Together we can

The response to Oman Green Awards held on June 12, 2010 has been humbling to say the least. For the people of Oman, the inspiration for environment conservation comes from our benevolent leader His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said. It has always been the belief of His Majesty that it is in the best interest of humanity to preserve the environment; sustain its assets; and maintain its resources. Only then can we pass on a safer, more prosperous and greener world to our future generations.

The evidence of His Majesty’s continuous care and interest in environment at both the national and international levels is seen in the institution of the international “Sultan Qaboos prize for Environmental Protection,” in 1989. The prize is administered by UNESCO.

The importance of preserving the environment can hardly be overstated. While one does not want to sound alarmist, the statistics speak for themselves – human beings add six to eight billion tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere every year by burning fossil fuels and destroying forests. Over 40 per cent of all tropical forests have been destroyed and another acre is lost every second. The last two decades of the 20th century were the hottest in 400 years; Arctic ice is disappearing rapidly, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040 or earlier. Over 100 pesticide ingredients are suspected to cause birth defects, cancer, and gene mutations. The annual catch in 13 of the world’s 15 major fishing zones has declined and in four of those in the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans - the catch has shrunk by a startling 30 per cent.

And the danger is closer than we think, Coral reefs, which are highly sensitive to water temperature have suffered the worst bleaching or have died-off in response to stress recorded since 1998. Some areas have seen bleach rates of as high as 70 percent. This should sound a warning for Oman as well.

In the last couple of years as people searched for glimmers of hope in the wreckage of the world economy -- politicians, economists and commentators used one phrase so repeatedly that it became something of a mantra for our times: In crisis lies opportunity. Nowhere does that maxim apply more than to the problem of climate change. The financial crisis only crippled a global system; climate change is hurting the globe itself. While we may think that hard decisions are the responsibility of our leaders alone, when it comes to the environment each one of us can make a difference.

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