Wild animals and the future

Future generations might only see wild animals in books and as stuffed props in museums in the future if we as humans carry on the way we are going today.
At least there are some people that think that the wild animals are worth saving for future generations. I take my hat off to those that started the conservation movements and dedicated their lives to saving these amazing creatures.

One of the people whom I learned a lot from as a child was the late Jacques Cousteau. His expeditions into the underwater world gave many insight into a world very few people have seen. 

He was a French naval officer, explorer, conservationist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water. He co-developed the Aqua-Lung, pioneered marine conservation and was a member of the Académie française.

He made people see the ocean in a different way through education. Make people realize that the world around us consist of more than we can see. He also inspired many to follow his footsteps to learn more about the oceans and the fauna and flora of the seas. His made many documentaries and films about the ocean and it's inhabitants. Starting in 1956 up-to 1996. His final film was released in 1999, after dis death in 1997 titled Lake Baikal: Beneath the Mirror.

Through the example that he set for many years, some marine biologists now find compounds that might be to the advantage to the health of the human race. Medical breakthroughs have been made that help you and me today.

He also supported the balance of nature to be upheld. In November 1991, Cousteau gave an interview to the UNESCO Courier, in which he stated that he was in favor of human population control and population decrease. Widely quoted on the Internet are these two paragraphs from the interview: "What should we do to eliminate suffering and disease? It's a wonderful idea but perhaps not altogether a beneficial one in the long run. If we try to implement it we may jeopardize the future of our species...It's terrible to have to say this. World population must be stabilized and to do that we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. This is so horrible to contemplate that we shouldn't even say it. But the general situation in which we are involved is lamentable".

Jacques-Yves Cousteau died of a heart attack on 25 June 1997 in Paris, aged 87. He was buried in the family vault at Saint-André-de-Cubzac in France. An homage was paid to him by the city by the inauguration of a "rue du Commandant Cousteau", a street which runs out to his native house, where a commemorative plaque was affixed.

As long as we can learn from the example that he set, his legacy will live on and help to save the animals for future generations.

River pollution

It is so easy to discard your chip wrapper on the ground and expect somebody else to pick it up.
You might say to yourself you are creating a job for a street cleaner, but you are fooling nobody.
Your little wrapper with the wrappers from millions of other people around the world land daily in the river systems.
These wrappers are usually made from petroleum based products that take ages to degrade. Some of the wrappers are lined with aluminium, and the chance of aluminium degrading is basically zero.
Many other products land up in the rivers daily including cool-drink bottles, food cans, oil bottles, plastic bags and so on. These pollutants pile up and become very unsightly to say the least.
When a storm break along the flow of the stream, all this rubbish is washed downstream and eventually land up in the ocean where the plastics pose a real threat to the animals living in the sea.
But these are not the only pollutants landing in the streams and rivers.
There are any chemicals spilled by accident in rivers. But most of these chemical pollutants are dumped into rivers on purpose. Many factories situated close to rivers use the river water to cool or flush their machinery. Once the cooling or flushing is done, the water is then returned to the river. But care is not taken to remove the toxic pollutants from the returning water. Some of these pollutants can have deadly affects on the aquatic fauna and flora.
Some of the pollutants that have a big effect on the Aqua Flora comes from the agricultural sector. Pesticides and fertilizers that are not absorbed by the plants flow into the ground water and also end up in rivers and the ocean. These can have effects beyond what we realize. Some of these chemicals are short lived and others stay in the system for years. Some of these chemicals accumulate in living organisms and become more concentrated the higher up the food chain. It becomes lethal at some stage and will kill the predator at the top of the food chain.
Governments have regulations in place to prevent some of the toxins from getting into the water systems, The problem is not the laws, it is enforcing those laws against pollution.
What is your view on the state of the planet regarding pollution?