A FLOURISHING EARTH..... Is this a dream?

Do you feel as if you are in a deep dream and you can't come out of it? it feels like this, doesn't it? What if I tell you No! You are in the present and ....YES! This really is 2020!

But isn't 2020 supposed to be the year for success and greatness? What if I tell you it is. IT may not be for you and I or even the rest of the human population (in terms of what you think success and greatness is) but it is for nature and the universe.

This year will go down in the books of history. We all never thought that we will ever experience a pandemic in our lives. Unfortunately we are all living it. We may see it as a disaster and how it is ruining many "lives" (which it is). However, have you ever thought how nature has flourished since this happened? Throughout our daily lives in the past, forests have been destroyed, animals have been hunted and nature altogether has been depleting at a rate faster than it can be replenished and recharged.

The lack of human activity during this year has drastically been decreased causing nature to replenish itself. We've seen clean canals of Venice, clear waters in the Ganges,  even blue skies over certain cities which were heavily once polluted and noise vibrations considerably being reduced by over 50%. Nature has a way of thriving once being treated with respect. This pandemic should be a lesson well learnt to everyone. Do your part in conserving and persevering the richest treasure you have. Remember one day our kids will have to live on this Earth. Make it a better place for them!

A losing battle

For the past decade the world has been losing a battle against deforestation. There have been several reports on the loss of biodiversity and the continuous impacts humans have on the environment. According to BBC News, on average, an area of tree cover the size of the United Kingdom was lost every year between 2014 and 2018 and this year, 2019 things did not improve. Instead, the Amazon rainforest has seen a high number of fires and was the burning spotlight in August.

Naturally, forest fires are common to occur during the dry season. However, according to reports most are caused by intentional human actions. With respect to the Amazon, many questions were raised….. “Was this deliberate deforestation?” Reports stated that since President Bolsonaro took Office in January 2019, there have been a hike in forest fires used as a way for clearing land to support ranching. These fires continue to emit large amounts of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide which is known to have adverse effects on human and animal life.

If the above statement is true regarding the clearing of land for crops and grazing, this will be detrimental for the future generations to come. According to FAO, total emissions from global livestock equates to 7.1 Gigatonnes of Co2-equiv per year, representing 14.5 percent of all anthropogenic GHG emissions.

With this being said, halting deforestation and restoring forests could aid in the mitigation process. However, this will not be possible if obligations and assurances are continuously being tainted.

 (Google Image) 

"The Man-Hungry Predator"

Several sharks have fallen victim to this stereotype as being a man-hungry predator due to society’s mythical stories for example “JAWS”. In fact, what humans should fear is a world without these apex predators in our marine ecosystem. Each year millions of sharks are being killed as there is a growing demand for shark fin as an ingredient in Chinese cuisine. Furthermore, in Trinidad our local JAWS are being hunted for our prominent beach food, bake and shark. Sharks are large bodied animals that are top of tropic levels therefore structuring food webs and regulating prey behaviour and their dynamics.

Coral reefs play an essential part of the Caribbean’s marine ecosystem. It promotes habitat and species diversity in abundance. Shark depletion in a reef ecosystem can be detrimental to marine life since it can trigger a negative chain reaction which can be felt throughout the food web. For example, macro algae/ seaweed usually compete with coral for settlement on the reef. These corals depend of herbivorous fish to consume this algae. Without these fish, corals are not able to thrive and create available niches for species. The decline in the number of sharks as top predators allow the number of groupers in the Caribbean coral reef ecosystem to increase which feed on these herbivorous fishes (parrotfish, gobies). This in turn causes a decline in herbivorous fish therefore causing overgrowth of macro algae.  This shift in abundance in species diversity following coral decline changes species diversity and composition of the entire reef system. For the past 30-40 years Jamaica’s species composition has changed drastically, and coral abundance has declined over 50%.

Continuous support of this Chinese cuisine along with our famous local bake and shark is allowing sharks and coral life to be depleted at a faster rate. We as a community should join hands and stand ground to refrain from buying these meals. If we don’t consume, then there will be no need to slaughter these wonderful creatures of life. It starts with us today! Let’s take charge and make a change!

Adverse Fiscal Effects of Climate Change on the Caribbean

The increasing build-up of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere results from anthropogenic actions which exceeds the threshold that keeps the Earth habitable. The vulnerability of the Caribbean and its population is because of its flat island characteristics and inadequate economic resources to construct buffers against climate change. Several Caribbean locals live in poverty by world standards and for developing nations worldwide, paying the price for safeguarding measures is simply unthinkable (Bueno et al. 2008). If climate change remains uncurbed, funds which could be used for poverty alleviation or social and economic development will now have to go towards efforts to prevent and recover from the impacts of climate change (IPCC 2007). With higher temperatures, it will have a negative impact on infrastructure in coastal regions, hurricane damages, health impacts, pressing concerns for energy and food security and negative consequences on agriculture and ecosystems. The Caribbean islands depend on tourism since it contributes to 15 percent of the region's national revenue and gross domestic product (GDP). In a survey done, it was found that 80 percent of tourists will be reluctant to revisit the islands if the environmental beauty was negatively affected by climate change (Bueno et al. 2008). Despite the Caribbean nations' emissions are very small, greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide affects everyone no matter where in the world they are produced. The ultimate challenge is global fairness which is at the centre of the problem. However, it is also the key to the trials of meeting the needs of its citizens by developing in a sustainable way while arranging for the negative concerns of climate change in the region.

