History is repeating itself

Abstract

The sand dune remnants at White Tower Bay in Marfa do not set too many houses on fire; they do not elicit the same strong emotions as say, Valletta's City Gate or the Dwejra boathouses. In fact, even many local environmentalists are oblivious to what is happening in what they consider as essentially a backwater. This explains why when this sensitive and rare habitat was despoilt last week, no eyebrows were raised and there were no protests by environmental groups. This might indicate that we are getting our priorities wrong, and that local environmentalists need a higher degree of scientific and technical proficiency.