ON Earth Day, April 22, amidst the ongoing "War of the World" against Covid-19, we are reminded again on the need for us to respect and take care of Nature. As the Malay proverb says, Kalau meludah ke langit, akhirnya jatuh ke muka sendiri, literally meaning, "if you spit to the sky, it will eventually fall back on your face".
In the current context and if you damage the environment, the essentials it provides — food, water and clean air — will be less readily available. Worse still, our intrusion into and destruction of wildlife habitats have triggered apocalyptic zoonotic diseases such as Covid-19.
In a new documentary, celebrated British broadcaster David Attenborough declared that "human beings have overrun the world" and are sending it into decline. He's placing hopes on the younger generations to save our civilisation.
It is no coincidence, then, that a 2014 video voiced by Hollywood icon Julia Roberts has been
making the rounds again on social media. Created by Conservation International, the video (bit.ly/natureroberts) offers its thought-provoking message in a powerful way.
The actress delivers messages in the voice of Mother Nature: "I have fed species greater than you. And I have starved species greater than you. My oceans, my soil, my flowing streams, my forests: They all can take you — or leave you… Your actions will determine your fate. Not mine."
We must get going, the sooner the better. One popular concept involves a "circular economy", which means minimising waste and maximising our necessary use of natural resources, an alternative to the linear economy, in which we extract great quantities of resources to make products that we often use once only and discard in a landfill.
The aims of the circular economy: optimise the use of the resources we extract from nature and minimise waste — to "close the loop", in other words, with maximum material recycling.
To work, manufacturers are called on for new product designs, and transformative new models for how products are consumed and who owns them.
For example, a computer or mobile phone manufacturer held responsible for the waste from its products might put a deposit on and lease its products, ultimately taking them back for refurbishment or to recycle its components.
The idea is to break our disposable world mindset and throwaway habits, which result in polluted rivers and oceans, threatened wildlife, and food supply insecurity.
To quote National Geographic: "That means rethinking how products are conceived at the start, minimising unnecessary use of resources, designing items to be used as long as possible, and planning to funnel material back into the economy afterward. Achieving this will require massive investment in collection, sorting and recycling infrastructure."
It notes that municipal governments worldwide "are becoming incubators for ideas that can inform broader policies and can inspire action in both public and private sectors".
Toronto's organic waste, for example, is collected from households and turned into biogas that can fuel trucks or generate heating. At least 4,500 New York City businesses, meanwhile, focus on "repair, reuse and the sharing economy". Carbon taxes could be a key tool in the strategy: reward producers that successfully shrink the carbon emissions caused by their products throughout their entire life cycle and penalise those who don't.
To what extent has Malaysia adopted the circular economy?
From a cursory observation, it's still a nascent concept. Our society is still sleepwalking along practising the linear consumption model. Just look, for example, at the mountains of food waste generated in previous Ramadan seasons, most of it ending up in dumps unequipped even to collect landfill gas.
It is up to our leaders to put us finally and firmly onto a sustainable path. As a wake-up call to respect nature, the Covid-19 pandemic is a giant alarm clock with the impact of a sledgehammer on our health and economy. We have no time left to procrastinate.
The writer is a senior fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia, and an ambassador and science adviser to the global Campaign for Nature