The dwindling green

Prime Minister Patrick Manning gave Mayaro, Maracas (and Baptist celebrations) a break this year. He headed for Tobago’s luxurious natural ambience to enjoy his week of Easter R&R.

He also managed to get in informal talks with THA chairman Orville London and other PNMites. But little of it focussed on the “politics” of preventing pollution and “opposition” to the tourism thrust from coral reef degradation.

(Or even Wednesday’s teacup-less fistfight in the Russian Parliament featuring the deputy speaker in a hard-hitting contribution.)

Manning returned Wednesday, the same day the Millennium Environmental Survey Assessment report was released, a report which would have struck a chord with everyone from holidaymakers to politicians.

Its message: that man’s activities, particularly farming and industrial pollution, are doing irreversible damage to parts of the planet.

The report was done by international groups headed by the World Bank and UN agencies in response to a UN call. Scientists from 95 countries contributed.

T&T Independent Senator

Angela Cropper—who works with the UN—released the report in London, speaking about it on CNN Wednesday.

An overview of the global situation, the report is the first of several to be done over the next year—including on T&T, says chief World Bank scientist Dr Robert Watson.

He described Cropper as one of those leading the MESA project.

The survey notes that two-thirds of the world’s natural systems—including air, and water—supporting mankind are depleted. It was found that land devoted to industry has doubled since 1960. Fifteen ecosystems are now under serious threat.

The bottom line: that man is living beyond his means where natural systems are concerned.

Among concerns are over-exploitation of fishing resources, water shortage and quality issues and pollution of rivers by nitrogen and fertiliser run-off. The latter contributed to such pollution around the Gulf of Mexico that parts of that sea are now “dead.” The report warns this will worsen unless attitudes change.

Contacted at his Washington office Wednesday and asked about T&T, Dr Watson said: “This report is for developing countries as much as developed ones. In developing countries, reliance on the economy for goods, services, clean water, food, etc, comes at the cost of degrading ecosystems—reefs, mangroves, forests—which have functions. Reefs protect from storm surges. Forests purify air and provide climate control.

“There isn’t one solution. We must take a long look at how we provide what’s needed, considering the importance of ecosystems.”

He added: “Climate change for instance will become the major factor affecting ecosystems in coming years. We’ve noted the way energy is produced and used is the major factor in climate change.

“Apart from this report, we did another two. One on T&T and the other on broader Caribbean issues.”

Watson said T&T’s Cropper is involved in both. The T&T study is incomplete, he added. Watson said a couple “big issues” came up in the Caribbean study and other specific ones in the T&T survey.

In Business—Trinidad and Tobago (2004), T&T was described as establishing itself as the “most industrialised nation in the Commonwealth Caribbean.”

Energy remains the economic lynch pin of a highly-touted strong foundation, even as the Government raised minimum hourly wages to $9 recently to meet rising food prices and other levels.

T&T’s north is well industrialised. Environmental fall-out includes pollutants from illegal industry in areas like Beetham landfill(where the acrid stench from burning copper and rubber lingers in Port-of-Spain’s night air).

Northern industry waste transforms Caroni River into a channel of sludge in the dry season and swift transport for garbage into the Gulf in the West. Eastward, the Government’s Wallerfield Industrial Park is in development stage.

Caroni’s serene plains await the green light from the Estate Management and Business Development Company to be carved up into industrial/residential plots.

An EMBDC spokesman said Thursday it’s on hold until vesting of Caroni lands with the State is done via legislation. And that’s not yet on Parliament’s agenda.

Prime Minister Manning, in a February address, said land for energy projects is available further south “from Pt Lisas to Icacos.”

Key plans include expanded LNG plants and La Brea’s Union Industrial estate now under development.

Two weeks ago, the Union site of stripped-away greenery was a dustbowl—brown gash, less than a mile from Vessigny Beach. Trucks that dumped earth dam up springs on site. A handful of trees, survivors of the axe, stood in isolation.

Elijah Gour, village council chairman, negotiating with State agencies on relocation of Union’s 100-plus families, said they’re on alert to move by June. But they’ve received no official timeframe.

They’ve been shown alternative sites and pre-fab houses, Gour says, but these are inadequate: “We feel it’ll work out, they’ve been co-operative,” he adds.

Raymond & Pierre realtors recently completed value estimates of Union’s houses for the Government.

“They measure inside, outside. They write down everything,” says 87-year-old Lalee Samuel, matriarch of the settlement.

Last year when bulldozers began mowing down trees and panicked wildlife fled in all directions, the old lady stood outside her small house overlooking the site and cried.

Samuel is resigned to the move. But the frail woman whose family grew up on the rice she planted in the spot now under development, privately mourns being transplanted to a place where she might no longer see birds.

Residents hoped to hear more about the Union plan from Prime Minister Manning, scheduled to visit nearby Labidco yesterday.

Environment Minister Penelope Beckles didn’t return calls on the UN report and her secretary said she didn’t received subsequent messages on Thursday since Beckles “was in a meeting and the secretary was “on lunch.”

Nor did Industry Minister Ken Valley return calls.

“Governments need to factor ecological information into development plans,” said Roger Higman (UK’s Friends of the Earth) who was involved in compiling UN’s report. “We need to stop treating the earth like a dustbin.”

Or pretty soon maybe even PM Manning may have difficulty finding a spot for R&R during the two extra terms his party envisages.