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With this edition of EnviroNews constituting the 12th and last for this Lionistic year, I have both good and bad news. The good news: for those of you who have enjoyed the last 11 editions and hopefully this one as well, there will be another 12 in store for you during 2008/2009 Lionistic year as I will be serving on cabinet and running the same portfolio again.
The bad news is that I will have to maintain the same standard and I’ll also be chasing up on all your environmental projects or even those with an environmental aspect that you may not be aware of.
Natural disasters are now occurring with amazing regularity with earthquakes in China on top of a cyclone in Burma, aftershocks in China again, followed by a quake in the Philippines and now a volcanic eruption in the Galapagos Islands (they say the turtles are not affected). While we’re mostly helpless to head these off we can retain more equilibrium by getting the earth back into synchronisation. The shift in the stabilising effect of polar ice masses affects not only the weather (and it does that very well) but could easily induce a further wobble to our spinning earth with devastating consequences. This prompts me to adopt a phrase for the next year - “treat the cause, not the symptoms”. If we can bring everything back to normality the occurrences of severe symptomatic excessive storms, earthquakes and other disasters can mostly be prevented. This in turn will then mean that our Lions resources to assist when needed will not need to be used so frequently. LCIF do a wonderful job and make us all very proud.
- Save you power to cut your carbon footprint and save you money
- Cut your carbon footprint by recycling and make a couple of rand out of your efforts – to benefit club admin funds
- Have your braai over weekends to cut your use of power. The footprint generated by burning 1 or 2kg of charcoal or a little more wood is still a great deal less than that required to generate the power to cook the meal using electricity. (We use a gas hob!)
- What could be more fun than sharing a bath by candle light - especially if the water was heated by solar power? Obviously a shower will use less water but the practicalities of sharing a shower may be a little different to negotiate!
- Use you car less and cycle more. Cycling could also become a great togetherness thing and also costs less.
- Please re-use your supermarket plastic bags – the legislation has backfired and bags (now thicker!) are still ending up in landfills. Fold them up and leave them in your handbags or cubbyhole
I look forward to visiting your clubs, that’s if you need to know more about your pollution levels, the risks to your health and what you can do as a club to make a difference or even as individuals. I look forward to your comments as well – even if it is ways to share that shower!
Treat the cause, not the symptoms, Lions
Gerry Kuhn
District 410A Environmental DC
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