I like to think that we’ve always been a little ‘green’; we recycle, never litter, and generally try to care for our earth. But we've really had our eyes opened up in our travels about how short-sighted man can be in solving problems with the environment…
While in Egypt, we spent some time in the Nile River town of Aswan, then we crossed Lake Nassar on a ferry to get to the Sudan. Lake Nassar was formed not many years ago by building the huge Aswan Dam on the Nile (just upriver from Aswan, as it happens). Hundreds of square miles (at least!) of river land formerly occupied by thousands of people and many ancient ruins now lie under the lake. At least they moved the most famous ruin, Abu Simbal, to the (new) lakeshore. The dam was constructed to eliminate the annual flooding which has occurred for millennia along the banks of the Nile. Sounds like a good idea, right? Worth all the one-time investment and inconvenience to make life easier for everyone else along the river, especially the farmers with the low-lying riverfront land. We thought so too – this is how 20th century technology can really help people.
Wrong. It seems that the annual flooding of the Nile was what brought sediment downriver to keep the river land fertile year after year for the farmers. In fact, we saw ancient flood markers which were used thousands of years ago for tax purposes – the higher the floodwaters, the more tax the farmers paid because their harvest would be better that year! We learned that since the dam was built, the use of chemical fertilizers has increased each year, with negative effects on the water supply (through runoff) and the farmers’ income. Oops. I guess the culture that built the pyramids knew a bit about ecology too!
The introduction of foreign wildlife has caused its share of problems, especially in Australia and New Zealand. A country of 3 million people and 70 million sheep, a little-known fact about New Zealand is that the sheer volume of livestock has a measurable negative effect on the nation’s air quality. It seems they have a methane problem, what with so many sheep eating flatulence-inducing grass. Their scientists are actively seeking a solution – some kind of grass without gas!
Travelling in New Zealand, we were surprised by the amount of road kill. While on a late-night drive with a local after some kiwi-spotting, we learned that most of the casualties are possums, introduced from Australia about 100 years ago for their fur. With no natural enemies, the possums have become such a nuisance that it is now a point of national pride to knock off as many of the little blighters as you can while driving at night. The possums assist in this endeavour by freezing in the headlights and raising their heads, putting them right at bumper height. I’m sure you can guess the rest.
Did Australia learn from the NZ experience with possums? Not by a long shot! Some early British settler had the bright idea to bring out a few rabbits so he could do a spot of hunting – now literally millions of rabbits denude the flora in many parts of the Outback and bordering regions, with equally dire effects on the local fauna. Oops. Aussie scientists are introducing a genetically engineered disease to get rid of the rabbits, but who knows where that will lead!
In the Northern Territory, they introduced water buffalo to help farm in the coastal swampland. Many of the animals escaped to the wild and multiplied, and by bulldozing channels through the tidal swamps they have allowed the sea water to penetrate much farther inland than previously, raising the salinity of the water, and drastically changing the environment. Oops.
In the Outback, camels were introduced in the 1800’s to help with the desert conditions. No worries, right? Well, the camels haven’t caused much of a problem, even though there are lots of wild ones now – the problem was their saddles. When they brought the original camels from Arabia, they also brought along their grass-stuffed saddles. As the saddles wore out, the grass seeds dropped to the ground and took root, thus introducing a particularly hardy strain of desert grass which has virtually taken over from the native grasses in many parts of the Outback. Oops.
All in the distant past, you say? Not so. Relatively recently (1935) cane toads were brought to the Queensland sugar fields for some very logical reason, I’m sure. These are huge toads with such an obnoxious taste that they have no known enemies. So, do you think they stayed in the sugar cane? Not likely! Each year the scientists report how much further they’ve spread – they’ve been reported as far away as Sydney, 1000 miles from where they were introduced. Oops.