Source: Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
Title: van Schalkwyk: Western Cape Sustainable Development Conference
Keynote Speech by Marthinus Van Schalkwyk, Minister of Environmental Affairs & Tourism, at the Western Cape Sustainable Development Conference
Introduction
In December 1968 three men gave to humanity a gift unique in all recorded history. They provided us with the first real glimpse of how fragile and incredibly precious life on Earth remains. Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders were the crew of Apollo 8 – the first manned spacecraft to escape Earth’s gravity and to reach the moon. The video footage that they recorded, of a small blue sphere hanging in the void, was the first time that we saw our home from afar, and their words captured a turning point in our shared understanding of our place in the universe. “The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring,” they said, “And it makes you realise just what you have back there on Earth.”
The message of sustainable development is too often clouded by academic discussions, technical jargon, and cryptic acronyms. The reality is much simpler. It is about ensuring the future of our people and our planet. It is the balancing act between growth and development today, and the health and well-being of our children tomorrow.
It is also of burning importance to all South Africans. Our county has incredible natural resources – magnificent landscapes, mineral riches, and plant and animal diversity. But ours is also a semi-arid, water-scarce country in which people and the environment balance on a very fine edge. For us, sustainable development is about hard-hitting questions like will we have enough clean water to drink in ten or fifteen or twenty years? Will we find by 2020 that our children even know what fynbos is, or will it be the stuff of history textbooks alone? Will there be enough soil in our third and fourth decades of freedom to grow the food to feed our people? For us, sustainable development is about survival.
Western Cape Conference & the NSSD
This is why, Programme Director, the Western Cape Sustainable Development Conference is so important. This is the first time that the global message of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) has been translated into a programme of action on provincial level in South Africa. I would like to take this opportunity to thank and congratulate Premier Ebrahim Rasool and MEC Tasneem Essop for their leadership and vision in this regard – we can only hope that this conference will provide a model to be applied in other provinces and ultimately at the level of local government as well.
Vroe
EMAIL THIS ARTICLE SAVE THIS ARTICLE FEEDBACK
To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
