A while ago, there was much Righteous Indignation on the list regarding
the filming of a movie in Thailand in a National park, which was accused
of destroying native vegetation, altering a natural beach, impeding
local water flows, and increasing the danger of increased topsoil loss
if a large storm hit the area before revegetation was complete.
However, Joshua R. Ginsberg,  head of the Asian division of the Wildlife
Conservation Society, in a report written for the Environmental News
Network (http://www.enn.com/)'s subsciber-based news service (which i
highly recommended last week - incredible coverage!!!!), paints a very
different picture, which i briefly summarize below, to avoid copyright infringement.
        The movie was filmed in the Phi-Phi Achipelago, which is the recipient
of over 7000 tourists per day, and is one of the most dirupted natural
areas in Thailand as a result.  The film required the clean-up and
removal of about 2 tonnes of garbage from the site and surrounding
areas, and in fact involved very little removal of native vegetation and
little if any alteration of the beach itself - altogether a relatively
minor disruption of already disturbed habitats, with a
disproportionately large amount of international attention which Dr.
Ginsberg asserts (and i could not agree more!!!!) did virtually nothing
to help far more endangered areas in Thailand - in fact, it
**distracted** people from much larger and more important issues which
include massive illegal logging in two major wilderness parks in the
north of the country, rampant poaching in others, illegal fishing which
is not only killing wildlife directly, but indirectly via large amounts
of garbage thown overboard, and probably oil and bilgewater discharges,
lost or discarded nets, etc.......You get the picture, i hope!!
        This is an example of a process by which semi-randomly-selected,
easily-portrayed and often "dramatic" events attract far more attention
than their ecological importance would warrent, while far more
dangerous, but harder-to-pigeonhole and less spectacular examples of
environmental disruption go virtually unnoticed in the press, and gather
correspondingly little attention (and corresponding action or pressure
to take action!) from the public and environmental groups.  Take for
example the deforestation of Madagascar, which is one of the greatest
and most incredibly tragic ecological occurances on the planet (80% + of
the natural forest on this isolated (from the mainland, ie),
treasure-trove of biodiversity (including a vast number of unique,
indigenous flora and fauna) has been clear-cut,  or burned by an
exploding poplulation of poor farmers using slash-and-burn methods of
cultivation - and most of it has happened in the past 15 years!!).  Yet,
since it is a "process", rather than a disceet "event", it has garnered
very little attention from the media and large environmental
organizations such as Greenpeace and the WWF (not the wrestling-circus
boys, in case anyone thought so :)    ).  However, the harvest of seals
in Atlantic Canada - an annual cull which has had virtually no impact on
seal populations (although i do ***not*** defend or condone it, its
environmental impact is EXTERMELY limited!!!), yearly produces an outcry
from everybody and their dog which makes it seem like Satan himself were
directing the hunt, and deriving pleasure from the cries of each
individual animal killed!  (and i'd be willing to bet good money if i
were a betting man, that 90% of the protesters are meat-eaters, and
think nothing at all about munching on the meat of other animals who
suffer much or all thier lives in cramped living quarters, are fed
chemicals, steroids, antibiotics galore, and whose cumulative
environmental impact is far greater than most people ever dreamed
(greenhouse gasses, destruction of forests to produce more range-lands,
pollution of various types, the productin of vast amounts of grains and
legumes to feed them, and of course the huge amount of suffering the
animals endure in their lives and prior to their premature deaths at a
young age (think "veal" for the extreme here!)) - yet because a seal is
more Cute and Cuddly than a chicken or a cow ........).
        At any rate, my point here is that quite often we as a society (and as
individuals within that society) tend to pay much more attention to
"dramatic" or "spectacular" individual events of rather limited global
importance, while many more important but less dramatic process of great
ecological signifigance slip by virtually unnoticed (like the 10% of
hydrocarbon spills that occur in tanker-sized accidents, as opposed to
the 90% that result from little leaks in oil production facilities,
legal and illegal bilge-pumping, etc. - the 90% has a correspondingly
greater cumulative impact on ecosystems, but generates very few
demonstrations, cries for immediate action from famous movie stars and
large environmental organizations, and media coverage.).  I guess the
moral is: it is easy to be distracted from the more important but
less-exposed events, trends and processes occuring around us, by
*relatively* superficial occurances which grab the attention of a world
with a generally short attention span.  Let's not let people and
orgainizations "get away with murder" while we are chasing
parking-ticket violators.
 
-Ross M.