Article August 26, 2002 Issue

Reaching for the Summit with youthful eyes

By Karen Shippey

My earnest hope is that the "tragedy of the commons" will be proved wrong for our planet.

When I was about 14, I watched in horror the television coverage of an oil spill along our coastline. The death toll of penguins and many other birds had been tallied and the clean-up initiated, but the newscaster announced that there was little to be done because the owner of the tanker could not be found. I was so upset by what I felt was the injustice of it all that I decided instantly that one day I was going to help prevent tragedies of that kind.

About the author

Karen is a principal environmental scientist with Ninham Shand Consulting Services in Cape Town and president of the South African affiliate of the International Association for Impact Assessment. She will be organizing one of the parallel events in her field at the Johannesburg summit.

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