We all need to work together to save wildlife

Today, almost all the wildlife authorities across different countries are facing illicit acts of poaching and killing of animals by smugglers for animal skins, tusks and horns. What these people don’t realize is that today, they might be earning big fortunes by indulging in these activities but, 10 or 20 years later there would be no animals left which once used to be their source of incomes.

Wildlife is a precious gift of God to this planet. The term ‘wildlife’ not only caters to wild animals but also takes into account all undomesticated life forms including birds, insects, plants, fungi and even microscopic organisms.

For maintaining a healthy ecological balance on this earth, animals, plants and marine species are as important as humans. Each organism on this earth has a unique place in food chain that helps contribute to the ecosystem in its own special way.

But, sadly today, many of the animals and birds are getting endangered. The natural habitats of animals and plants are being destroyed for land development and farming by humans. Poaching and hunting of animals for fur, jewellery, meat and leather are other great factors contributing to wildlife extinction.

The extinction of wildlife species will certainly have a fatal impact on human race as well. So, for us as humans, it becomes a great responsibility to save the wildlife, our planet and most importantly, our own selves.

Have you ever thought from where will we get fruits, vegetables, grains, wood, clothes, paper that are few of the basic necessities for a human being to survive on earth?

So, if one day, forests, animals, lakes, oceans and birds go missing from the earth, it will not only have an impact on the livelihoods of these people who are directly dependent on wildlife industry but, it will also have a cascading effect on every human being.

What more? When there are no animals, there would be no forests and no forests means soil erosion, warm weather, drying up of lakes and rivers, no rains and hence, no crops and vegetation. This all is a cascading effect which every human needs to realize now. And, it’s not a one man’s job to save wildlife; it’s a joint effort that every single person needs to be part of.

Nature’s ability to meet our needs for food, water, energy and other essential services for human well-being requires sound government policy and smart funding decisions. Governments around the world should adopt much better policies to protect wildlife, land, fresh water, air and marine resources. With the unprecedented destruction of critical natural resources, current policies cannot keep pace with today’s environmental challenges

The wildlife authorities should come forward with stringent plans of minimising human interference in the core forest areas and effective wildlife tourism policies should be implemented so that illegal activities can be effectively controlled.

Plus, for us as individuals we should start working towards taking small steps from our homes; minimize the use of electronic equipment such as air-conditioners that contribute towards global warming, pool vehicles while commuting so that there is less pollution and less harm to the ozone layer and save water.

Through education, engagement with partners and communication, we all need to raise awareness about the importance of natural resources for human well-being. All this efforts will help policymakers recognize the direct connection between resource scarcity and global and economic security.

Countries will also have to improve their co-operation if they are to protect endangered wildlife in an age of climate change.  Many areas that are likely to become increasingly important are currently under-protected. Co-operation across borders to preserve and adapt areas so that birds and other wildlife can survive as their habitats change and shift will be essential to conserve biodiversity and maintain the ecosystem services that will help people and communities adapt to climate change.

We need to also improve monitoring, communication and co-operation to make protected areas work across borders. Conservationists and policy makers will have to work together in new ways as networks become increasingly important in protecting species.

If we do not start thinking about saving the wildlife now, there will soon be a time when shall not be taking our kids to zoos and biological parks to have them a glimpse at beautiful animals and birds but, would be showing them the pictures of these creatures only in books bearing the tagline of ‘Extinct Species’ in bold letters

If soon, no stringent steps are taken to save wildlife, it would not be long when they will find a place only on the list of extinct species BUT If we start contributing our bits to the environment and nature NOW, it would come back to us for our good in future

Kaburu Anthony: Governments MUST act to save our planet

Kaburu Anthony: Governments MUST act to save our planet: Our world is in a scary place right about now. No, I’m not stoking fears about technology or political extremism again.Literally, planet Ea...

Governments MUST act to save our planet

Our world is in a scary place right about now. No, I’m not stoking fears about technology or political extremism again.Literally, planet Earth is starting to look like a scary place to live. Wildfires and hurricanes are getting more severe and common.

Biodiversity is going down as more species die out. Even locally, I have noticed our weather getting weirder and weirder. Of course, weather and climate are not the same, but the fact that Connecticut weather has been feeling more extreme and erratic is no coincidence.

Basically, we are going to exterminate our species if we don’t fix something fast. We may hold on for a while, of course, but the next few generations may be some of the last. That being said, with all of the innovations humans have come up with to proliferate themselves, I do have some faith.

If we have any hope for long-term sustainability, it is in the advancements in science and technology that might reverse the damage we have done. Of course, the planet can repair itself on its own, but it will not do so fast enough without our help.

From this perspective, it is important to take action to slow the rates at which we are killing Earth as much as possible. We need the all the time we can get. Unfortunately, the system by which our planet—or at least, the western world—is run is against this by nature. That’s right, our planet is being destroyed by corporate greed, propped up by ignorance and allowed to survive by the incompetence of our elected officials.

