Parliament urged to think green

MARANYANE NGWANAAMOTHO
Staff Writer | Thursday April 1, 2010 00:00

Speaking at the Earth Hour Exhibition held in Gaborone yesterday, Editor of Wena Industry and Environment Magazine, Florah Mmereki said parliament should be actively involved in ensuring that there is no dumping of rubbish and pollution of the environment.

'MPs are important in the sense that they can ensure that the right legislations are put in place to prevent Botswana from turning into a haven for imported technologies that destroy the ozone layer or pollute the environment. 

This is already the case in other countries of the world where due to lack of environmental laws, they have turned into dumping sites. Parliament should act!' said Mmereki.

She said while Botswana as a developing country has contributed very little to the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, it is also susceptible to global warming. 

'Global warming knows no boundaries, though it is not our fault, it does not mean we are going to be excused from problems of climate change,' she said.  Even though developed countries are the ones responsible for accelerated global warming of the earth, Mmereki emphasised that it is now everybody's responsibility to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Mmereki expressed disappointment at the developed nations failure to come up with an agreement on how to protect the planet that we live in.  'I was very disappointed and ashamed at the Copenhagen conference when developed countries, the ones who are responsible for this problem failed to come up with a law or policy that would protect the environment,' she said.

She said developed countries have damaged the environment in their search for riches. 'They did all the wrong things, burning coal and clearing vegetation and now they are failing to correct that damage,' she said.