Drought in Cape Town
Any crisis situation
can be regarded as a lesson to be learned. It is simple! We need to
learn how to overcome (or survive) the crisis and how to prevent it
from happening again in the future. A crisis can be a situation of do
or die at some levels and for some people and animals. When people
suffer there are 100x more animals that suffer, because people look
after themselves first.
Considering the
crisis of the drought in Cape Town. We need to consider of the
biggest environmental impact on the environment during the last two
decades and ask the question: could we have managed it better of
would it have been better if we never did it at all (The removal of
large trees and alien vegetation in Cape town for instance)?
The biggest impact
on nature was the removal of trees and the clearing of bush land for
formal an informal settlements, as well as the removal of alien
vegetation, and replacing it with plants that are more vulnerable to
weather changes or not replacing it at all.
Rietvlei and Table
Mountain are good places to study the removal of large trees and
compare the impact of drought on the surrounding land. There are
comparisons of places where tree planting was done with expertise
like at Century City, or at the Botanical gardens. Tokai forest may
be another study project as well as Kirstenbosch.
We never had such an
opportunity in Cape town to study and compare the effects of drought.
What a wonderful opportunity for conservation students to learn from
real life.
Statistical or
scientific data provides the best platform for a change in policies
