Cop on, Colombia, for biodiversity's sake

@wwaycorrigan

[For an audio/vlog version of this story, click here.]

It shouldn't surprise those familiar with Colombia to be told that many of its citizens are proud, understandably so, of their land's rich biodiversity.

'No country is more beautiful than ours', is a common pronouncement. Some even proclaim they have no desire to leave the place because of its beauty, even though most of those who say this haven't physically seen much of the national territory. As good a reason as any not to leave, I guess: 'I have to explore Colombia first.' (One also needs some savings to travel.)

Can you spot the hero turtle in this litter-filled Colombian swamp?

Misplaced pride

This I-love-my-country banter has been backed up by a recent survey carried out on behalf of World Wildlife Fund Colombia. When residents were asked for their main feelings about the country's biodiversity, 44 per cent of respondents gave pride of place to um, pride, while 46 per cent said it worried them. Just nine per cent said they were indifferent to it.

Pride aside, it is true to state that few regions in the world can match the diversity of flora and fauna that makes up what we today call Colombia.

The range of landscapes and climates plays a big part in this, from glaciated peaks and Andean páramos all the way down to dense tropical jungle and a coastline that touches the globe's two largest oceans.

How much, though, the average Colombian does to help sustain this biodiversity is open to much debate. According to the World Population Review's Mismanaged Waste Index, the country is at best mediocre in dealing with its refuse.

Backing up the overall, national picture, is the easily observed individual mismanagement and apparent recklessness in waste disposal. It can bug those of us brought up to be angered by litter louts.

Plastic people

I addressed this topic, particularly the popularity of single-use plastics, in a 2018 piece titled The Disposable Republic of Colombia.

Since then, the state has introduced some measures aimed at reducing this reliance on plastic. For example, customers must pay — or are supposed to pay, at least — for each plastic bag used to package shopping in supermarkets and suchlike.

I'd like to see something similar for plastic cups. They're still overused in many standard cafés/panaderías and beer-serving tiendas. Why some Colombians prefer to have their hot coffee in a slowly melting plastic cup when a porcelain one is available is beyond me. And then there are the accompanying plastic straws for stirring one's brew; such wanton plastic pullulation. (Do note that in the World Wildlife Fund survey, 63 per cent of respondents said plastic pollution was a chief concern.)

'Colombia's rich biodiversity has little to do with the humans who inhabit the territory. Maintaining that richness, though, has a lot to do with us humans.'

Colombia's waste mismanagement should come under greater scrutiny in the coming weeks as the city of Cali gears up to host Cop16. If you, like me, are a bit confused, indifferent or even annoyed by all these talking-shop Cops, this one is the 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference of the Parties (Cop16) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). That makes more sense now, doesn't it?!

Words are easy to express. Acting on them is another matter.

Cop16 aside, it smacks of a lack of cop-on to regularly brag about the country's biodiversity and natural beauty but do next to nothing to keep things that way. Or worse, to actively, if apathetically, engage in practices that harm the environment.

Colombia's rich biodiversity, after all, has little to do with the humans who inhabit the territory. Maintaining that richness, though, has a lot to do with us humans.

Reducing material diversity

About the best way to manage potentially harmful waste is to keep it to a minimum in the first instance i.e. reduce consumption so that there's less of a need for both reusing and recycling. And on that front, overuse of disposables aside, Colombia appears to do better than some high-income nations. There can be upsides to not having much of a disposable income.

As for reusing, opting to repair damaged goods — be they clothing, footwear, electronics, etc. — is normal here.

In other Western countries, the default setting over the last few decades has been, 'If it's broken, bin it', rather than try to fix it first. This mentality finally seems to be changing but the repair industry isn't as established in the likes of Ireland and the UK as it is in Colombia.

What's more, while many high-income nations are seen to manage their waste well according to the aforementioned Mismanaged Waste Index, it's fair to ask what that management entails. Those who see it as little better than a cosmetic exercise that comes with high energy requirements and associated costs have a valid point at present.

