Can We Afford Conservation?
In part 1, Nyingi Wahome taught us about inclusivity in conservation, reminding us that people cut trees to make a living, not for a hobby. Let’s see how well he can defend his positions today.
- Conservation is expensive, right?💸💸
Not at all. There is always one small thing any individual or government can afford to do. Habits like home gardening using drip irrigation are relatively cheap. I’m not advocating perfect existence.
Conservation is economically inclusive. But failure to implement it has a much higher cost in the future. Similarly, our efforts now will pay back heavily in the future.
2. What is the impact of all this on the economy?🤔🤔
The economy is not set in stone. It fluctuates every time. Actually, if we shifted our spending towards sustainability, we would secure the economy firmly for the long term.
What should worry us is the damage our behavior right now has on the future.
3. You get concerns about some industries being too unsustainable right?🤨🤨
Totally. And I don’t have all the answers. What I insist on is putting all our energy into the right problems and their solutions. Overfishing is a problem, fishing is not. Dumping waste in water bodies is a problem, dumping is inevitable. That’s where policies come in. They put pressure on those who are doing it to do it right.
4. What kind of policies should we be driving for?✅❎
Those that encourage sustainability while also embracing development. Policies are like guard rails. We set them for ourselves, but we can’t always help whoever chooses to jump over them. I have faith in organizations such as NEMA though. Their mind is in the right place. Even if we have questions about implementation, we must throw our weight behind such efforts.
5. While still on the government and policies, let’s talk about the funding issue.💲🏦
It’s a sad state of affairs globally. Contracts are awarded to unsustainable developers. A company like Gjenge which converts plastic into construction materials took so long before getting any funding and they still compare poorly to unsustainable competitors in funding.
Unsustainable ecosystems are bound to crash sooner or later anyway.
Plus, I’m not advocating for overnight change. If we give companies and individuals time to shift, we are saving them from the inevitable. And do not underestimate the human capability to reinvent themselves and adapt
Environmentalism and sustainability are collective responsibilities.
6. Players like Elon Musk say that the energy crisis requires us to pump up oil and gas. 🏭🏭
He is quite wrong about that one. We should be expanding clean energy supplies. For instance, Africa could provide sufficient solar energy supply since we are near the equator but there is not nearly enough investment in the sector.
For African countries, the main gap is probably overreliance on foreign aid. There’s the source of energy, the money we’re currently investing unsustainably, and the brains as well, but we choose to wait until a foreign entity comes to do it for us.
By rejecting foreign aid, we will definitely suffer a dip in our livelihoods. But that also pushes us to find solutions to our own problems.
7. How about eating habits?🥗🍏
The question of whether or not to go plant-based for the environment is not all black and white. Crops grown through monoculture rather than crop rotation are just as harmful as meat products that are not ethically produced. It’s not about the food itself but how it is produced.
Of course, If you drink soda, you are directly adding to the plastic being dumped. Can you make fresh juice instead? If you eat imported food, you are adding to emissions from planes. Can you buy local instead?
Speaking of local, food shouldn’t be aesthetic. A banana with dark spots might not be Instagram-worthy but it is probably better produced; without all those chemicals to keep it perfectly yellow. We don’t want to throw food either. It’s very wasteful.
Thank you!
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