Hello and welcome to my Message of the Month.

We live in such troubled times. Climate change, global warming, large scale dumping of plastic waste in our oceans. What has all of this got to do with your vacation calendar for the next 25 years? (Remember, you get a 25-year-calendar on your timeshare membership.)

Your resort may have nothing to do with all this, because the symptoms described above are part of a larger chain reaction. Pollutants floating in ocean waters will eventually wash up ashore – so there goes that picture-perfect beach holiday that you dreamed of. Plastic debris that sinks may be swallowed by the same fish that is served up at a beach shack – slice open your fried fish and you might find a bottle cap inside. Sounds unpalatable, and we do hope that does not happen to you. (But this is a scenario in-the-making and might soon happen at a beach near you.)

Pollution from plastic debris happens in two ways. (1) Small amounts of plastic discards by individuals (2) Bulk dumping by larger vessels / ocean liners. The river-ways also drag down accumulated plastic debris discarded along the way. Collectively, it all boils down to the same thing – waste that ends up right under your nose.

As you’re reading this, you might turn around and say, “But I am not a litterbug! I didn’t do that!” (While we may not have done it, each one of us will suffer the consequences, sooner than later.)

If we are not part of the problem, we can be part of the solution 

• We can make sure people (individuals) don’t litter around us - by alerting, drawing attention, guiding and coaxing.
• We can be part of awareness building programmes or initiatives – a collective of concerned citizens adding weight, muscle and strength in numbers.
• We can seek out highly motivated individuals who run change campaigns and give the cause additional mileage. More people means more momentum.
• We can seek out NGOs and government bodies that are currently working towards the same objectives and see how we can help.
• We can find recyclers / upscalers of plastic debris so that the waste collected is not dumped elsewhere, but recycled.

So much for plastic debris. When it comes to global warming, you might go pink in the face the next time you’re sunbathing at a beach location. At the end of the day, this can get increasingly uncomfortable and harmful as well.

I am not saying this is going to happen on your next holiday, and I certainly don’t want to bring in spoilers. But in the years to come, the kind of holiday you’ve been looking forward to . . . may not be the holiday you are going to experience.

Somehow, somewhere, we are part of this picture.

B. S. Rathor
Advisor & Member - Executive Committee