Mark Twain was right. We should be ashamed of ourselves. Reason being: it has been estimated that humankind produces over a billion tonnes of waste per year.
According to the Grass Roots Recycling Network, 71 tonnes of waste is created for every tonne of goods produced. And, as if that was not cause enough to worry, the Plastic People group claims that if our annual plastic bags consumption were stringed together, we could probably wrap them around our earth 50 times!
With the objective of informing the public about the amount of waste we generate, the individuals involved in Mission Antarctica built a winding corridor with walls of trash collected from Johannesburg, as part of their exhibition at Ubuntu Village.
Mission Antarctica, led by Robert Swan, a keynote speaker at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, undertook the unenviable task of removing over 1000 tonnes of waste from the Bellingshausen base on King George Island at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. It has been called “one of the most extraordinary cleanups in Antarctic history.”
In an effort to continue to inspire others and spread the “Think Global – Act Local” message, the people behind Mission Antarctica have brought their efforts to South Africa. In addition to their exhibition in Ubuntu Village, which included artistic installations made entirely from waste materials, the people behind Mission Antarctica started Earthship Mission Possible.
Earthship Mission Possible, in partnership with loveLife, traipsed across South Africa as part of a project to spread the legacy of Mission Antarctica in the World Summit host country.
From 1 June 2002 to early-August, Earthship Mission Possible interacted with 11 600 children, encouraging them and other young South Africans to “clean up their act”. Further, as they passed through different settlements, they took note of what communities are doing about waste management and sustainability.
“We want people to be responsible – don’t take more than you require,” Maanda Ntsandeni, an environmental journalist who was travelling with Earthship Mission Possible said. As for the emphasis on inspiring the young, Maanda explained that the young are our “future decision-makers, if we engage them in environmental issues, they’ll make conscious decisions tomorrow.”
© GLOBAL YOUTH REPORTERS PROGRAMME
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