OK, litter is unsightly but does it make a major difference if it's concentrated in one area away from the eyes of most or spread out all over the place?

As mentioned, aiming to reduce the amount of waste we generate should be the main goal. And many of us in the comfortable classes can do more to cut back on our use of non-essentials.

Doing so would give us something to be genuinely proud of, for those of us who truly care about the natural environment, that is: Less material diversity, more biodiversity.
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Dawn of the downsizers

@wwaycorrigan

[For an audio/vlog version of this story, click here.]

'You don't know how easy you have it. In my day, life was far worse.'

This is one of the standard ripostes from older folk when they hear youngsters complaining about how bad their current situation is. While this Digital Age has its unique challenges, things were far tougher in the past, so it goes anyway.

Bigger isn't always better.

This, though, depends on how one defines what tough is.

For there are measures, open to much interpretation as such things are, that suggest that millennials from some high-income nations are set to be the first generation in modern times to be less well-off than their parents.

Personally, comparing my wealth and assets to my father's, this less-well-off interpretation seems about right.

Coming up to his 39th birthday, whilst already the father of six children and with two more yet to come, myself included, my Dad was in the process of building his own house on the land of the family farm he inherited.

For me right now, two months away from turning 39, it's highly unlikely I'd get a mortgage approved to even consider buying a dwelling. (For the record, I haven't even looked into it because I'm not sure where I would like to own property, if I want to at all that is. Also, many Irish in my age cohort who opted more for settling down rather than a life of adventure abroad appear to be on a steadier financial footing.)

Generation game

Of course, comparing generations, particularly those born in the late stages of the Technological Revolution and into our current Digital Age, is fraught with complications due to the rapid rate of change in almost all aspects of life.

The household my father was born into in 1943 was rather different from the one I came into just 42 years later.

Where in his mid-teens my Dad was England-bound for an early life of toil in construction, my main concerns at the same age were football and the secondary-school leaving certificate. And I could fret about such matters from the comfort of the family home.

'It's understandable that when more prosperous times came along, these older generations were mesmerised by the materialism that presented itself to them.'

In my early twenties, with a university education already completed, I was able to abandon my budding media career to go travelling around the world. Such opportunities were largely unheard of for somebody of my father's background.

Now, an argument can be made that the less mollycoddled youth that my father and most of his peers had to go through gave a more realistic picture of life's struggles and was thus more beneficial in the long run.

Nonetheless, what few of that generation had was a choice. I, on the other hand, had various options open to me. In most instances, that's a positive (there are times, though, when I think it would be better not to have too many options).

Material world

So, when those born in the 1940s, 50s, 60s and even 70s say that they had it tougher growing up than those of us who came later, this is hard to argue against from a technology and access-to-resources perspective.

Seen in such a light, it's understandable that when more prosperous times came along, these older generations were mesmerised by the materialism that presented itself to them.

In Ireland, we saw this to an extreme extent during the Celtic Tiger years, something I touched on in a 2012 blog story titled, On the road again, naturally.

Some in the country went from what was little more than subsistence living to a life where they couldn't spend money fast enough — borrowed at cheap rates as much of it was.

'More, more, more' and 'bigger is better' were the mantras. And many got quite comfortable with their new comforts.

When the faecal matter hit the ventilator of Ireland's Celtic Tiger boom, some realised the error of their ways. Well, it was more a case that the financial reality was laid bare.

Yet, letting go of the lavishness hasn't been easy. And from my observations, it's the older generations who are more reluctant to do away with rather unnecessary home comforts and associated excessive waste. (Although, hypocrites abound across the generations when it comes to calls to 'reduce, reuse and recycle'.)

The heat is on

To be clear, I'm not calling for a return to something resembling a caveman existence. What I am saying is that many in the comfortable classes could downsize in a host of areas and not really suffer from it.

In fact, doing without certain mod cons might actually improve our quality of life and reduce our carbon footprints.

For example — referring to Ireland and similar countries here — rather than crank up the heating in winter time, there is evidence that suggests having a naturally cooler house may have health benefits. So, where possible, stay warm by being active rather than relying on home heating.

