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Africa’s Most Endangered Species

When you hear about Africa’s endangered species, you probably think of the big game, rhino and elephants. But from Nairobi, Kenya, the magazine Executive stated editorially that “mankind is busy converting himself into the most endangered of all endangered species.” What are the facts? Consider just the bare essentials for survival: Food, water and shelter.

FOOD In the past 10 years, food production in Africa has dropped 10 percent, while its population has grown 20 percent. The result is that about one third of its population, or 150 million people, are facing serious food shortages. Even if enough food can be found, getting it to the needy before it is too late is in itself a monumental task. This grim prospect caused Maurice Williams, executive director of World Food Council, to remark: “No matter what we do now, millions will die. I wish I could say I had hope for the future, but I fear that we are headed for a period of permanent food crisis in Africa.”

WATER United Nations figures show that about 60 percent of the people in developing countries do not have safe drinking water, and about 75 percent have no sanitary provisions. Each year 10 to 25 million people, or 30,000 to 70,000 a day, die from diseases related to unclean or inadequate water supply. “This threat alone,” says Executive magazine, “should well qualify mankind for the title of ‘the most endangered species.’”

SHELTER Wars, tribal and racial conflicts, droughts, floods and famines have turned millions of men, women and children into homeless refugees. Worldwide, there are some 13 million homeless wanderers, and 5 million of them are in Africa. Former UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim called the situation “the most urgent human crisis,” and their condition is described as “one of extreme poverty and destitution.” Stripped of their homes, fields and herds, these millions of displaced persons have little or no hope of ever returning to their former way of life.

Although people living in the more developed and industrialized nations may not be suffering from shortage of these essentials, they are threatened nonetheless. Pollution of water and air, erosion of farmland, high cost of energy, depletion of natural resources, and so forth, are all posing serious problems. Looming large, too, is the threat of nuclear annihilation.

In reality, the threat man is bringing upon himself is part of his irresponsible action in ‘fouling his own nest,’ the earth. For all of this, the Maker of heaven and earth and all that is in them, Jehovah God, will hold man accountable. For God’s will is that “just a little while longer, and the wicked one will be no more; . . . but the meek ones themselves will possess the earth, . . . and they will reside forever upon it.”​—Psalm 37:10, 11, 29.