Since my retirement, I have been doing volunteer work - four years with a police agaency, then eight years at a big zoo, and now more than two years at a nature center. Needless to say, the paid staff and most of the volunteer workers at the zoo and at the nature center are environmentalists.
I too support the protection of our environment. I belong to The Nature Conservancy, which has been judged best of all the environmental groups. Unlike many organizations, such as the Sierra Club, with their obnoxious monthly petitions and solicitations, The Nature Conservancy goes about quietly buying up land for preservation, both in this country and abroad. I also belong to several wildlife organizations.
Last week, some of the volunteers at the nature center were rather upset over all the tree cutting that takes place just to produce paper products. That led to a discussion of the deforestization that goes on all over the world. While I would personally like to see every tree preserved, I asked the other volunteers, "Who are we to point fingers?" Then I went on to explain why I raised the question.
I have made eight extended trips to the Amazon. Over the years, I have spent time in the Amazonian territories of Venezuela (twice), Peru (four times), Ecuador, Columbia and Brazil. I love the beauty and peacefulness of the rain forest. I really enjoyed hiking through and camping in the jungle. I was always fascinated by leaf cutter ants and could sit and watch them for hours at a time. At night, the sky is full of bright stars. Because the only way of getting around is by foot or boat, there is no pollution from gasoline or diesel engine emissions. (Some of the "half-civilized" Indians have outfitted their dugouts with outboard motors.) By visiting their villages, I learned a lot about the Indians who live in the Amazon.
The people who live within or at the edge of jungles in Latin America, Africa and Asia are extremely poor. They probably earn less than the equivalent of $100 a year. They hunt all types of wildlife for food, including rodents, monkeys and other primates. They cut down trees to clear land for growing crops and to build their dwellings. Some of the more primitive Amazon tribes keep having to relocate their villages to accomodate rainy and dry season topographical changes, thus causing more trees to be cut. Those who live in poverty, with their daily struggle to survive, cannot afford the luxury of being environmentally friendly.
I truly love wild animals. I hate to see them slaughtered for any reason. While at the zoo, I worked in its primate section. I especially loved our orangutans and our lone gorilla. It never really bothered me when the orangutans would splatter me with spit, as they often did. What bothers me is the killing for bush meat of orangutans, gorillas and other primates in the wild. And it really bothers me that deforestization, for whatever reason, is shrinking the natural habitats of orangutans and gorillas, thereby threatening their survival and that of other wildlife species. But, the tree cutting and the primate slaughter play a major role in a primitive people's desperate attempts to survive.
I doubt if we really understand the plight of the impoverished peoples of Latin America, Africa and Asia. Those who are poverty stricken in the industrialized West - especially in the U.S. - are wealthy compared to the third world's poor who are barely getting by. When a magnificent elephant is slaughtered for its ivory, the poacher's impoverished village will end up enjoying a better life. Thanks to the illegal drug trade, the cultivation of opium poppies in Afghanistan and the cultivation of coca leaves in the Andes enables impoverished farmers there to earn a better income. Because we are so well-off, it is easy for us to condemn the poor for their role in the trafficking of ivory and illegal drugs.
I have personally observed some logging activities in the Peruvian Amazon. I have also observed a number of oil rigs being drilled or operating in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Did these activities mess up the beautiful jungle? Yes, they sure did! But, the logging companies and the oil companies pay the Indians for the right to cut trees and to drill for oil. And, I've seen the oil companies construct modern school buildings for the Indians. I've also seen them build comfortable tourist lodges in the jungle. Those lodges are then owned and run by the Indians, providing them with a steady source of income.
Granted, the logging and oil companies do not pay the Amazon Indians anywhere near the royalties they pay landowners in the United States. And, the drilling for oil in the jungles is done without many of the environmental protection measures required for drilling in the Western World. But, who are we - the well-off - to point fingers at others and condemn environmentally damaging activities that improve the lives of impoverished people in other parts of the world? And who are we - the well-fed - to point fingers at and condemn those who hunt Orangutans, Gorillas and other primates in order to provide their hungry families with meat to eat?
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