(MY) leatherbacks

[Guest guest]

Thursday August 10, 2006 - The Star

 

We are to be blamed

 

I REFER to the report, " Leatherbacks in Malaysia

extinct<http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/8/8/nation/15075076 & sec=\

nation> "

(*The Star*, Aug 8).

 

So it has finally come to this. The loss of another symbol of what makes

Malaysia so unique.

 

In nearly 20 years, we have gone from being one of the hotspots for

leatherback sightings (and many other things) to the hotspots for extinct

species on this planet of ours.

 

I remember going to Rantau Abang as a child in the 1980s to catch a glimpse

of these creatures. You could see heaps of these lumbering gentle giants.

Today, it is nothing more than a memory.

 

The question, perhaps, we should ask ourselves is this: How in the world did

it lead to this?

 

The Government? If people were provided with good facilities and

infrastructure, they would not have to resort to using the rivers and the

seas as dumping grounds.

 

If they were provided with the proper education, they would not waste water

or electricity. The reasons are endless. Yet they make poor excuses.

 

You see, the effort to want to preserve our environment must ultimately come

from within ourselves.

 

We only have ourselves to blame. How many times have we seen someone throw

rubbish out of their car window?

 

How many times have we seen people leave the tap running while they take

forever to soap a cup? How many times have we ourselves wasted food?

 

And how many times have we seen all this and kept mum about it?

 

We see and do all these things, yet we turn a blind eye to it.

 

People continue to do such things - poaching, littering, wasting - because

no one ever told them that it is wrong. Because everyone else does it.

 

We are all responsible for the extinction of any species on this planet

because, unlike animals, we have the gift of the mind, of rationality, of

discerning what is good and what is bad.

 

Yet we keep it to ourselves and allow people to go about with their daily

routine of wasting, and killing – until it is too late.

 

Until science takes a huge leap forward, this is the only place we can call

home, given to us by God to use and care for.

 

 

 

*MABEL TEOH,

 

Petaling Jaya.*