LETTER: Are we good tenants of our planet?

Are we good tenants of our planet? “We have probed the Earth, excavated it, burned it, ripped things from it, buried things in it, chopped down its forests, levelled its hills, muddied its waters, and dirtied its air. That does not fit my definition of a good tenant. If we were here on a month-to-month basis, we would have been evicted long ago.” — Rose Bird, the late chief justice of the California Supreme Court.

In my opinion piece in the influential Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in the 1980s I pointed out that so-called First World countries criticise developing countries for the way they manage the environment vis-à-vis the need for socioeconomic wellbeing of human settlements. Sometimes tough choices have to be made to the detriment of the environment. Europe and other developed countries made those choices centuries ago and destroyed forests and wildlife for the sake of ‘progress’.

I challenged developed countries at the time to put their money where their mouths are and, instead of criticising from afar, to assist the countries that now have the same needs they had centuries ago. I added that it is particularly relevant, given how European and other countries had stripped Africa and countries in the Americas of their natural resources, and also because of the impact of climate change, in which industrialised countries played a huge role.

Environmental protection and nature conservation have become global challenges that require global responses. Between 2005 and 2018 Norway paid $1.2bn into the Amazon Fund in recognition of our responsibility towards our planet and future generations. Thankfully, they are ready to resume payments after the defeat of the right-wing ‘Tropical Trump’ in Brazil, who favoured deforestation of the Amazon, a green lung that is so vital to the health of our planet.

The senseless war in Ukraine is a further environmental disaster. Damaged pipelines are filling wetlands with oil and toxic military scrap — rivers are polluted. Logging increased by the war for revenue purposes poses huge threats to the remnants of natural forests and wildlife in Ukraine.

We are squandering the heritage of future generations. Our planet can provide for our need, but not for our greed. We live as if there is no tomorrow. All eyes on COP27 this week.

Dawie Jacobs, Sterrewag

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