Plainly put, capitalism cares only about profit, environment be damned. There are a plethora of examples of how short-sighted we all have been in allowing this. Amazon may be a modern marvel, but one-day shipping forces near-constant emissions from trucks delivering packages back and forth.

Nestlé, one of the top producers of water bottles globally, has been hated for years for their commitment to waste. And I haven’t forgotten the impact that oil companies like BP have had on our oceans and land even before their products are bought and burned.

Make no mistake, we are all complicit in this. The reason that companies do this is because they know we don’t care. In our cold, calculating system, they are just doing what’s optimal for business. One could easily place the blame on human nature, then, for being so driven by greed and order.

Grocery stores probably have as much plastic as food in them, but it’s not the more sustainable markets that are raking in the revenue from us. We all want to believe we’re environmentally conscious, but personal sacrifice is difficult to popularize.

Blaming the individual also seems wrong, though, as many have pointed out. Any one person’s ability to effect change is small—consumerism is too ingrained in our society. The solution, then, is that we need people to make these hard-but-smart decisions for us.

This is where the government should come in. I have previously spoken about how government does not need to be at odds with development and business. In this context, however, I am saying they should be. I don’t care how bad the growing pains will be for people, companies and society. We need to do better, and that starts with more regulation coming from our government.

If we don’t expect the average person to do better and we can’t expect private groups to pull their weight, it falls on the public sector to fix this mess. The future of the human race depends on it.

Does this mean that we should immediately go back to the stone age? Of course not, but sacrifices have to be made, especially in the first world. Whether that’s by carbon taxes, incentives, refactoring of our system or some other scheme, I don’t care. If companies have to shrink a bit as a result, all the better. If the individual is shifted with some of the costs, get used to it.

Well, fix problems with inequity and then get used to it. Whatever changes need to happen to save ourselves from climate change, local and national governments need to take more action now, even if it is unpopular. Trust me, future generations will thank us for it—at least, if we get that far.

We depend on the Earth so we better start taking care of it. Every day we are given the option to make positive change for the future of our planet. Don’t ever let someone tell you that one person can’t make a difference! The truth is that for centuries it has always been the action of one person that inspires the action of many.

Be a leader in your community and do what you can to reduce the misuse and overuse of our natural resources. We are not entirely to blame; we inherited a polluted Planet Earth and are seeing the consequences of the decisions made by previous generations. Luckily we have all the tools we need to ensure that our children can grow up in a cleaner, safer planet than ourselves!

Making a difference for the future of Planet Earth doesn’t have to include huge life changing choices!! Some of the most important things are simple lifestyle changes that, if we can all commit to, will create a huge reduction in our ecological footprint.

Kaburu Anthony: Justice and peace go hand in hand – you can't have...

Kaburu Anthony: Justice and peace go hand in hand – you can't have...: If ending a conflict means offering aggressors positions in the resulting political settlement and impunity for their crimes, is the compro...

Justice and peace go hand in hand – you can't have one without the other

If ending a conflict means offering aggressors positions in the resulting political settlement and impunity for their crimes, is the compromise acceptable? Or should full accountability and criminal procedures for aggressors be non-negotiable – even if it means that the violence and killing are prolonged? Such questions have served to create tensions between peacemakers and justice practitioners.

One thing is clear: separating peacebuilding from the promotion of justice undermines both, peace and justice are interdependent. The real challenge is how to reconcile the inevitable tensions between them.

The 16th sustainable development goal refers to “peaceful and inclusive societies”, “access to justice for all” and “effective, accountable and inclusive institutions”. This is welcome, but innovation will be needed to advance peace and justice as complementary objectives.

The scale and complexity of the challenges facing societies affected by conflict means narrow approaches that prioritise one over the other will miss the mark. We need to find creative ways of integrating efforts to prevent conflict with the promotion of human rights, justice and the rule of law.

Too often, justice is taken to mean improving and implementing laws. As a result, actions tend to focus on increasing the capacity of law institutions, such as the police and courts, to improve access to justice. Access to a system that helps to manage disputes between people is important – but it is only part of what’s needed for peace. “Access” is no guarantee of the quality or fairness of a justice system, while equal access to the law is very different from equality before it.

But while the fairness of justice systems, formal or informal, should remain a common preoccupation, we also need to tackle the much larger question of how to build more just societies. Justice is not something that is merely dispensed through courts and the police. Instead, it is experienced either positively or negatively through the quality of opportunities, relationships, transactions and behaviours right across society.

To improve people’s experiences of justice, a much wider selection of actors – not just those within the criminal justice chain – must be involved. We know that poverty, insecurity and injustice are man-made consequences of unfair policies and practices. We know that states can fail because, among other things, their policies exclude people from decision-making and access to resources – and this often fuels insecurity and violence.

