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As
World Celebrates Earth Day,
Liberia’s
Environmental Plight Mirrors Earth
Day
April
22, 2006
By
Morris T. Koffa
Executive
Director
Liberia
Environmental Watch, Inc.
Earth
Day was founded on April 22, 1970. It
is a day set aside to traditionally
celebrate the dawn of environmental
revolution in the United States. This
symbolic environmental milestone bears it
roots in the United States, and it is now
celebrated annually in many countries
throughout the world.
Earth
Day recaps, renews and strengthens our
environmental commitment and responsibility
towards clean and safe environment for it
provides mankind the abundance of earthly
things that support human existence. The
lands that grow our food to nurture our
bodies, the water we drink, the air we
breathe, and so on, are all part and parcel
of the earth.
It
is our inherent responsibility to keep it
healthy and protect against man-made
decadence, while meeting our humanly needs.
If we proverbially spit on it as a result of
our reckless lifestyle, we spit on
ourselves. Our action or inaction will
determine how long we live in it.
The
observance of this historic Earth Day was
envisioned through the tireless effort of an
environmental hero, a United State Senator,
Gaylord Nelson. He was troubled by the
political establishment’s neglect of
environmental issues. Politicians treated
the environment as a non-issue in politics
and policy decision-making of the nation
while environmental degradations were
surfacing everywhere, taking a devastating
toll on human lives and the destruction to
the ecosystem. His fight was ultimately to
create the needed grassroots awareness among
students, community leaders and finally the
political power-base and into the nation’s
political “limelight” once and for all.
The
efforts profoundly change the environmental
dimension in the political limelight of the
United States of America. President John F.
Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy,
at the helm of political power, embraced the
idea; hence, created national visibility and
a forum for the American people to openly
debate environmental issues with power to
serve as stewards and custodians for the
environment without intimidation.
Today,
environmental freedom in the United States
of Americas is well and alive, and over 174
countries around the world have replicated
this triumphant idea of raising concerns
about environmental crisis. Today, many
nations in the world take pride in
observance of this occasion.
Liberia
Mirrored
For
Liberia, there is nothing to celebrate or
honor on this occasion, sadly so. Our
environmental state remains obliterated and
awareness campaign is very minutely felt
only because our leaders in the past
demonstrated little or no interest at all
while human lives perished. Since
Liberia gained her national sovereignty in
1847, the issue of environmental soundness
has never been a major factor in the
political, economic and social
decision-making process of our nation. Every
conceivable environmental law or ordinance
has been ignored without exception in the
governance and development of Liberia.
Foreign
and local companies did business at will
without consideration of the environmental
impact since our political leaders only care
about what could be pocketed at the
detriment of the greater masses.
Firestone Rubber Plantation Company,
LAMCO and Bong Mines, just to name a few,
left the nation with vivid memories of
environmental scorn and degradation that
threaten present and future generation. The
civil wars, for the larger part, exacerbated
the ecological imbalance caused by the
unchecked business activities of foreign
companies, and benign neglect of regulatory
compliance by the Liberian Government.
Environmental
freedom and political liberty are
intrinsically linked and holistically
inseparable. It is the
responsibility of governments to
simultaneously ensure equal engagement in
the fulfillment of these nationalistic
environmental goals. Neglecting one over the
other can become dangerously problematic.
As
the government strives to rehabilitate
financial and social paralysis in this
postwar era, the Liberia Environmental Watch
(LEW), Inc. applauds President Ellen
Johnson-Sirleaf's 150-Day Action Plan
and encourages the administration to further
support and strengthen the Liberia
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in
protecting Liberia’s environment against
exploitation, extinction, contamination and
pollution.
Community
Role
The
protection of the environment should not
only rest or be the sole responsibility of
the government. Communities and stakeholders
have equal responsibility as well to protect
their environment. This is why the Liberia
Environmental Watch is advocating a
community outreach program, including
environmental educational awareness
capacity-building. LEW believes that the
fundamental steps for a sustainable
environmental management begin with
educational capacity-building. Empowering
the communities to take control of their own
environment from a collective approach can
only produce filth-free communities,
eventually contributing to good health and
longevity.
LEW
would like to work in partnership with the
government of Liberia, NGOs and stakeholders
to advance the concept of educational
capacity building. Such environmental
educational capacity-building, hopefully,
will be initiated in Liberia soon by LEW.
Modalities are being worked out.
“All
that is necessary for the triumph of evil is
that Goodman do nothing”
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