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Politics : The Environmentalist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Skywatcher who wrote (25063)	8/27/2009 2:38:15 PM
From: Maurice Winn	2 Recommendations Respond to of 36921

In the 1960s it is hardly surprising that oil exploration and production in Ecuador was a polluting effort. Around the world, pollution was the norm. My very own Manukau Harbour was a thriving metropolis of marine life when I was a small child. Over the next quarter of a century it was killed stone dead by various sources of pollution: Westfield freezing works which poured offal and blood and industrial waste into the harbour. Pacific Steel and the industrial area around Otahuhu, Penrose and Onehunga. Lead and oil from cars which was washed down the stormwater drains directly into the harbour. Pikes Point rubbish dump. Millions of tons of rubbish were dumped directly into the harbour. Mangere sewage treatment which poured a river of effluent into the harbour. There was not a single living thing left in the harbour. Not even algae, worms, or any visible sign of life. There were probably anaerobic bacteria doing okay, but not much else. I didn't do a microbiological assay. Those pollution sources have all been stopped for going on 20 years now and some of them for longer than that. Pikes Point will continue to leach muck but the onslaught has stopped. Over the last 20 years, life has been returning, working its way up from the ocean and the southern hinterlands of the huge harbour. It's not back to normal, but kawhai are surging, Pacific oysters have taken over the rocks, crabs are back, cockles are gathering pace. There are still no trevally snapper, blue mao mao, mullet that I have seen. Nor pipis or other shellfish other than oysters. Meanwhile, the air in Beijing is horrendous. In London it's disgusting albeit far less bad than 100 years ago when the famous smogs suffocated people. Why would anyone care that in Ecuador there was pollution too? It would be surprising if there wasn't. Mqurice