Mighty Mother Nature is hopping mad and we are at peril! Doubtless, our societies are to blame. Otherwise who else is responsible for the way this earth seems to be coming apart, threatening our very existence? Surely, aren’t we bringing doomsday to ourselves? As we speak, the Hawaiian archipelago’s Kilauea volcano is spewing out lava that’s hopping skyward. When it comes down, it lays down a scotch-earth carpet likely to keep that area permanently devoid of any creature. Mainland USA may be a safe distance away but the way the earth’s bowels are unsettled everywhere around, it may not be for long. In the Caribbean, Puerto Rico is being battered by merciless storms. As for the South American continent, it’s a tinderbox that goes “Boom!” year in, year out. To the east of our helpless globe, flood waters are washing away everything in the Turkish capital of Ankara. In northern India, freak dust storms are blowing hundreds of people dead. In Pakistan, unprecedented heat is sending citizens scampering for cool cover that’s nowhere to find. In the Middle East, flash floods are ravaging Israel. We cite all these areas, of course, to only bury our head in the sand; to shirk mention of one area that’s closest to our heart: the East African subcontinent. But we must face it. These rains, what is it with their devastating ferocity? They’ve never been so violent for these countries at the same time. Now Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi; none is spared. Heavy rains, floods, mudslides, land split-ups: the whole death load has been loosed upon us. Anarchy stares us in the face. In fact, the whole gamut of split-ups has led many to speculate that Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique are going to leave us and form a Madagascar-esque archipelago of their own. In this case, we in Burundi and Rwanda will be left as the orphaned duo. Imagine being marooned with Burundi’s reclusive, hop-hopping and clap-clapping president! However, speculators have other ideas. After the rains caused a small fissure to open up in south-western Rwanda, they’ve assured us that we are splitting up at the Lake Kivu end-point. That way, say they, we shall join part of the DR Congo, the two Sudans and Egypt to form our sub-continent in turn, if that’s any consolation. But more seriously, humanity must be offending Mother Nature. Remember the hole in the ozone layer that’s supposed to shelter us from deadly rays? We were told to get rid of things like fridges using gases that sailed upward and punctured that layer. Whether anybody actually rid themselves of those gases or whether that hole was sealed, search me. What I know is that all the noises about it mysteriously went silent. Yet there is no fresh air to breathe in parts of China, neither in parts of India. So the first-world media are all over us, warning us that these countries are misbehaving, soiling the climate and environment and that we should all call them out. The countries, they say, do not control the pollution gases their mushrooming industries are emitting. These gases are thus heating up our climate and placing the whole fraternity of this planet’s creatures at a precipice. But between you and me, we know that every developed and advanced country calls itself so exactly because it was enriched by such industries that are pumping up similar gases. Which is why, moreover, in addition to “developed” and “advanced”, they call themselves “industrialised”. And now, beyond these developed countries assuring us that they are pursuing green economies sans any pollution, they have reportedly gone an extra distance to explore another kind of economy: the “blue economy”. The little I’ve heard about this kind of economy gives me the shivers! In search of it, said the titbit of news, people are diving into the bowels of the “Bermuda Triangle”. Mention of that name alone conjures up images of a monster void that swallowed up everybody and everything. Remember that scary triangle nicknamed “Devil’s Triangle” that used to gulp down people, ships and aeroplanes that ventured above it? Pray, what pacified it? Anyway, it’s now being touted that there are treasures inside it that are supposed to make our environment cleaner than green Kigali and wipe anger out of Mother Nature’s system. My view, however, is that even as the hunt for that “blue economy” goes on, the clean air in Africa and South America is being sucked up faster than our natural forests can pump out. And “green”, “blue” or whatever economy, we as countries must work together to protect our environment, without unduly disturbing our earth’s bowels. We are all inexorably interconnected and were there to be any implosion it’d do us all in. So, those who relish dollar-guzzling chest-thumping antics while thumbing their noses at, and trumping, the environment do so at our collective liability. If we are not to give up the ghost as trivial hobgoblins of this vast universe, we must mend our ways and together, without exception, assuage and pay due homage to Mighty Mother Nature. Twitter: @butamire butamire.wordpress.com The views expressed in this article are of the author.
