Powerdown and travel January 24, 2008
Posted by Ralph Pina in : Climate Change, Conservation, News, Sustainability, Tourism , trackback
The CEO of the Southern African Tourism Services Association (SATSA), Michael Tatalias, attracted the ire of both Eskom, South Africa’s power utility, and FIFA, world football’s governing body, when he stated that Eskom’s rolling blackouts are threats to both tourism and the 2010 World Cup.
Predictably, the local media latched on to these statements, which I agree are rather sensationalist, and trumpeted them loudly, but failed to even mention the other half of his statement which asks what we as citizens and businesses are doing to curtail our consumption of energy. (Also see my post on this subject recently)
Tatalias asked:
We in civil society all bear our fair share of the responsibility too. What have we done to make our homes, offices and companies as energy efficient as possible? To be fair the rumblings and warnings of impending power disaster have been building for a while now for anyone who cared to listen. … Al Gore was imploring us to make changes two years ago. Our own industry has been grappling with Green aspects of Responsible Tourism for a few years with conferences and awards, but few have implemented. Time to stop grumbling and blame-storming; time to become part of the solution and change our own personal habits. If we all reduce our energy consumption we save ourselves money, and at the same time collectively solve a national crisis.
Right on! Now why would the media have missed this I wonder…?
Comments»
I think that the word has been getting out but people need to take it head on starting with themselves.