By Rick Ruffin
Through individual choice we can change the world. I'm not sure enough people realize that.
It seems people are always waiting for scientists, experts, policymakers and government to find the answers. However, the solutions to all our problems can be found at the personal level. Change begins with the individual.
But we don't seem to understand the connection between our daily actions and the state of the world. We think of our actions as being so mundane. They are anything but.
The individual (consumer, we like to say) in developed and rapidly developing countries has enormous influence on events worldwide, be they political, social or ecological. By changing our shopping habits, we can change world events. We can make the world a better place.
While everyone is flying around having meetings to talk about how bad global warming has become, no one points out that it's all of us flying around in airplanes that is the problem.
Air travel is one of the prime contributors of CO2 gases. But who is willing to give up air travel to take a boat or a train? Virtually nobody, so things are probably going to get worse.
It's common for not only people, but government and corporations, to pass the ``global warming" buck on to others. At failed climate talks, the U.S. points the finger of blame at India and China, who point it back at the U.S. As a result nothing is resolved.
Corporations do the same. Take Yoohan Kimberly, a South Korean online shopping mall. It placed an ad in a prominent English language daily that blamed global warming for the declining North Pacific pollock stocks.
But the reason for the declining fish stocks isn't global warming, it's over-fishing. It's a simple matter of excessive human consumption.
But this company is telling everyone that we can bring the fish back by planting trees. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The company is trying to increase sales by marketing itself as a ``green corporation."
Each year, around the globe, millions of sharks are killed. Their fins and tails are hacked off and they're dumped back into the sea to sink and die. The fins are dried and shipped to Hong Kong and elsewhere in Asia.
These shark fins provide the gooey matrix from which highly popular shark fin soup is made. This dish is popular in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, and wherever rich Chinese people gather. It is especially popular at Chinese weddings.
Because the soup is so popular, the shark population around Cocos Island ― a lush tropical Eden in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Central America ― is rapidly being depleted. If we don't stop eating shark's fin soup, there will be no sharks left.
We can save the sharks and the North Pacific pollock, but it means making choices at the individual level: choosing not to eat shark's fin soup, or choosing not to have more than one, or perhaps two children. But are we ready for such radical reforms? I think not.
So let's take this opportunity to say goodbye to the sharks, the giant bluefin tuna, the African rhino endangered by the ivory trade, and thousands of other species of life as well, because unless we start changing our consumption habits radically, they will all disappear.
The fact is that we are consuming all of our resources while pointing the finger at each other and hoping that science and technology come up with an answer.
Aquaculture may provide much needed protein to the billions of humans around the world, but to say that it can substitute wild fish stocks is stretching the truth.
Homo Sapiens are the most influential and potentially destructive force on the planet. That most of us aren't aware of ― or don't care to think about ― the consequences of our actions can only bode ill for the future.
We wield immense and far-reaching power just by the consumption choices we make. Borneo's rainforest is disappearing to supply palm oil, an ingredient in cookies and snack foods. The Amazon is being cut to plant corn and sugarcane. These crops are used to make ethanol, which we dump into our cars.
We wield immense power through our consumption choices, yet we are not required by law to learn how to use that power wisely. You need a license to shoot a gun or to drive a car, because these are two potentially very destructive practices. But we don't need a license to destroy the rainforest or deplete wild fish stock.
The only answer is education. Public awareness ads and campaigns targeted at adults cost a lot of money, and by the time someone has become an adult, he or she has caused so much damage it is basically too late, so the best answer is to teach ecosystem awareness from a very early age.
Ecosystem awareness means awareness of the web of life, as well as how your actions affect others around the world, be they animal, vegetable or mineral. It should be universal and mandatory.
Perhaps someday the children of the world will hear their teachers say: ``You have the power to change the world, for better or for worse."
I, for one, hope that is the case. I hope to someday teach about these issues.
The writer, a graduate of University of Texas, Austin, now writes from Gangneung, Gangwon Province. He can be reached at rick_ruffin@yahoo.com.