It appeared for a while that Humankind may have learnt its lesson: not meddle with or dictate the terms to something that governs you, that keeps everything in tandem, the Mother Nature.
From Australia’s Great Barrier Reef to the Budapest and the heavenly waters of Venice to Tanzania game reserve, several beautiful places of the world are at risk of losing their treasured UN World Heritage status.
A draft report has been released before a key meeting next month and the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has recommended a major change in the heritage list.
This happens as specific authorities at place rendered unbated environmental damages, excessive development or simply over tourism to snatch away the serene beauty of these places despite UNESCO’s lament.
But our fallibility is what keeps us a human, an ambitious soul that stops for none but his desires.
1,30,000 African elephants stand at crossroads for being saved from a planned massive new oilfield stretching across Namibia and Botswana, in one of the continent’s last great wildernesses.
The threat is already looming over hundreds of elephants having died last year mysteriously. Scientists are still struggling to find death cause but believe a link to rising amount of toxic algae which has been caused by global heating in their waterholes.
“There’s a profound irony here. Here we are with hundreds of elephants dying from an algae bloom caused by climate change, and a few kilometers away they want to start drilling for yet more oil”, a regional Conservationist explains.
Preservationists plead for ecological justice: Not just Elephants but more
Campaigners as well as conservationists are fearing that it can cause imbalance to the regional ecosystems and wildlife along with negative impact on local communities.
They say: “Fewer than 450,000 elephants survive in Africa, down from millions not so long ago: 130,000 of these have established this region as a home range, and ReconAfrica’s misbegotten plans place them at direct risk.”
“It is incomprehensible that ReconAfrica’s hunt for fossil fuels is going ahead.”
It is a Canadian oil and gas company, already having leased more than 34,000sq km of land in the Kavango Basin and is beginning the seismic exploratory work in the fields.
This can jeopardize critical water supplies in the area and threaten renowned Okavango Delta of Botswana, a huge pristine wilderness and World Heritage Site.
“Every element of this process – from new roads to drilling sites, refineries to terminals – will devastate the ecosystem and the local communities that depend on it for farming and fishing.”
“The vibrations from exploratory work are known to disturb elephants, and an increase in construction, roads and traffic would not only drive the animals away but also open the area up to poachers.”
Fridays For Future Windhoek, an environmental group has even termed the oilfield a “carbon gigabomb”.
New oilfield in African wilderness threatens lives of 130,000 #elephantshttps://t.co/48HUuiB3pa#Botswana #Namibia #Africa #oil #climate pic.twitter.com/GYHpYrWVZH
— Environmental Investigation Agency (@EIA_News) June 20, 2021
“Especially when they have young, they avoid areas where there is any human activity, where there is noise and what they see as danger. This can drive them away from their ancient migratory routes and closer to villages and agricultural areas, leading to more human-elephant conflict.”
Government’s perspective in the imbroglio:
According to the Namibian government, only exploratory licenses have been granted and not for production operations.
It has clarified that no exploratory wells were located in any “conservancy or environmentally sensitive area” and will consequently, have no significant impact on our wildlife.
Some representatives of the government have asked western critics to stop and ponder how their own countries got rich from exploiting their natural resources, simply negating their rights to question Namibia doing the same.
The prospecting Company estimates the “potential oil generated” to be between 60-120 billion barrels i.e., worth pouring billions of dollars to the regional economy.
How does the Company justify the project?
According to the company’s spokesperson, “We sincerely believe that the region’s stable energy industry can be developed in an environmentally and socially responsible manner that is accountable and supports the development and delivery of much-needed economic and social benefits, as well as funding investments in local wildlife and ecological conservation.”
The company talks of the “measures in place” to address noise and vibration issues: installed solar-powered community water wells, using water-based, biodegradable and chloride-free drilling fluids and even low-frequency equipment to “protect wildlife communications” in the area.
They added: “We are committed to continuing to work closely with, and under the direct oversight of, the governments in both countries, as well as their regional and traditional authorities, to ensure we continue to comply with relevant laws and regulations throughout all the stages of our operation.”
The new generation knows what their ancestors did, and they did wrong to the planet, especially to a level we cannot sustain. IEA warns anyone to stop exploring new oil and gas fields to accomplish achieving net-zero by 2050.
Be it India or any other country permitting such disasters to be baked, we cannot therefore afford to replicate the same methods to fulfil our needs, rather we just want to invite some trouble for already troubled nations in the long run.