If I was King for just one day ...
King for a day - Thompson Twins (YouTube Music Video)
"And love is not enough anymore
If I was King for just one day
I would give it all away"
"Only money makes the world go round
But all the gold won't heal your soul (won't heal your soul)
If your world should tumble to the ground"
"Love is all, love is all
Love is all we need"
Selected Lyrics taken from a 1985 song by Thompson Twins - "King for a Day"
As my adventure with Wise Owl Lifestyle approaches its grand finale, I’ve been caught in a whirlwind of wishful thinking. Picture this: instead of being a blogger with the influence of a paperclip, I’m suddenly crowned King of the World (or maybe just South Africa)! In my royal daydream, I ponder whether I could tackle those pesky environmental issues with the wave of a scepter. Could I really make a leafy-green difference before my royal reign ends? Gather 'round as I unveil my royal decrees for a planet so green, even Kermit would be jealous!
The King’s Environmental Decrees
1. Make air polluters pay: Everyone has the right to clean air. Any company that causes significant pollution must pay the full cost of cleaning it up and not the taxpayer. Environmental damage would become a financial liability rather than simply a cost of doing business. All repeat polluters will be shut down in the public's interest. This would include phasing out of fossil fuels.
2. Protect water as a public resource: Acknowledge access to clean water as a fundamental public interest. Implement stricter regulations on excessive industrial and commercial water usage as well as water pollution, especially in regions experiencing water scarcity, and mandate that major users including data centres, disclose their consumption levels. Ensure the right to clean drinking water for all individuals. I would also prohibit any further data centres from being built.
3. Give rivers, oceans and wetlands legal protection: Safeguard rivers, oceans, wetlands, estuaries, and aquifers from development and pollution. These ecosystems serve as natural infrastructure: they store water, mitigate flooding, and support biodiversity.
4. Make manufacturers responsible for their waste: If a company produces plastic packaging, electronics, batteries or other difficult-to-recycle products, it should carry responsibility for what happens to those products at the end of their useful life. All plastic will be phased out as soon as suitable replacements are found.
5. Declare war on litter: Introduce meaningful penalties for illegal dumping while investing in accessible recycling and waste-collection infrastructure. Every municipality should offer an accessible location for residents to deposit recyclable materials. Additionally, each region should possess the necessary facilities to effectively recycle these items, thereby generating employment opportunities. All people/companies found guilty of littering or illegal dumping will have to perform 24 hours community service per item dumped/littered.
Litter and illegal dumping must be stopped
6. Stop destroying valuable natural habitat unnecessarily: Require genuinely independent environmental assessments before developments destroy wetlands, forests, grasslands, coastal areas or other important habitats.
7. Plant indigenous trees—but protect existing ones first: Planting trees gets plenty of attention, but protecting mature indigenous vegetation can be even more important. Each municipality could establish objectives for the preservation and expansion of indigenous green spaces within their towns and cities.
8. Make polluting energy increasingly expensive, and clean energy increasingly accessible: Use incentives to accelerate solar, wind, storage and energy efficiency while progressively reducing dependence on highly polluting energy sources.
9. Protect biodiversity: Create stronger protection for threatened species and their habitats. This includes the African penguins, the black rhinoceros, the riverine rabbit, and the Pickersgill's reed frog and many others. Conservation shouldn't only mean saving individual animals; it means protecting the ecosystems that allow entire populations to survive. While wildlife numbers continue to decrease, the human population continues to explode. To ensure a brighter future for humanity on an overpopulated planet, it has become necessary to limit families to having no more than two children.
Threatened South African species (AI Images)
10. Make environmental education compulsory: Every child (and adult) should understand water conservation, waste, biodiversity, climate change, food systems and their own environmental footprint.
And perhaps my most important decree...
11. Create a “Future Generations Act.”
The governments of every major country would need to address one question:
“Will this decision leave the environment in a better, equal or worse condition for the people who inherit this country?”
If the outcome is determined to be worse, the government would be required to publicly justify the necessity of the damage and outline the measures that will be taken to provide compensation. This includes the actions of the Trump administration as well as those of most other countries. Such a requirement signifies a fundamental shift in the philosophy of environmental policy.
Instead of asking: “What can we get from the environment?”
we need to start asking: “What are we leaving behind?”
And if I really only had one day as king, I'd make the final decree the simplest:
“The environment does not belong to this generation. We are merely its custodians.”
Conclusion
Poof! Just like that, my daydream pops like a soap bubble, and I'm back to the grim reality of humans treating Earth like a piñata—whacking at it without a clue. We've got folks chasing cash and power like it's the ultimate game of Monopoly, while Mother Nature's over here crying in the corner. Seriously, are we ever going to get a clue, or are we waiting for the planet to send us a breakup text on WhatsApp?
This article came to life, after listening to the Thomson Twins' single. Thanks for tuning into my little rant about what our fearless leaders should do to save our beloved planet, because, let's face it, the planet could use a little help!. Now, I'm just waiting for another 80's hit to rock my world and inspire my next blog!
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