RE: Cameron Highlands Where Are You?
Strangely enough, Cameron Highlands has officially protected national park, but it is shrinking every day. If there aren't new illegal farms, then someone with money comes up with an idea. As we were talking to one farmer most of the workers on farms come from Bangladesh and Pakistan. They are the ones who drop the garbage behind every corner. Farm owners, which are mostly Chinese also don't fight that, because there is no system for waste collection and they see things differently. Our friend tried to explain to me how people there see nature, but I still don't know was he joking or not. It is a world with many many problems. Our friend is optimistic that the new prime minister will change something. Optimism didn't last long, because when we visited him there were elections for mayor of this area and somehow the old party continues to rule...
I agree with you, Man has the right to use the land, if only it would be done with respect, love, and gratitude. I guess these values are oldfashioned :D
It's really odd to be hearing this kind of report coming from a place that I assume you would call a developing country, because so much of the blame for trash and pollution gets thrown to the west and the United States in particular. Or at least, that's what it seems like. It is a matter of scale, I guess, but it's interesting to read that there's carelessness and apathy in other places.
It sounds like whoever might come up with a sound way of collecting refuse could make some money, which generally is the incentive in many cases for keeping places clean, even if it should an inherent human trait (it's not). I think we have a fairly hard time keeping national parks nice here, too. It's really up to the people who visit them to decide to respect the property as if it were there own (in a way it is), and not leave it in far worse condition than what they found it in.
Not sure what to say about the illegal farms springing up. That sounds like an issue for law enforcement to address, which apparently, they're not doing.
Yes, trash issues reach far beyond news and Asia contributes to an enormous amount of plastic waste. They love single-use styrofoam plates and plastic mugs, bags... you name it! In addition to their growing problem the west (as far I know USA & UK) export waste to Malaysia, now that China has stopped receiving it. Trash is a good indicator of the real system that is running the world; no one is guilty, no one can change anything...
However there is some good news, I listened to one interview the other day and as they said the scientists have found a worm that is able to digest plastic. The only problem is that is tiny and it takes months :) Even so, it is a start! I also read the other day that one Japanese guy developed some nanotechnology to clean the water. So something is happening, but despite the development, we should worship our planet and treat it right. That would be the end of capitalism, which is a scary thing! I believe cryptocurrency is a way to go forward and so is the AI. All I hope is that the AI code will include the "save the planet" notification :)