Are we missing something?

Where I live we used to have many Indian Mynah birds. These birds seemed to be territorial and they protected their areas. They also seemed to breed at an incredible rate and there were always lots of them. From what I have been told they were highly intelligent birds, as I am led to believe that they could be taught to imitate human speech. They are noisy birds and some humans considered them quite a nuisance – a problem species one could say – and many people were not happy to have them around and were trying to find ways of getting rid of the problem. I seem to remember conversations where it was said that one should not allow them to nest on your property, if you were so fortunate as to have a property. One of the reasons for this attitude was that, being territorial, the Mynahs would displace other birds from where they live. Even our cats were “dived bombed” by the Mynahs. I remember from

I remember from my days at school the history of the mines and the fact that another bird, the Canary, was kept underground in cages. This was done to warn the miners of undetectable deadly gas. Unfortunately for you if you happened to be a Canary, as the bird started going wild when it detected the gas and warned the miners. I say unfortunate because if the miners did not pay attention the Canary died, along with the miners of course. But the difference is that the Canary was in captivity. The Canaries were used to indicate danger.

A friend of mine had a pet Crow and, for me, it was a strange bird as the Crow does not occur naturally where I live. My friend’s was the only place I ever saw a Crow. Well lately I have noticed flocks of Crows in our area and this is rather strange. It is strange, as the Crow is a scavenger and I live in Johannesburg and have done so for the past 50 years.

What, may one wonder, is the relevance of all this about the birds? Well, where we used to have many, we do not have any Mynah birds left anymore. Nobody killed them that I am aware of. They just packed up and moved on. One has to wonder why this happened. Is it that they detected changes in the climate that did not appeal to them? Or is it something else? Could it be that our air has just become too polluted for them to live and thrive in. Whatever the reason, they were luckier than the Canaries.

As for the Crows, could their presence have something to do with the increase of rats in the area that I live? Could it be that we have dead rats and other garbage around our area that attracts the Crows?

Whatever the case may be it does seem that, like the Canaries of old, the birds might be trying to tell us something and because they are not captive like the Canaries they just make a statement with their presence – or lack thereof. I suspect that what they are tr ying to tell us, is that our environment is changing and that we have to pay attention, or pay the consequences. The answer might lie in the way that we are abusing our resources and creating a huge rubbish dump on our planet. Simply moving the waste to dumps and other landfill sites can no longer be good enough. We have become resource consumers and creators of waste.

If the Mynahs were captive like the Canaries, they might have died in their cages and we might have taken notice. What is also true is that we as humans are captive on our planet and when the environment becomes toxic, we are in a Canary position.

At Oilkol we have decided to adopt a policy of zero tolerance towards waste and the pollution that goes hand in hand with it. We all have a responsibility to manage the waste that we create to a state of zero pollution.

Oilkol has therefore implemented measures to insure that we do not pollute the air, the water or land from which we operate. Oilkol specialises in Hydrocarbon and Automotive related waste. Our strategy is one of life cycle management, where we are trying to ensure that the maximum usage is attained from any product that we collect and that nothing goes to waste or causes pollution. The principle is simple – what you don’t measure, you cannot manage.

As an example: When you have effluent water on your premises, clean it to drinking water specification before releasing it into the environment. If every company adopts this policy then it will relieve a lot of pressure on the environment.

The pressure however will never fully disappear as we, as a species, are constantly increasing in numbers and this farm we call Earth is already past its maximum carr ying capacity. It therefore goes without saying that we need to rethink the way in which we deal with the resources of our planet.

The Oilkol Environmental Seal of Approval® is also an Indicator. Frogs do not live in polluted environments. Therefore, where you see the seal displayed, it indicates an enterprise that is serious about the environment.

When we, as a species, started exploiting the planet in the name of progress, we were so focussed on survival and growth that we did not pay attention to the damage we were causing. I guess, when in survival mode, one tends to do that and it might be understandable and even forgiven. The sad part is that because of the amount of people living on the planet now and the fact that economic growth is hovering on collapse we, as a species, are continuing the uncaring exploitation of the planet.

Let’s heed the indicators! Like birds of a feather, let’s flock together. Join the Institute of Waste Management and manage the waste in South Africa effectively.