F

strong>Feb. 11, Online

Environment Minister Balthasar Kambuaya said on Monday that the national environment quality index had remained unchanged for the last several years.

“People have the right to a good environment as well as clean and fresh water and air. A clean and healthy environment is a part of human rights,” Balthasar was quoted as saying by the Antara news agency at the opening of a environmental management center meeting for the Sulawesi-Maluku eco-region, in Ambon, Maluku.

The index was measures how well the nation’s environment management institutions work together. The higher the index position, the better the working performance of the institutions.

Your comments:

I started off slowly and small. When my little one threw a candy wrapper on the street and I told her to pick it up. She asked why she had to pick trash up when there was trash everywhere thrown by everybody else. After having moved to Australia and having seen the results of responsibility, she has now returned to Indonesia and can compare.

Put the grade-schoolers into the community and to clean up the nearby streets; the community might learn the lesson by example. The children will carry on to adulthood with the right attitude.

Brien

So what have the ministry and planning agencies been doing for the past several years? Absolutely nothing. They only wish the problem will go away without any effort. It has been a waste of public funds.

Sanna

It is no surprise that no improvement have been seen in the country’s environment quality. So far, environmental issues are solely thought of as high-official business, in which only the government and related authorities are considered responsible.

Good programs to improve environment quality are indeed being implemented by the government, but are unfortunately not followed by people’s own actions.

We see big bold banners everywhere reading “bike to work”, “go green”, or “save our forests”. Well hey, those warnings are no more than wise words, nobody cares. We still see motorbikes everywhere, piles of tissue paper abundantly thrown away in toilets, or pollution-emitting public transportation and private vehicles, and many others.

I don’t think environmental issues are that urgent to attract people, since they still feel they are fine and they don’t die because the city is polluted.

The baseline after all, in my humble opinion, is people’s lack of ownership of their environment. So far, campaigns say “save our earth”, which is too magical. I mean, who could actually save the earth? A superhero?

Instead of campaigning to save the earth, let’s just change the motto to “let’s save ourselves”. That way, it has more impact on a person’s heart, since humans are selfish by nature. They only care for themselves. At least, they would start feeling “Ah, my life is at stake? Alright, what to do now?” By worrying about their own lives, people unconsciously and simultaneously save the earth.

So, let’s change the logic. Save ourselves, not the earth.

Aan Prastya