Season-ending injury

Jacques Cousteau once said “Water and air, two essential elements on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans” Can we reverse all the damage that humans have done to this wrongfully called Planet earth? Let’s dig a bit deeper and see if we can find a simple answer to this difficult question.

PASSING THE TORCH

Humans are doing all they can to change the outcome. Pollution it’s taking its toll, in my humble opinion, it’s too late to keep on passing the blame. When I was living in Venezuela, I used to sail every weekend, my boat was resting peacefully on a calm bay surrounded by mangroves, protected from the strong breeze and current. Not that far from home, a place where you can sit, and listen to the sea with its ethereal song playing on repeat. But even an ideal location has its disadvantages, real eye opening ones by the way.

The location has a small beach, not more than 500 feet long along the coastline. That ideal spot for watersports has a sailing school, the school holds about 30 students. They come every weekend to get some proper education on how to behave like a true seaman, and that’s when things get interesting. Every student has to clean the small beach every day before getting in the water, it takes about 20 min or less to do the job, but it helps on building awareness on how plastic is a real threat to our environment.

The amount of plastic that we take every weekend is outstanding, you can tell if the hotel nearby held a corporative party. Straws, plastic cups, containers, plastic bottles, disposable spoons, if it was a birthday party, you can even find a hat or whistler. I have seen how doing this work has changed the attitude of the younger sailors, they are more aware of the real harm boaters and bystanders are doing to our beloved sea. When young kids start on the sailing school, they hate that labor, they say it’s useless “If we clean the beach today, by tomorrow it would look the same” But in time, they become conscious of the real harm. It’s uplifting to see their attitude change towards it. According to the school director’s preaching; Is necessary to alter the way we think about several issues regarding our environment. All the boys and girls that become part of the sailing school, become guardians of what make us dream with our eyes open.

While doing freediving, I witnessed how the coral reef began to die right in front of my very own eyes. Years practicing on the same spots made me realize the exponential changes. Places with vivid colors, corals heads that looked as colorful as a cartoon became brown and dull like cardboard. A popular spot, full of tiny fishes that danced in unison, ended up like a deserted wasteland. The scenery changed from lobsters and sea shells to empty bottles of motor oil and beer cans. Pitifully the ones to blame are the same fisherman, people that live for, and by their fine skills. I’ve seen how boaters throw overboard all kind of waste without even thinking of the consequences on the fragile marine ecosystem.

It’s a shame that those who claim that pollution in taking their lifestyle from them, are the ones contributing to the decline of our coastal waters. It’s no secret that the world population is growing at a frantic pace, we are putting more pressure on earth natural resources. Without any doubt, misunderstanding of the causes and disproportion of the consequences are the one to blame. Negligence is the main contributor on many environmental issues.

Like a fly, waiting for a windshield on a freeway

Some studies say that poverty is the main cause of overpopulation, a lack of a proper education plus higher death rates contributes to the indiscriminate boom in population. The least developed countries are the ones that make an enormous difference. Those countries with fewer resources are the ones that can’t measure the real impact of overpopulation. Poor contraceptive use leads to unwanted births, inside countries darkened by the shadow of impoverishment.

Overpopulation takes resources at a speed that can’t be sustained. Water shortage is one of the main concerns when it comes to address the consequences on this issue. Water is an important aspect of every human being, water is a finite resource that will affect our means to efficiently produce food. With the predictions against us, water will be the main affair of dispute between developed and under-developed nations for years to come.

Our craving for energy pollutes, it put us at the verge of a colossal environmental crisis. While we work on finding cleaner solutions, the population demands more energy. It’s like trying to fight a fire while feeding the flames. Cleaner solutions are not as efficient, are we ready to rely on Nuclear power alone? The world is eager to pay the price, but at the same time, it’s not ready to count the cost.

On the course of human development, almost every action that we do impacts negatively one way or another on the environment. As the population grows, the amount of damage increases. It’s a downward spiral, its irrefutable that we are the only one to blame. Since ancient times “Demand, revenue, cost & profit” is the motto that rules the destiny of humankind.