Plastic and corals, South East Asia in a nutshell
Today marks the 3 month anniversary of our travels. In this time we have visited many countries, including India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. We have seen nature and (plastic) pollution, rich and poor, the beautiful and ugly side of traveling. I could go on with the opposites that we have encountered, but there is always something similar that links everything together: human influence.
Human destruction and ignorance
I say human influence, but I might as well say human ignorance. That is actually the cause of nearly every single destroyed piece of nature that I’ve seen. When talking about dynamite fishing, the short term increased amount of catch is overshadowing the potential future lack of fish all together. The ease of using plastic every day, indirectly causes the oceans to fill up with plastic, killing marine life daily.
Plastic doesn’t only end up in the oceans, it ends up on beaches spoiling that one white beach you managed to find. It ends up on the side of the roads, spoiling that view of the mountain you’ve always wanted to see. You wouldn’t believe in which places you find plastic nowadays.
When I lived in the Netherlands, I worked as a piping engineer. Every day I tried to implement improvements to refineries, expanding them or just making sure that would keep on running. I participated in the long chain of people who work very hard to keep things going, threw myself at the opportunities oil brings to this world, and I would be lying if I said that the money I made from working in the oil and gas industry, didn’t allow me to go on this trip.
I am not disappointed in myself for having worked for the industry. But disappointed that I always told myself that I was making improvements so that the industry would be less “bad” when I would be done. Somehow, I told myself that by helping to improve the efficiency in the refining process, I would help the world, and not the pockets of the big corporations out there. I remembered the images and videos when I was training to become a divemaster. I remembered the beauty of this earth, and then I saw how we are all spoiling it together.
Spoiled tropical paradises
In my previous post about the Kei islands, I wrote about the corals that I expected to be amazing in this isolated part of the world. To be honest, I have seen the most beautiful corals I’ve ever seen there. But I have also witnessed widespread coral destruction. I have gone snorkelling to find fields full of bleached corals. Fields of only pieces that have been blasted away by dynamite fishing. And for what?! To increase the short term profit from fishing, without caring how destructive it is to live on earth.
We have so many solutions to the problems we are facing. So many alternatives for fossil fuels are out there, the same goes for alternatives to animal products (for those who didn’t know it yet: the animal industry contributes more to climate change than the whole transport sector combined, read more here). It is chosen to be ignored for one simple reason: short term profit while ignoring the long term consequences. This is the red line that is found throughout nearly every single problem we face as human kind.
Plastic pollution on paradise beaches
The beaches on the uninhabited islands in Indonesia are full of plastic. Very often the locals are blamed for not taking care of their nature, polluting it by throwing away their trash everywhere. But when beaches on uninhabited islands are polluted by plastic something else has to be happening. The world wide plastic consumption fills up our oceans with its waste. It doesn’t break down easily and it flows around with the oceans’ currents.
During the monsoon season, the high water from the storm swells brings all the floating plastic to the beaches, where it will lie for the next 100 years. Just think about this, every single straw you have ever used , is still around somewhere on this earth. I don’t know about you, but for me that are easily about 500 straws. Hell, as a kid I sometimes wanted 3 straws, because I found it funny to try and drink with 3 at the same time.
What do we all want?
The ignorance that I believed in my whole life, is the cause that slowly our entire planet is fading away. It is happening in front of our eyes and yet only a few people do something about it. It is unbelievable that lobbying to governments and funding campaigns go above and beyond the consequence to our earth. That’s what it is, our earth, our world that is straying further and further away from the point of no return.
When we go on vacation everyone looks for the most beautiful places. Everyone loves being surrounded by beautiful nature, sceneries or even cities. Nobody loves to be surrounded by piles of plastic, dead nature or waste. We have to collectively look for solutions to make this world a better place again. I am well aware that flying is bad in terms of fossil fuel exhausts high up in the sky. As long as oil will be profitable for the big players to exploit, no solution will ever become the norm.
South East Asia is a dream, it is beautiful and it has untouched nature that will impress even the most seasoned traveller. However, If we maintain the status quo, nothing of this nature will be left in a few years. People here see development, and start to understand that tourism brings money. Westerners aren’t the only people that want comfort in their lives, and soon the unspoiled parts of this region will be used to make money in the short term. When this nature will be spoiled and ruined, the long term brings nothing but poverty once again. Taking care of this planet will be the only cause beneficial for all of us.
