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We forget eco-destruction by ego-drives with toys

Now that Al Gore, that US presidential wannabe, has won the Nobel Peace Prize for his docu- mentary on the end the world as we know it, I hope humanity will reconsider its callous disregard for our precious environment.

Now that Al Gore, that US presidential wannabe, has won the Nobel Peace Prize for his docu- mentary on the end the world as we know it, I hope humanity will reconsider its callous disregard for our precious environment.

Global warming is upon us. Scientists tell us that dozens of species are becoming extinct like never before in the history of the universe.

But try telling that to a group of young girls I had the misfortune of sharing a restaurant with at a mall in Menlyn, Pretoria, recently.

No sooner had I read an article in a Sunday newspaper that spelt doom and gloom for our planet if we persist in our destructive ways, when a young black diamond tore tar and burnt tyres with his brand-new Hummer SUV.

You would have thought it was the Third Coming and Jesus Christ Himself had landed in the Pretoria suburb. It was uncanny how these three beautiful young things dropped their everything else and strained their gaze on the yuppie on the move.

I'm probably green with envy. But a thought came to my mind: Hadn't these obviously educated girls come across the word pollution?

Its obvious that to the girls a big car equals a bigger wallet and a bigger everything. Everything big is an extension of their egos.

I know cynics will be thinking: U het nie gespaar nie .

When I discussed this little observation with a friend, he looked at me as though I had gone soft in the head.

"You should consider housing some homeless in your room," he suggested.

Duh, my hypocrisy exposed, I began to see that humanity is incapable of halting its headlong rush on the path to its own self-destruction.

We are a competitive lot, and very much like those girls at the mall.

Try telling the woman who wakes up next to me every morning that we need a couple of street people in our spare bedroom. Her next call will be to a shrink and if all else fails, it will be to a divorce lawyer.

That's how we are.

But as for people driving these gas guzzlers, shouldn't they be taxed proportionally to the amount of pollution they cause?

Maybe that way, people will think twice before buying toys that are just too big for them.

Just maybe.

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