll nations at the macro-level—such as sea level rise and the concomitant erosion of precious arable and coastal land—can be traced to the distant shores of the industrialised world that has been spewing out chemicals of every description into the environment for decades while single-mindedly pursuing their economic pots of gold.

The effects are also beginning to be seen at the micro-level. Reports last month said that PNG may lose its entire cover of mangrove swamps—known as the very lungs of any ecosystem—in the space of the next two decades: a situation that is truly alarming to say the least. It is heartening to note that volunteers will be undertaking the world’s largest ever mangrove planting exercise on World Environment Day this year.

The Pacific Islands’ small divided voice is barely heard and despite protestations for several years, their concerns continue to be taken for granted.

It is therefore encouraging to note that initiatives like the regional Waigani Convention, the Pacific equivalent of the international Basel Convention on toxic wastes, are there to shield the ecological interests of the people of the region.

The convention, though not ratified by all the islands nations, addresses the issues of transportation and disposal of toxic waste material.

The sea lanes of the Pacific have for several years been routes used to transport nuclear as well as other forms of hazardous waste from the developed nations to remote locations for their further treatment and eventual disposal.

A convention such as this must be supported by all Pacific Islands nations as only in a united manner can they effectively put a stop to the risks faced by not only their populations but by future generations as life threatening waste is ferried past their fragile environments unbeknown to them.

But it is not external factors alone that the islands can blame for ecological degradation in their own ken. The effects of a rapidly globalising economy, the switch from traditional lifestyles by more and more people to a modern one that uses more disposable but unfortunately non biodegradable packaging materials that are destined to take up increasing, valuable space as refuse dumps are equally responsible.

Waste generated from within the islands themselves has turned out to be a major problem in several ways: there is growing pressure on precious land space, the slowly degrading—or in some cases non degrading refuse—is a growing hazard to islanders’ health and it costs increasing amounts of money to transport out of the islands environments.

While harking back to traditional lifestyles that make full use of natural, completely recyclable materials may be a tall order in the face of the pressures of modern life, every effort must be made to inculcate the environmentally-friendly ways of doing everyday things as was practiced by generations past.

And at the political and leadership levels, the Pacific Islands must appreciate and value the power of banding together to put to full use regional and international instruments like the Waigani Convention and the outcomes of the Bali Environmental Conference of December 2007 to ensure the reversal of the deleterious effects of decades of ecological degradation.

The Bali Conference has identified fragile environments as top priority for financial aid to build mitigating measures against ecological hazards. Most of the countries of the Pacific Islands region fall into the category of fragile environments.

But sadly, little seems to be under way from the Pacific leaders both at the national level, as well as at a collective regional level to make full use of this international initiative.

The World Environment Day is as good a day as any to inject fresh vigour into pursuing these initiatives.