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Time to reflect and re-assess
by Bronwen Griffiths |
I was fortunate enough to be able to take my Mother with me to visit my grandfather in Somerset, United Kingdom in September this year. This was an amazing trip in many ways and the feeling of relaxation, connection with Mother Earth, my own dear Marmie, my dear Grandfather and step-Gran was so worth being squished into a terribly small seat for miles to many hours to get there.
We were privileged to see a number of sites which most Pagans would give their eye teeth to see including, Stonehenge in the rain, Avebury, Woodhenge, the Uffington White Horse, Glastonbury Tor (which we saw almost every day as we were staying in Street, which is only a few miles from it), and visited as many castles as possible. Awesome, amazing and … wow! As we had a car we decided as well to visit Wales and the brooding awesome-ness of Snowdonia blew both of us away. Earth power in bucket … nah bakkies loads! YUM!
But this article is not to reflect on that aspect of my trip, but is rather a spin-off from the trip as a whole, including a whirlwind few hours in Dubai on the way home.
First let me take a step back. South Africans as a whole tend to have what I consider to be a fatal flaw. Irrespective of evidence to the contrary, we believe that we always get the worst of everything. We cannot see that our country – warts and all – is truly beautiful and yes even with its faults has merit. Rather we bitch about it instead of trying to fix it, and if we leave (which I can understand) we slag our birthplace. No wonder the rest of the world thinks this country is pretty hopeless and not worth saving. In my humble opinion, South Africans need to travel more and take a real look at other countries – not just the tourist stuff, but the stuff that the inhabitants would prefer us NOT to see, as to be brutal, every country, including the oh-so-perfect-U.S. has dirty washing that it doesn’t want others to see.
I do not intend this to be a social consideration of the issue as I acknowledge the fact that I am way out of my depth in terms thereof not being a specialist on social issues. I am however a specialist on environmental issues and thus will elaborate a little further with respect to environmental issues specifically. Remember that this is merely my opinion backed by observations while in the UK and the UAE, from conversations with my grandparents who came from Zim to the UK in 2000, conversations with various friends living in the UK, and various other sources including the news and the internet. I admit most of these sources are very subjective, but still, bear with me.
South Africans believe that we are way behind in the way that we consider and husband our environment, especially in comparison to a 1st world country such as the United Kingdom. I have to disagree.
Although about 25% of Wales is set aside as the Snowdonia National Park with fairly strict controls relating to development and such-like, this is not the kind of National Park we are used to. In fact, it more closely fits with a high use biosphere model – that is, a reserve that has a core ‘no go’ area, surrounded by rings of land which has a successively higher land and resource-use pattern allowed. A very interesting concept and certainly worth it, but not a pure conservation area as we know them. Now please don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that the core area of Snowdonia centred around Betwys-y-Coed is protected. My gripe is with the fact that a hole is carved out the centre of this park relatively close to the Cader Idris massive – Mount Snowdon to you non-Celts! What is truly horribly is that this ‘hole’ is related to the ongoing total desecration of the valley and surrounding mountains in the form of slate mines. And they are PROUD of it! I know, given that I come from a Welsh family, that the slate mines are an important part of the Welsh psyche and history, but I was under the impression that those few mines that remained were being massively scaled down and more importantly that the control thereof was according to most best practice mining patterns. Um … not a chance! Have a look at the following progression of pictures below as we move from the edge of Cader Idris into the slate mines.
The feeling of driving across the county border in Gwynedd was rather like being kicked in the gut. I mean I’ve been to the great hole in the ground called Thabazimbi and I thought that was bad … um … nope, not quite on the scale of this valley and also NOT in the middle of a reserve.
The hysterical thing is that the Welsh are so proud of their preservation efforts and in many cases, rightly so.
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For instance, Machynlleth (heehee – so do you know how to pronounce that?) in mid Wales and up in the mountains, is acknowledged to be a world leader in terms of a total district that aims to at all times follow a sustainable green lifestyle.
