The New Straits Times, February 4, 2001
By Prof. Dzulkifli Abdul Razak
LAST month, the Ecuadorean tanker Jessica carrying over one million litres of fuel went aground on San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos group. Despite the best efforts to contain the load, fuel leaked out into the ocean and polluted the shore for miles around.
More than 600 tonnes of oil has been spilled into the ocean. There about 150 tonnes still in the tanker's holds. And now a second breach in the vessel's hull has been detected. Worse could follow.
The Galapagos is a remote group of islands in the Pacific Ocean. A barren volcanic outcrop, rugged and sparsely populated, the group is home to some of the rarest species on earth.Sea lions, land iguanas, and the 'vampire' finches are only some of the fauna to be recorded. Some parts of the island are famous as a sanctuary for the blue-footed booby as well. And then there are the hard-shelled reptiles.
Uniquely, it supports at least six species of giant tortoise (Spanish galapago, thus the islands' name). The islands contain as many as 85 species of birds, including flamingos, flightless cormorants, finches, and penguins; and a variety of shore fish.
Part of the Galpagos is a wildlife sanctuary. The islands are fringed with mangroves with the vegetation consists chiefly of thorn trees, cactus, and mesquite.
In the uplands, which are exposed to heavy mist, the flora is more luxuriant. It is no wonder therefore that in 1959 the Galpagos National Park was established to protect large parts of the islands from exploitation.
In 1978 the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (Unesco) declared the islands a World Heritage Site, saying they were of such outstanding interest that they should be preserved as a heritage of all mankind.
Last year, the Ecuadorean Government enacted a law that prohibits further settlement on the islands and controls tourism and fishing. The law also discourages the introduction of foreign plant and animal species into the Galpagos ecosystem.
The island' claim to fame goes back to 1835, when the British naturalist Charles Darwin, travelling aboard HMS Beagle, spent six weeks in the Galapagos.
His observations furnished considerable data for his Origin of Species (1859) in which the theory of evolution was advanced. Even then it was recorded that sailors hunted the seals for fur, and made soup from the giant tortoise.
Thus the desecration of the Galapagos could be easily described as a profanity not only against nature. It profanes history and science as well.
In short, it is an offence aganst humankind, since what is happening in the Galapagos could easily fall under what the Worldwatch Institute recently described as the signs of "accelerated ecological decline".
Indeed in the "State of the World 2001" report issued by the Institute, a Washington-based research organisation, according to Janet Abramovitz, a co-author: "Environmental degradation is worsening many natural disasters."
In 1998-1999 alone, over 120,000 people were killed and millions were displaced, mainly poor people in India and Latin America. The report also cited the risk of extinction that hangs over dozens of species of frogs and other amphibians around the globe, to pressures ranging from deforestation to ozone depletion.
Co-author Ashley Mattoon describes amphibians as "an important bio-indicator - a sort of barometer of Earth's health - more sensitive to environmental stress than other organisms."
In fact, the "State of the World 2001" also cited new scientific evidence indicating that many global ecosystems are reaching dangerous thresholds.
"The Arctic ice cap has already thinned by 42 per cent, and 27 per cent of the world's coral reefs have been lost, suggesting that some of the planet's key ecological systems are in decline," say the researchers. Galapagos could easily face a similar fate should the oil spill continue to devastate the habitat.
In other words, human suffering is the ultimate price of man-made ecological stress. And many people are pushed to destroy the environment in a desperate attempt to survive, as is the case in many developing countries despite declining poverty in many nations.
For example, according to the report, about 1.2 billion people suffer lack of access to clean water, and hundreds of millions breathe unhealthy air. In addition, population growth has led people to settle vulnerable places such as flood-prone valleys and unstable hillsides, some as a consequence of poor environmental control.
In this regard the Worldwatch Institute also lamented of "a loss of political momentum on environmental issues", with only a few encouraging signs. Industry too has a duty to protect and conserve the environment. It noted that failure to enforce many existing international environmental agreements was hampering progress on many fronts. This is certainly linked to attitude and commitment.
But it is heartening to note that a number of oil companies have announced they are moving "beyond petroleum" to a broader portfolio of energy investments.
At about the same time too, Ford Motor Company chairman William Ford questioned the long term future of both the internal combustion engine and the personal automobile, as his company stepped up efforts to develop new transportation technologies.
As Worldwatch notes, with prices of oil, natural gas, and electricity all rising during the past year, the world has had a timely reminder that over-dependence on geographically concentrated fossil fuels is a recipe for economic instability and, by extension, disaster.
Unless the use of fossil fuels slows dramatically, Earth's temperature could go up as much as six degrees above the 1990 level by 2100, according to the latest climate models.
This could lead to acute water shortages, declining food production, and the proliferation of deadly diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. The air of gloom is reinforced by the many events similar to that of Galapagos.
And we are left with little choice: either to move rapidly to build a sustainable environment or to risk allowing expansion in activities that would lead to the death of natural systems.
Armed with the right choice, history has demonstrated that change can move quickly from impossible to inevitable, hopefully for the better, without undermining the quality of life of the entire planet.
Recommended website: http://www.darwinfoundation.org/
