Environmental issue
As a frequent visitor to your country I often read articles in The Jakarta Post which cover environmental issues. The most interesting recently being on Monday, Oct. 5, 1994 which presented a dreadful state of the famous Aral Sea in Central Asia. How this once magnificent inland sea could have been allowed to degrade to such a degree is one of the worst examples of "Development At All Costs" mentality the world has seen for some time.
For the authorities to sit by and watch the loss of such a rich environmental asset is shameful and should inspire all Indonesians to guard against a similar incident happening within these beautiful islands. When no one has taken into account the long term consequences of poorly implemented development projects, man-made environmental disasters areas like this one can be very easy to trigger off but exceptionally difficult and costly to rehabilitate.
The only good thing in stories like this is the alarm they cause. Which, hopefully, may trigger public vigilance and prevent similar disasters elsewhere. Additionally, they strengthen the arguments for policies which promote "sustainable development" or "development with conservation" instead of the dreaded "development at all costs" mentality so often adhered to because of the urgency of the project.
Considering the hole in the ozone layer, coral reef bombings, disappearing rain forests, industrial encroachment into rice fields, saltwater intrusion, expanding deserts and numerous other urgent environmental problems, including the current fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan, it is obvious that many of our attitudes towards the environment are no longer acceptable or workable in this day and age. Even though we all now have a much greater awareness of environmental issues and many policy makers are increasingly more critical when examining new industrial or development proposals. We must all understand the "The Environment" is not some distant place where only forest people and wild animals dwell, but the place where we all live.
No individual country has the resources or political power to solve the three big future problems of the world, Increased population, providing sufficient food and environmental degradation. They dwarf all local problems. Even an invading army does not do the ecological damage an advancing desert can do.
Solutions will require the collective scientific brain power and political cooperation of all countries, otherwise, the population explosion may well be brought under control by the rather frightening possibility of widespread environmental degradation. A scenario not too dissimilar to the "MAD MAX" movies -- which may have been made with the correct foresight after all.
Considering that the European countries have already lost the great majority of their forests and the remaining areas are presently being subjected to acid rain, perhaps Indonesia could offer the rest of them a deal. Instead of clearing the forests for a ready market, it could offer to protect them and keep them intact, for a reasonable fee, and allow them to be a much needed lung for the whole world to use and benefit from. It isn't a question of Europeans not being able to afford it. Can they afford not to?
MIKE ATKINSON
Jakarta