Do note, it's usually easier and more cost-effective to keep warm in a smaller dwelling, too. Does one really need that five-bedroom dormer?

I've let it be known many times before — see my previous story Me, myself and I, for one — that some people could do without cars, that they have them more for convenience than necessity.

Now, I hasten to add that I have previously acknowledged that going without a car is easier to do in cities or areas with reliable and extensive public transport as well as decent infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists. Much of rural Ireland fails badly in this regard.

I am well aware, too, that such adjustments require a societal mindset change, together with the provision of the means to make adaptation easier to achieve.

Ever-evolving, more efficient technology is helping us to still enjoy certain comforts, to still be as productive, without being an excessive strain on the planet's finite resources and the natural environment.

My peers and I can be the generation that downsizes in a way that is beneficial both to ourselves and the world at large.

This is the dawn of the downsizers.
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Letter to the editor: Ireland's water waste

@wwaycorrigan

Easy come, easy go. That seems to be the mindset for many in Ireland when it comes to using water. My latest letter to the Irish Examiner explains more.

Read it at https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/yourview/arid-41279887.html or see the screenshot below.

Time to turn off Ireland's free-water tap?

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The Disposable Republic of Colombia

It tends to be the case that going green is one of the last things countries concern themselves with on the route to development.

Environmental issues are usually an afterthought as states strive to boost their economies. This can be particularly damaging for countries rich in natural resources such as Colombia. 

In this regard, it's generally not the locals doing harm (largely down to the fact that indigenous industries don't have the capacity to exploit these resources to their maximum potential). It's usually powerful multinationals, with the connivance of officials and politicians on the ground, albeit.

Um, beautiful Buenaventura: Spot the disposables. 

However, in terms of day-to-day waste management and a desire to 'reduce, reuse, recycle', the practices of many Colombians leave a lot to be desired. This can't really be blamed on "evil" foreign companies. No, the problem lies with the locals on this one.

You see, across the board, there is a big love affair with using not-very-environmentally-friendly disposable plastic products for a whole range of things.

Take our beloved panaderías. While most of these establishments, even the most basic ones, have porcelain cups available for public use, the preference for a large number of sit-in customers seems to be a throwaway plastic one, accompanied with a little plastic straw for stirring.

One reason for this, so it goes anyway, is related to hygiene. The thought of using a cup that some stranger drank out of beforehand is repugnant to many. It doesn't matter if it's been washed. (When you consider the fear-of-the-hot-seat syndrome, this kind of thinking isn't all that surprising.)

In a similar fashion, you'll be hard-pressed to get an actual glass with your beer in a standard tienda. A plastic one is what you'll be given if you don't want to drink directly out of the bottle. In mitigation on this one, most people do seem to drink directly from the bottle, thankfully.

Of course, the big problem with most of these disposables, especially the favoured plastic ones here, is that recycling is not an option. Yet, having them neatly collected and stored at waste facilities would at least, in theory anyway, prevent them from clogging up drains and being a general eyesore.

However, a not-always-reliable waste-collection service coupled with a penchant for individuals to recklessly litter plays against this.

Things aren't much better when it comes to plastic bag use, nay the ridiculous overuse of them. In many stores, it's still the case to put almost every item you purchase into its own plastic bag.

Now, it must be said that with the coming of new discount supermarkets such as Ara, D1 and Justo & Bueno and their policy to charge for using plastic bags, this is slowly changing in some quarters. Many others could do with following suit.

This plastic-bag charge in the stores mentioned and the subsequent behavioural change from shoppers bringing their own reusable bags shows, as it does in almost every other sphere, that money talks.

So how about panaderías and the like charging people more for wanting their drinks or whatever in disposables? (In a similar fashion to our idea to charge people more if they want sugar with their drink.) 

It's likely there'd be a quick change. People would either use the in-shop china or bring their own reusable cups (if they're that pernickety about hygiene).

A bit of a carrot-and-stick approach to get people to clean up their act.
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