Unmasking South America's Environmental Monsters: A Revelation

Last week, I was fortunate enough to attend an event ran by National Geographic Photojournalist Charlie Hamilton James, called I Bought A Rainforest. After the formal introductions however, I found myself more incapsulated in his presentation than in any other photographic presentation I have attended in the past. His mesmerizing photos of the Amazon rainforests and its inhabitants combined with the charismatic tone in his voice made the start of the presentation feel lighthearted and somewhat removed from reality. It was only when he switched from aerial images of the Amazon  to images of loggers illegally destroying the Amazon that I was brought back into reality and made conscious of the imminent threats that natural reserves around the world face.

Photographer James began his presentation by describing his personal connection to wildlife photography and how he has integrated both his wife and children into his international job. He went on to describe the logistics of a wildlife photographer and how during one of his assignments in the forests of South America, he found himself as the owner of a 100-acre plot of rainforest. As an owner, he felt a personal incentive to protect it and to antagonize the illegal loggers and gold miners. But later on as he encountered these illegal businessmen, he came to the realization that they weren't the men and women that he envisioned to be full of malice and disregard for the world. Rather, he discovered that the 'most dangerous logger in the Amazon' was just a father and his wife raising a mentally ill child. Most of the laborers working for these powerful men were either fathers working to support their children abroad or workers forced into indentured servitude. What Mr. James came to realize was that these workers were destroying the Earth in the eyes of necessity.

Later on in his presentation, Mr. James described his multiple approaches to fixing this dilemma between survival and environmental sustainability. He analyzed his previous failed attempts and pitched his new successful projects to protect our ecosystems by providing illegal workers with sustainable jobs. What I ultimately took away from his presentation was his willingness to educate the crowd about the merciless gruesome socioeconomic environments that enable people to commit these revered acts of environmental destruction. What one can come to realize is that the people surrounding these areas like the Amazon are some of the poorest people in the world. Yet we expect those people not to utilize the resources available to them to survive. And when they do, we antagonize them as some of the worst people in the world. When asked by the audience what a fellow Pasadena resident could do to combat these issues of wealth disparity in other countries, Mr. James gave two solutions. His more pragmatic solution was to consume less, and to participate less in unnecessary consumption. Yet his more universal and philanthropic approach was simply to be nicer to each other. People begin to neglect right and wrong when they realize something they care for more such as a family or child is dependent on them. In fact, most of these workers revere their work and simply work in the hopes that they find other ways of sustaining themselves and their families. Once we as a community instill the kindness and compassion that all human beings are entitled to, perhaps there can be a universal focus on the environmental conservation. 

Deposits of mercury after Gold Mining