We also know that poorly conceived economic investment can contribute to patterns of horizontal inequality, environmental degradation and bad governance – all of which make conflict more likely. So this reality needs to be changed. The fundamental question centres on power, and ensuring it is not used cynically or to dominate, but responsibly, knowing that generosity and beneficence builds trust.

What causes conflict and how can it be resolved?

In some contexts, justice institutions actively uphold laws, power structures and norms that entrench inequality and threaten peace. We need to think of justice as the outcome of a contest over resources and power. These contests occur everywhere – within and beyond the justice sector – and their outcomes can be fair and conducive to peace, or they can just as easily be the opposite.

Contests around unequal access to services, jobs, land and resources, or around tax evasion or environmental degradation, can be critical justice issues, the outcomes of which have a significant bearing on peace and development. It is the task of both peacebuilders and justice experts to facilitate contests that are peaceful, without diminishing the fairness of the outcomes.

Inadequately addressing people’s everyday experiences of injustice is morally wrong as well as a driver of underdevelopment and violence. People do not live single-issue lives where justice is confined to the legal field. By pooling creative ideas on how to work more broadly on justice, I aim to catalyse action and learning on how to advance the collective interest and make progress towards a more just peace.

Kaburu Anthony: Achieving Sustainable Consumption for Sustainable ...

Kaburu Anthony: Achieving Sustainable Consumption for Sustainable ...: Current patterns of consumption and production, particularly, in the developed countries are unsustainable. They are depleting forest resou...

Achieving Sustainable Consumption for Sustainable Development: Issues and Solutions

Current patterns of consumption and production, particularly, in the developed countries are unsustainable. They are depleting forest resources, fisheries, groundwater and bio diversity, polluting air, water and eco systems and causing dangerous climate changes. Environmental decay is occurring everywhere around the globe.

Goal 12 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations is to “ensure sustainable consumption and production (SCP) patterns.” It means being mindful about what, how, and how much we produce and consume so that the earth’s resources are used judiciously and preserved for future generations.

SCP is important because human beings exert extreme stress on the planet and its resources. Every living being relies on the planet for the basic needs of air, food, water and shelter. In addition, humans exert a special kind of stress on the planet, an exponential pressure to provide beyond the basic needs such as bigger houses, nicer cars, the latest gadgets and appliances, entertainment, fashion items, annual vacations and so on. 

 It is estimated that the world population will reach 9.6 billion by 2050. The number may not mean much until we consider that 70 percent of the world’s population is predicted to live in resource-intensive urban areas and 3 billion middle class consumers will join the global economy by 2040. Put simply, it means more people with greater wants will consume more.

Our consumption (and production) pattern is problematic because we only have one planet with finite resources. If we keep consuming and producing like we do currently, there will come a day when the earth can no longer provide us with the resources necessary to fulfil our unlimited wants.

Forget the wants, the earth may, in fact, be unable to provide us with what we need: clean water, air, food and basic shelter. Another facet of the state of humanity is that while we have made good progress in addressing poverty, 1.2 billion people are still living in extreme poverty today. So, on one hand we have rich people “wanting more” and, on the other, we have poor people “needing” the essentials.

Additionally, not all our wants are superficial. After all, is it all that bad to want better healthcare, more varieties of food, longer lives, better education, safer communities, better roads, more telecommunication and comfortable lives for our families and children? No. Thus our governments, our businesses, and we as individuals engage in a whole lot of human activity in pursuit of better lives.

Unfortunately, all the human activity comes at a cost to the planet, be it aimed at meeting needs or fulfilling wants. Geologists have declared that we have entered a new epoch since 1950, “the Anthropocene” where human activity has an incredible impact on the environment of the planet.

For instance, human activity has pushed extinction rates of animals and plants far above the long-term average, increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at the fastest rate in 66 million years, put so much plastic in the waterways that microplastic particles are now omnipresent, doubled the nitrogen and phosphorous in our soils in the past century with fertiliser use, and left a permanent layer of black carbon (airborne particulates from fossil fuel burning) that affects human health, visibility, ecosystems, agricultural productivity and exacerbates global warming.

Therefore, considering 1) the unlimited human aspiration and increasing disposable income 2) the need to alleviate poverty and provide decent living standards for the entire world’s (growing) population and 3) the incredible impact of human activity on earth, we must find solutions and compromises. Perhaps the Middle Path is the way.

 In other words, in order to ensure that development addresses the need of all humanity while removing excessive stress on the planet, adoption of sustainable patterns of consumption and production is an imperative. Sustainable living in its truest sense may be achieved only if we radically change our consciousness.

Whether it is checking population growth or letting go of all our wants and desires (beyond the basic necessities), debating roles of economy and technology or rethinking current systems and institutions, these “big questions” are difficult to answer and even more complicated to achieve.

Open truth is; without sustainable consumption, sustainable development is impossible. Sustainable consumption has become an important issue on the global governance agenda. There is an increasing recognition that increases in resource productivity alone will not be sufficient to deliver sustainable development.