We have the knowledge, we lack the will

August 7, 2025

Irene Watson quotes Aime Cesaire: “A civilisation that proves incapable of solving the problems it creates is a decadent civilisation” to introduce her study of South Australia’s algal bloom.

The causes she cites are of pollution: carbon building in the atmosphere bringing increased water temperatures, and nutrient-laden run-offs in the water feeding algal growth. Enabled through weak environmental legislation which, as she says, is always subservient to economic interests, the over-exploitation of our natural environment foretells its continuing decline: floods, droughts, heatwaves, famines, fish kills, extinctions, and more.

The problems we face in South Australia are just the local tip of a global iceberg. Unless and until we have governments prepared to face environmental reality, and address it with science-based legislation which is enforceable and enforced, our global decline will accelerate. We have the knowledge to stem this decline, but lack the governmental will to apply that knowledge to the detriment of short-term economic interests.

Aime Cesaire’s words could be updated: A civilisation that proves incapable of solving the problems it creates is doomed.