We quite often criticise how little untouched wilderness remains here in French Polynesia and the lack of efforts by the government and other organisations to protect the environment. We complain about locals who still hunt turtles and collect sea bird eggs and blame a lack of education and awareness.
Yesterday we read on the Austrian News that the fishermen and fisherwomen there have finally managed to get the right to shoot cormorants as they do damage to the fishery… We hypocritical Europeans are so good at knowing what other countries have to preserve: there’s a public outcry when the Indians shoot their last tigers or the Brazilians log their rainforests. But beware if a single bear sticks his furry snout over the Austrian border, or if a swan poops in a lake, or the aforementioned cormorants dare to eat fish–they immediately get the death penalty.
What are they supposed to do instead? Order a burger (from a cow that used up incredible resources being fed under quite often horrible circumstances, transported around half the world, etc.) at MacKing?
Wouldn’t it make much more sense to be happy about every wild animal that has somehow managed to adapt to the environment we have made?
The problem with humanity is that we assume that we own the planet and all other creatures are only tolerated if they are of use to us. Why don’t people grasp that we are just one of many species who are supposed to share this beautiful planet in a sustainable way?
2 comments
Josef says:
March 26, 2021 at 7:40 pm (UTC 0)
Tja, ist halt weil da einer da vor 2000 Jahren gemeint hat” Macht euch die Erde Untertan….” Oder zumindest behaupten manche, die lange nachher kommen sind, der Typ habe das so gesagt…
Diana says:
March 29, 2021 at 10:31 am (UTC 0)
BRAVO, well written! I feel exactly the same, how humanity treat our planet…. shameful and full of greed! Too stupid to see how we destroy ourselves in the end!
Injustice against the environment and the animals, literally everywhere!
I couldn’t say it in better words!