It's 7 pm on a Wednesday, and suddenly the sky starts to turn white in the vicinity of the University of La Guajira in Maicao. Someone surprised me question what it is and before I answer I forward one of the neighbors: "this is not a passing cloud or fog. They are salt particles that come flying through the air. They come from a nearby mill. All houses in the neighborhood are being damaged because of salt. " Without that we had summoned for that purpose, we have set to talk about one of the many facets of environmental pollution.
For several decades, experts in environmental issues have been doing an insistent warning: the world is reaching its limits and, sooner or later, nature will invoice and then pay dearly for the impudence to abuse it has been so noble and generous and has given us everything that the species is needed to live. However, life is not all that be enough according to the religion of misers. Therefore, the planet has been plundered, beaten, victimized, battered … and the consequences are obvious. Today there is talk of the environmental crisis as a future event, but as a fact imminent, devastating and in some cases, irreversible. The question is no longer a distant tomorrow, ethereal hypothetical and probably never will. It is a phenomenon of our time whose evidence is manifest as part of normal everyday life.
For those who live in the hot TV is generous in showing the images of other regions and therefore we have witnessed the melting of glaciers that were considered eternal. The announcement was made in the past that the poles would melt has begun, and its consequences will be felt slowly in the coastal regions of the world. But that's not all. Global warming not only feels and the thermometers. The soil, oceans and the skin suffer from the excessive heat. And, as we announce the experts, the temperature will continue rising. What will the planet when the temperature reaches the maximum? What how we will survive the inhabitants of areas where temperatures without global warming, are 37 on average? And there's more: heavy rains in normally dry and semi-desert areas such as the Guajira. Downpours that come from time to time, without prior notice the gray sky, thunder and lightning. And the subsequent flooding in neighborhoods where poverty is usually permanent companion of the settlers. And further: banks deforested by human action, rivers that carry waste and chemical waste (also harmful and irrational actions of human beings) and finally the gruesome spectacle of our times: the rivers are dying of thirst and only give signs of life during the rainy season. And more much more: noise pollution, depletion of air, progressive destruction of the ozone layer … anyway. Near the cemetery, in Maicao, several indigenous Wayuu sell oil packaged in reusable bottles. The cost is smaller $ 1,000. Behind, in a shop selling the same merchants paisas bottle filled with purified water and the cost is $ 1,200. Good God! Today water is more expensive than fuel. It is a fact, not a story that the world is reaching its limits. Rutto Alejandro Martinez is a renowned writer and Italian-Colombian journalist who also teaches at several universities. He is the author of four books on ethics and leadership and is included in three anthologies of Colombian authors. Contact him at cel. 300 8055526 or email. Read his writings, a page where you will find writings, stories and beautiful pieces of Colombian literature.