Pollution - A Prompt to Sustainable Mindset

I have recently come across a friend's post on Facebook about "Plastic bottles Convenience at the biggest cost" and I did share some of my views pertaining to the issue.  Though that post was about plastic bottles, I found it to be as important to elaborate on because the issues relating to pollution are serious and have not been addressed much in many developing countries including Papua New Guinea.  Today's post may not capture everything however, the main issue I hope to express is associated with people's mindset, the trend in which development is taking place and what I think should be done.

There are various forms of pollution that have impacted our environment in recent times ranging from marine, air, water, soil, noise, light, radioactive and thermal pollution.  Papua New Guinea may have been affected by most of these pollution over the years and some of these are obviously evident.  For this post, I will briefly share some thoughts on how people are concerned about the product they consume and not the waste from those products, which ended up affecting the environment and eventually may affect people's life.  In many circumstances, these waste, mostly man-made, are dumped away or removed somewhere in the hope to clear the sight.  What may not have been considered is the place in which these waste are disposed.  Despite various actions taken by people to discard waste, it is utterly important to educate everyone to employ appropriate ways that will protect the environment.

Recently, many concerns associated to environmental pollution have been raised however, it seems not many people, including the government may have taken serious measures to address them.  If we travel to almost majority of the beaches, near towns and cities throughout Papua New Guinea, we may find man-made waste floating or piling up along the shores.  For those living in Port Moresby, such may sometimes be visible around Ela Beach and if we travel further towards villages like Hanuabada, plastics are a common eyesore along the beach. These plastics are hazardous and pose threat to marine life as well as children who play around the area.  Even more, the community is at high risk of contracting diseases such as cholera, typhoid, diarrhea or even malaria.  What worries me is the future of what used to be playgrounds for children and refreshing sights for adults who can sit back outside their veranda and enjoy the fresh breeze from the ocean.  The once beautiful and clear sandy beaches may soon become piling spots for many of the consumable waste.

Looking at the behavior in which people's actions are performed, I think GREED is eventually going to destroy our societies if people do not step back to see the real happenings around them. It is likely that a lot of people do not have any concern for their future generation. These days it's all about ME and NOW mentality and not US and OUR Future.  I have heard from few people who bluntly responded when asked about their future and all they answered was, "I Don't Care about Tomorrow, tomorrow has its own problems", or similar responses where tomorrow or the future doesn't really matter to them. This is purely SELFISH and reckless attitude without a single concern for what problems the future generation may face.  There are people with such careless mentalities who are contributing to harm the environment.

While we may focus our attention on developments and look abroad for models and influences to shape our nation, survival basics that our ancestors have thought us such as respect and having dignity for and over our natural environment is rapidly diminishing. There seemed to be no concern whatsoever for what may happen later.  I have, in many occasions, shared similar sentiments with those that I've talked to. It seems likely that PNG is indirectly becoming a dumping ground for the things that come into the country, in the name of development. For instance, people are so focused on satisfying themselves with whatever products they consume and do not take any notice of the waste that they produce after their consumption.  Classic examples include canned and bottled foods which people consume almost everyday.  Once the bottled/ canned food have been consumed, the waste are dumped.  All the consumer is concerned about is from the time they need the product to the time they consume the product.  What happens after the consumption is where the problem lies and in many places around the world, people are now looking at sustainable ways to protect the environment.  Back at home, processed foods, imported goods, electronics, automobile and many others entered our shores in the name of development however what people don't see is where do all the waste go to after their primary consumption.  The question we should possibly ask now is, where do all these waste go to?  The answer may lead to further questions.  Were the waste dumped under the soil?  Were they thrown into the ocean?  Were they thrown into the bushes? Were they all burnt to get them out of our sight?  These questions were derived from some of the realities of what is happening today within our societies.  It may solve one side of the problem of removing the waste from our sight but on the other hand, it creates a whole new problem to the environment and the things that depend on it, including us.  In actual fact, we are polluting our soil when dumping waste into the soil and that very soil may be the one that will feed us with fresh organic food.  We pollute our oceans, destroying the marine life which we catch to feed our families.  We pollute our bushes with man-made waste when we throw them into the bush.  We contribute to climate change through the fumes that go into the atmosphere when burning waste and even pollute the air that we breathe.

In my opinion, everyone should now look at fully adopting sustainable practices into their daily lives.  Every educational institution should promote sustainable practices in their courses to help students develop sustainable mindset before joining the industry.  All organizations, whether private or public should embed sustainable practices within their organizations and ensure everyone take ownership of what they do.  The government should also seriously make it a priority to support and openly promote awareness on sustainable living and make those available to everyone through mass media. Apart from these, recycling waste materials may be a way to save the planet since recycling will enable the use of waste to reproduce rather than demanding to extract more from the planet because much of what is created is extracted from the environment.  If most developed nations have profound ways to recycle waste to promote sustainability, I believe developing nation can also learn from them and probably introduce recycling plants or even export recycling materials overseas where they can be re-processed.