Search for it on the web if you are interested as they are really doing some fine pioneering initiatives. Start with the Centre for Alternative Technology at www.cat.org.uk. The types of initiatives include wind power (see example below – left photo un-cropped to give you an idea of the size of the wind turbine), green building, energy and other resource saving measures, organic farming, graduate school degrees related to sustainability and such like. |
So yes in many ways the Brits are getting it right, but in others most certainly not. Now please do not get me wrong here, I applaud them for their initiatives, but sometimes find the majoring on the minor items to just be so odd.
The following sign on a lay-by in Snowdonia had my Mother and I in total giggles. Yes Ginney, I agree that litter is a bad idea and that control thereof is to be pushed as hard as possible, but the government fines for littering at this incredibly high level whilst condoning the archaic form of mining happily going on in the middle of some of the most beautiful natural land in the entire British Isles? Weird if you ask me. Let alone the health implications of all those slag heaps – yes with villages at the bottom of the slope – does anyone else see the potential for another disaster like that of Aberfan, still acknowledged to be one of the most horrible losses due to mining in the world? In 1966, 144 people killed, 116 of them being children from Pentglas Primary School, when a waste skip slid downhill and started a vast slide at the end of a very wet summer – http://hubpages.com/hub/thejockspot_tribute_to_Aberfan. And no – it’s not the only one either – if you are feeling macabre, do a search by ‘Welsh mining disasters’. |
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An interesting aside as I have no wish to open the can of worms called nuclear energy at this point. It was most amusing that the 2 enormous blocks of concrete we discovered on our journey – one in Wales, one in Cornwall – do not show up on maps and the gateways indicate totally weird company names that very carefully do not indicate what hides behind their gates! Do they really think people can’t figure out what they are?
As the final part of the trip we stopped off in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. In a word our reaction was … “Ewww!!!” A construction site gone insane, with absolutely no indication of a master plan, no control of dust, the older parts of the city which are less than 60 years old are falling apart, monster highways and malls and buildings of all kinds sprawling ever outward into the desert. For those of you who don’t know, the city is less than a hundred years old with only ONE historic building left. Overall? Just a feeling that the environment is seen only as a canvas on which to plonk the examples of what money can buy.
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Again there are exceptions with for instance the Bahrain World Trade Centre building designed by a South African architect that incorporates wind turbines between the two towers of the building which should supply most of the energy needs of that building for the life of the building.
But then where is all the building waste going? Hmm, oh that would be to the largest landfill site I have ever seen (good kilometer long). And where would that be positioned? Oh yes, on the ecotone between the white soil on which Dubai the city is found and the red soils of the incredibly fragile Empty Quarter … |
Talking of the Empty Quarter, I have to say that yes I was a bad child. I couldn’t resist going Wadi Bashing … you know that activity of taking a Landcruiser and trying to see if it can replicate the actions of a world class surfer on waves of sand that make sea waves look tiny! Amazing, awesome, frigging scary and yes, not to be missed! The problem was that when we stopped – after getting stuck in all that lovely red sand – my environmentalist eye reopened after the surge of adrenalin (and nausea) died back and noticed the plastic bags wrapped around the few struggling shrubs, and although its looks impressive in the photo, to my knowledge over 40 Landcruisers were playing within the same few square kilometers. And this within an environment that is so incredibly delicate and ancient.
South Africa has problems yes, but we need to consider them in a wider context than merely that of South Africa alone. This does not mean we should ignore the issues, but we should also stop beating ourselves up so badly.
Deal with the major issues at an administrative level, but for the minor issues (which have a massive cumulative impact I agree) rather try the carrot instead of the stick. Educate people as to why cleaning up litter, or using energy efficient methods, and so on can actually save you money in the long run. Who cares how you hook people, so long as they do a right thing even if not for exactly the right reason.
South Africa remains a fore-runner in many issues – we can help others out there. This does not however preclude us from learning from others, and that we must do.
I hope I have got you thinking on a slightly different track through this article and wish you all the best on individually helping to make your footprint on Mother Earth as light as you can.
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