Just as you are about to board a plane, you see a man busily removing rivets out of its wings.You get the hell out of that plane just to hear the man call out ?Don?t worry, the wing won?t fall off!? Are you sufficiently reassured to get back on that plane?

No sane person would want to travel on a plane whose airline maintenance was so ?nimporte?. Only a lunatic would want to ride on spaceship Earth if the components of its ecosystem were being dismantled so fast that maintenance could not begin to keep up repairs. Only here we have no choice ? it?s spaceship earth or oblivion!

The free resources that planet Earth provides (the air we breathe, equable climate and seasons, soil to grow things in, fresh water, waste disposal, recycling of nutrients, provision of food and space for living) are rapidly being eroded by humanity?s destructive impact on the complex biological network of the planet.

The expression ?all being in the same boat? applies admirably to planet Earth as it moves out in space with all of us aboard. I vividly remember the loud bang of 20 years ago in our Swissair DC-10 flying over Vietnam; the pilot then came on the tannoy and calmly said: ?We have been hit by lightning.? Today spaceship Earth is being repeatedly hit by lightning.

We eventually landed safely in Bangkok, just as I am certain that planet Earth will remain livable, but not without care from us all. We do not have a spare planet to move to when this one has become unlivable (as simply as you go out and buy a new TV set to replace one that has burnt out). Hence the care of this unique planet is a must for us all. Similarly of course for spaceship Mauritius, which we cannot discard once it?s destroyed for an inexistent Eldorado island elsewhere. How do we take care of this small planet? The environmental movement has summarised the answer in this phrase: ?Think globally, but act locally.? This means each one taking care of his/her own doorstep and the whole world will be well. For the present, I invite you to take a close look at some of this planet?s major problems and measure your reactions to them:

? One-third of the earth?s cropland could be destroyed by year 2020; half of the arable land of Mauritius could be under tar and concrete by that time.

? The earth?s tropical forests could almost disappear by year 2060, with them the lungs of the planet;

? 60,000 square km of land are lost to desert each year, mainly in Africa;

? 40 per cent of all species of plants and animals on earth could disappear by the year 2050, taking the ?dodo?route to extinction. Mauritius, by saving the kestrel and the pink pigeon, has made amends for the dodo debacle;

? Fuel burning puts almost 5 billion tons of carbon into the earth?s atmosphere each year. As a result, the earth?s climate may be getting warmer, seasons more unpredictable, cyclones more intense etc, making it harder to grow food in some areas. I was in Ethiopia once during one of its terrible drought years, while floods were devastating Mozambique.

? Fossil fuel is fast becoming exhausted, but present-day civilisation, based as it is on petrol, is very slow to change to renewable energy sources; tiny Mauritius, with no known oil reserves is taking a very short-term view by closing sugar factories and removing sugarcane plantations when this resource could in fact ensure energy independence in the future;

? A nuclear war on earth would put so much dust in the atmosphere that the sun?s rays would be blotted out for years and all life on Earth would be threatened (the nuclear winter theory), while an all-out nuclear war in one corner of the planet could move planet Earth ever slightly out of its present orbit, with disastrous consequences on climate (The Nuclear Rectangle theory of Michael Atchia, published in the 80s, in l?express);

? Oceans are vital for life on Earth. In their natural state, they clean and regulate themselves. But most of the world?s wastes are discharged into the seas and remain trapped in coastal waters, poisoning marine life. Many species of fish depend on mangroves, seagrasses and coral reefs at critical stages in their life cycles, but these important fish nurseries are being degraded at unprecedented rates by pollution and over-development of the tourist industry. Instead of further measures to protect those unique creatures which are dolphins and whales, commercial whaling is being proposed once again. (Mauritius has done very well in restoring some of its lost mangroves, but is it on the right path concerning tourism development?);

? The earth?s nations cannot agree on how to protect Antarctica, the earth?s untouched continent, the melting of which would cause a sea-level rise that would affecf half of the world?s coasts and completely engulf the Maldives and Agalega, among others;

? Population density and other factors(including genetic engineering?) has given rise to new pandemics as viruses mutate, despite all the advances in medicine and pharmacology;

? Some people on earth destroy nature because they are poor or greedy and lack knowledge of the consequences of their actions. Politicians and decision-makers often say the right things while doing the wrong things or failing to take rational (at times radical) action, based on scientific evidence, in the service of planet Earth and the needs of its inhabitants.The Spaceship has governance problems in that, more often than not, demagogy prevails over rationality in decision-making. Just think of the 100 million plus persons massacred during the last century, in wars! The continued destruction of nature could have far worse consequences!

In simple terms, how to enable 5 billion people and another 50 billion animals and plants to live together, in peace and co-operation, in a narrow spaceship? Understanding how this spaceship operates is vital for such harmonious living. If, instead of ?loving one another?, the crew and passengers fight among themselves (please see the film United 93 when it becomes available here!), then a crash becomes inevitable.Soon our spaceship is simply going to run out of fuel, while the altenative fuels are not yet in place, but ?who cares??

But of course we do. In a nutshell, what we need are individuals, governments, companies and civil society organisations educated in environmental management, willing to develop and implement strategies based on the principles of ecologically sustainable and socially just development. Such strategies would ensure not just survival but continued good living on this Planet.

<B>Dr. Michael ATCHIA

[email protected]</B>