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opinionAlso in this section:
Sirias, Two thoughts Ramey, True Muslims don't deny the Holocaust
Where is the outcry? by Dr. Michael Roy I think that most observers would agree that the public were justified in their outcry to the killing of 18 innocent people aboard a public bus in late October as they have been to the poisoning of over 40 people by CSS medicines. These obvious man-made disasters were critically assessed by the public and deemed wrong, with culpability directed at those that showed dereliction of duty or plain outright disrespect for the law. But then I ask why is there next to no public debate about the other man-made disasters that occur with alarming regularity each year in this country. The destruction of nature be it poisoning of coral reefs, destruction of mangroves, draining of wetlands or the burning of forests cause far more fatalities and cost far more money than any of these other obvious disasters. Indeed what are termed natural disasters are in fact hardly ever that, instead they are normal natural events usually greatly exacerbated by the actions of a complicit population. In 1998 Hurricane Mitch killed 18,000 people in Central America and caused over $4 billion of damage. It is thought that the level of devastation was maximised due to uncontrolled deforestation in hilly terrain. Just two years ago flooding of the Pacora, Cabra and Tocumen rivers affected over 3,000 people, killing 16 of them and causing millions of dollars worth of damage to houses built in areas previously known to be flood zones. And now floods and high seas have battered our Caribbean provinces that have been stripped of their mangroves forests, causing millions of dollars worth of damage, several lives lost and nearly two thousand people to become homeless. The relationship between mangrove forests and protection of coastal areas is well known and exemplified by the enormous Asian tsunami of 2004 that killed over 275,000 people, many of which may have been saved if mangrove forests and wetlands had not been removed in previous decades. Mangroves also act as very important fish nurseries and so their removal also negatively affects the marine fisheries industry. In Panama mangroves are being cut down at an unprecedented rate thereby increasing our vulnerability to coastal storms. In addition, we continue to build our homes and villages too close to rivers and shorelines without restriction. Our large coastal wetlands that soak up excess water from our mighty rivers such as the Pacora and Mamoni and are being drained and developed without concern about this important natural function. And we continue to cut and burn upland forests each dry season causing erosion and mudslides not to mention the untold pulmonary health effects on the population. Isn’t it yet clear to everyone that we and all our future generations will pay a very very high economic price for our obsessive and wanton destruction of nature? When will we learn that the key to human survival is in the health of our natural landscapes which buffer us from natural events? Nature IS our immune system but like an AIDS patient we are now susceptible to the most mundane of diseases. With climate change rapidly approaching high gear, are we ready to adapt to it with a clear plan of action? Are our people ready to accept the challenge of the future? I am afraid that we are not. The 21st century is predicted by many to become one of the most testing times in the whole of human history. If we were ready to face this challenge wouldn’t there be greater public debate about the issue? Wouldn’t the public demand greater vision in public policies? Wouldn’t the public themselves adhere to environmental regulations that are hardly ever enforced with neither the public nor enforcing officials really understanding the reasons behind them? Surely it is imperative that the Panamanian public take environmental issues more seriously at least equal to that of safety of public transport. If this is to occur however, the level of environmental literacy has to improve. Importantly there must be a curriculum for environmental education which must form a basic discipline at school equivalent to mathematics, science and spanish since, with the worst yet to come, it is the next generation that we will ask to sort out the problems of the 21st century.
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