I HAVE been spending a lot of time with fanatically fervent tree huggers who want to save the planet. They are only a little less dramatic and probably too slim to get their hands around a sturdy iroko. Barring the inconveniences of their physical limitations, they are as idealistic as they come. This is their story – the earth and its resources are declining at a systematic rate but they will fix it before it gets destroyed. Their idealism is as infectious. It probably helps that they are some of the world’s fantastic personalities in one place.
In order to save the earth, they strongly believe that we should start exploring solar, wind and other forms of ‘clean energy’. They warn that we can no longer solely rely on the crude from the Niger Delta or Qatar. Crude is bad for the rivers, gas flaring is bad for the earth, and we will soon run out of it anyway. Over coffee, I listen as they share opinions on how awful coal is and its impacts on the carbon cycle. I try to tell them that ‘clean energy’ sounds suspiciously pretentious with vague memories of some place called ‘Copenhagen’ with pompous sounding ‘save the environment’ campaigns.
I wonder if they will care about where energy comes from if they had to use candles, lanterns and spend money on fuel for cranky ‘I-better-pass-my-neighbour- generating sets. I protest that clean energy is like a comfortable goal for economies that have grown fat on oil-based industrialisations, like an indulgent dessert after a nice bowl of eba and efo riro. Yet, I cannot ignore the fact that the world is only on one earth and despite its critics, climate change affects this one earth.
When they talk about incorporating environmental policies in different sectors of the economy, I nod absentmindedly. They don’t know about Bar Beach and the shore protection bars that we hope will continue to stem the tides and stop the lagoon from stealing more of Victoria Island, and I don’t mention it. I remain conflicted because I still desperately want a ‘developed’ Nigeria but I still want my unborn children and their grandchildren to be able to thrive on what is left of the earth. As we talk and share, I wonder about whether we will need oxygen tanks in the next hundred years. Then I nearly convince myself that the Nigerian resilient spirit will adapt to whatever air exists. More importantly, I wonder if a China styled fast-paced development is mutually exclusive of a thriving earth. It is hard to agree with anything other than how the coffee tastes when I talk with these people on this point.
The environment is not the entire story. They also say that our resources are fast depleting. I find that more familiar than ‘global warming’. I can’t remember ever really seeing the trees that used to give the rainforest its name or eating fish from the Ogun River or groundnuts from the North. We are indeed over-harvesting from the earth. When these people scorn fertiliser for stripping the earth of nutrients however, I hold my throat to keep my voice in check. I am almost successful at withholding the indignation that comes from seeing people hungry and knowing the ‘good’ done by fertiliser. Don’t they realise that the real choices are often ‘food’ or ‘no food’ and that ‘organic’ hardly bears any meaning? Don’t they care that fertiliser increases food production? So what if the soil is destroyed? Who wants a healthy earth with starving people?
Like Noah, Utnapishtim or Ziusudra however, they are firmly aware of impending doom and despite the ridiculousness of a flood in arid lands and the laughter that welcomes their sermons, they continue to preach it. Their voices are loud and soon enough, I am starting to wonder how we can get more food without destroying the earth. I start to imagine that our scientists could bring up new ways to grow food. I wonder about preservation of food and how much more useful it will be.
My new friends also warn of the erosion of trust and of institutions that undermine people’s capacity to meet their needs. This is what I really connect with. I am reminded of shameless corruption, of brazen thievery and unaccountable public spending. I recall that a few weeks ago, a high court ruled that Zainab Isa Mayana’s forced marriage was not an abuse of her human rights and of the importation of British dustbins for nearly One Billion Naira. I don’t share these stories though. I’ll rather not add to the ‘corrupt African stereotype.’ I yet find it easier to talk over cooling coffee about the unsustainability of the way our political systems are run or the way the dangers of the present socio-economic system. I easily agree about the benefits of fair trade and join in complaining that it is often not enough. We chat about the Millennium Development Goals and how it could be much more effective. We finally come to a common ground and agree that our world could indeed be better with ‘fairness’.
That is what sustainability is: the journey towards a socio-economically and environmentally enduring world – despite the many differences in how we think we can get there.
This article was first published in The Guardian, Nigeria 19th November 2010
