According to the article written by Nick Bryant, agricultural pesticides are now exacerbating the Great Barrier Reef, a World Heritage-listed natural wonder in Australia. Over the last few years, the Great Barrier Reef has been damaged by massive coral bleaching resulted from the warming sea temperature, yet it is reported that there has found that agricultural pesticides are great risks which threaten water quality there. The prime reason behind this is because "the heavy flooding and a cyclone that ripped through northern Queensland earlier in the year are thought to have made things worse, by flushing pollutants out to sea." The article also reported that "many horticulture producers were using practices considered unacceptable", particularly in the sugar cane industry in the northern Queensland. Fortunately, there have been requests to constrain the use of pesticides and to prohibit the use of certain herbicides; however, "sugar cane producers have argued that there are no alternatives to adequately protect their crops".
Again as with other major environmental damages, a major threat facing the natural environment comes in human form. The opposition to use alternative ways to protect their farms reflects that sugar cane producers have not adequately developed an awareness of the importance of the marine ecosystem which creates biodiversity and supports the livelihood of millions of people. It is true from the article mentioned that the deteriorated marine ecosystem can probably be alleviated through using more "environmentally friendly methods" instead of using insecticides and chemicals substances in the farming industry. Yet, it is interesting to note that other forms of pollution such as sediment from coastal land development, destructive fishing, waste-water from inland, not to mention the careless feet of inexperienced divers, are no less threatening to the future of coral and marine ecology than global warming and agricultural pollutants. These disastrous activities, therefore, not only need an effective solution to carry out, but also the commitment to enforce it in order to retain marine resources for the future generations.
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References
(2011, August 13). Australia's Great Barrier Reef 'at risk from pesticide. BBC News. Retrieved August 14, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14516253
In my opinion, although we all know about the fact of climate change impact, but there are few people who devote themselves in order to sooth this problem. According to your references, it seems like those sugar cane producers who don't admit about their work process affected on marine creatures will not seriously change their behaviors or participate in the environmentally friendly methods. (Because they don't care or realize the following effects.)
ReplyDeleteSimilar to other problems related to climate change, everyone knows what it can bring about, but only some concern and change the way of life to make the world better which make me wonder...what do we exactly have to do in order to remind people of the negative impacts??
Yesterday, I watched a documentary program on ThaiPBS. The story was about a female who try to protect sharks and try to stop illegal shark fishing, which is a pervasive problem in every regions. Shark fin is very expensive, because shark fin soup is a very popular dish (for me, a delicious one is a soup, not a fin, using plastic in stead of fin could give the same taste) By the way, the documentary says hunting shark is like ruining our food supply from ocean. In nature, shark help us controlling a number of squid population. Less shark means more squid that will eat more undergrowth fish. Then fisherman will hardly find fish and we can have only squid soup. Eventually, oceans will no longer be our sufficient food resources. This is an another way ,which human use for harming themselves.
ReplyDeleteDig is right.
ReplyDeleteHuman's are very good at harming themselves, especially when it's only other people and not immediately themselves.
Easter Island, whose native people effectively destroyed their homeland by following their traditional cultural and religious beliefs, is a stunning and famous example of how destructive people are of their own environment.
But we're probably getting better, certainly better than our ancestors who didn't seem to care at all for the environment and were only prevented from inflicting grave harm more often by their technological limitations. At least we tend to aware of the dangers and are trying to do something about them.