Many Don't See It

Tension in Middle East, the ongoing killings in West Bank and even the food crisis, fuel hike ... ... Regardless of who you are and at where you currently reside, like what Friedman has said, the world is flat. And his theory holds true as long as you are living on earth, you will surely feel the pinch of inflation and economic slowdown. Some has pointed to Iran's overzealous commitment to developing nuclear, while some take on China and India as the culprit of the collapsing of what was then a systematic world trade of crude oil. Agreeable to all these points, but many don't see all these catastrophe as the result of mismanagement of our environment. Many don't see it and many more remain ignorant or even worse, being critical of environmental conservation efforts. Ask any economist, they will tell you that the opportunity cost of development - forgoing nature conservation - will be too much a cost to pay.

The brass excuse of being poor enough to enjoy the luxurious environmental measures taken by Western's company just show how exactly is the mentality of the people of Republic of China. Despite the success of summer Olympics and the one-of-a-kind construction of "double-decker" tunnel highway, China is still far behind when it comes to environmental friendliness. The problem does not arise with ideological differences or excessive nationalism of its people to the extent of being labeled as xenophobic. The real issue is the degree of incentive given by the communist regime to all businesses. The key question- How serious is the government when it takes on environmental issues? To bolster up its economic needs, the Chinese officials have astoundingly shown their advocacy to pariah states like Myanmar, Sudan, Zimbabwe and even Somalia. Knowingly that they have been backed, local authorities continue to indulge in richness at the expense of its people. As a result, basic sanitation and sewerage system are not of an adequate standard for people of modern history. As for the Chinese, over-dependency of coal as main power source has deteriorated ground level ozone which causes uncontrollable pollution. Since China have sucked up most production which was left idle due to global economic downturn, its industries have the obligation to make sufficient compensation towards damages caused to the nature, a cost described as negative externalities in economic terms. And if the republic remains ignorant, then domestic nature issues will pile up in near future.

The United States of America, for the first time in history, suffer great humiliation when the Iranians refuse to bow down on its much critical nuclear weapon expansion. The humiliating part is not with the blatant opposition of the Iranians, but it is the fact that the States is no longer the sole political powerhouse. The rise of China and Russia has caused great anxiety to the White House as the country suffers from unprecedented economic slowdown and oppression from third world countries, e.g. trading crude oil and other resources to China, India or even Russia. Moreover, America have to take Iran's threat seriously to destroy the world's sole access to crude oil located in The Gulf, which will definitely cause price of crude oil to soar sky high. Just when these countries wrestle for international clout, the people of Israel and Palestine continue to immerse into endless killings and destruction. When the Jews return to reside at Jerusalem after the end of Nazi's Holocaust, the succeeding quest aided by Western sympathizers for settlements has been uncompromisable in the eyes of Palestinian and its Islamic allies. Despite being a stake of continuous strangling between the West and Islam, both ethnics continue to struggle for arable lands, sources of clean water and such. The Israelis are exporting agricultural products which used up entire water reserves and the Palestinians continue to substitute production with weapons and armed personnels. One would ask, why can't these two regimes give up fighting and start developing own demarcated settlements. Why do they have to keep competing on the already resources-scarce desert lands? And if charismatic people like Sen. Obama starts sounding like the butcher John McCain, then perhaps, we will witness the first two races to be completely annihilated in 21st century.

The mismanagement of nature does not only bug giant economy. Indonesia and Brazil - rapid deforestation, Niger and India- negligence on proper sanitation and people's health, and even filthy rich state like Dubai and Abu Dhabi take issue of nature as Western propaganda, one would really wonder, should mankind proceed to search for higher living standards and rapid economic growth , or should we do it by factor in nature conservation in all planning? Until we all see changes and improvement, one could actually taking into belief that death awaits us, and the end of the world is all real but rhetorical. Until then, the people will understand, that all efforts poured into enriching civilization, is all but endearing us towards termination of mankind.