Other constraints which face the Caribbean nations' ability to effectively and efficiently address climate change issues are:

·         The absence of research on various areas of vulnerability and reliability which have led to reduced technical capabilities to produce reliable scientific data and research for public policy;

·         Poor communication between stakeholders and the lack of awareness by the population;

·         Limited reports on the economic and social influences of climate change and poor prioritization in the management of these issues at both national and international levels.

Recommendations

The introduction of several policy instruments not only in Trinidad but throughout the Caribbean can help reduce greenhouse gases by putting a price on it. These may include:

·         The removal of environmental harmful subsides, permit schemes, carbon taxes, and promote the implementation of existing and future United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change UNFCCC agreements. 

·         Investing in educational and awareness programmes to increase the understanding about sustainable use of resources and production practices

·         Reduce energy consumption by implementing the use of efficiency measures. Predominantly in the case of gasoline and air-conditioning usage.

·         Monitoring and measuring all situations and trends which can have an impact on climate change. Improving the accuracy of data by training individuals to collect and analyze data as well as the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to improve collection of data can aid in monitoring and evaluation of impacts.

The role of indigenous people and biodiversity

According to Alcorn, conservation itself is a social and political and not a biological process. One social aspect related to biodiversity and its management is the world’s indigenous peoples. They occupy and inhabit territories of high levels of biodiversity in which, their culture is associated with the maintenance of the natural ecosystem. These indigenous people are frequently categorized as impoverished and are treated as unseen. However, several studies have shown that they are the ones that hold the key to successful biodiversity conservation and management.

Indigenous peoples have the knowledge to many solutions. For instance, over years, indigenous peoples have developed landscape designs that can counterattack the negative effects of climate change as well as, they have developed several genetic varieties of medicinal and useful plants and animal varieties that is resistant to climate change and ecological variability. Indigenous values and beliefs have brought about livelihood strategies to provide essential input into understanding low carbon development schemes which are used and how they can be endorsed.

Over centuries the relationship between indigenous people and the environment have degraded because of forced removal of their traditional and sacred lands. This removal of indigenous people is caused by many challenges of social and economic wants from forestry activities, mining and development programs. For example, commercial plant varieties have replaced locally adapted varieties used in traditional farming systems thus leading to an increase in industrialized farming methods. These activities have cause severe environmental damage of flora and fauna species in which some have become extinct.

It has often been discussed that indigenous knowledge and their culture cannot survive this ever changing environment unless the government wants and has the political will to protect them, both locally and globally. Government along with private sectors need to work in cooperation to integrate indigenous persons and knowledge into policies in order to protect the current existing biodiversity. This will not only improve accountability and authority of approaches taken but also strengthen capacity building and managing of natural resources and the ecosystem.

Plastic pollution and turtle nesting

IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN! Nesting season has opened for turtles and we all know the beauty of the Leatherback Sea Turtle. It’s one of the most magnificent creatures on earth which are the only remaining representatives of a family of turtles that traces its evolutionary roots back more than 100 million years. Despite we are lucky here in Trinidad to have such wonderful wildlife; one major threat to their survival is plastic pollution.

Many Leatherbacks fall victims to plastic debris. They ingest these floatable pieces which are often mistaken for their favourite food; jellyfish. According to National Geographic, some individuals have been found to have almost 11 pounds of plastic in their stomachs. What does that say about us humans? Is it that we don’t respect nature or our world? People often fail to realize, we have damaged our planet at a rate beyond which it can replenish itself and we have produced more waste than can be reabsorbed.

With increasing population, there has been an increase in demand for more resources and more use of plastic. However, plastic has a tendency to retain large amounts of heat. Microplastics have also been found to affect Leatherbacks. These sesame seed-sized plastics can increase sand temperature which modify and determine turtle sex as eggs incubate. This is because sea turtles have temperature dependent sex determination, which means their sex is determined by the sand temperature.

With this being said plastics can be detrimental to life and have major effects in population structure which can cause a collapse in species life.

My personal take on subsidies- TT Budget 2018

As we all know, Trinidad and Tobago’s budget was held on October 2, 2017 with varying opinions on what was stated. However, the main issue that stole the spotlight was the reduction on fuel and electricity subsidies. As everyone knows, T&T pays a very small percent for both fuel and electricity due to such high subsidies.

Before I state my view on this, I would first like to define what a subsidy is. A subsidy is a form of financial aid extended to an economic sector which has been granted by the government. With this being said, while subsides are known to make gasoline and power more accessible to persons and, transportation as well as electricity rates cheaper, several other aspects has been casted from our minds. Therefore, it is safe to say we do not look at this in a holistic approach but, only view it as one way forward; human gain regarding the protection of “our pockets.”

Often, persons forget or discard the environment when making decisions, not taking into consideration this is the only reason you are alive. A poor environment = poor health. When we have subsidies on things such as gas, this encourage persons to use their private cars regularly, which in fact is unsustainable and contributes highly to pollution, due to the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which is directly linked to global warming. This is then linked to public health issues as a result of pollution. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 7 million premature deaths are annually linked to air pollution. Furthermore, gas is a finite energy source and unlike sunlight, water or wind energy, fossil fuels cannot be renewed. This means that, once the gas reserves have been completely used up, there is nothing more left.

Additionally, despite several persons believe that subsidies are actually helping them; I have to say this may not likely be true.  Since, many rural communities are still lacking proper energy services and are not able to get water and electricity every day. This is because energy service businesses may have weak incentives to provide access of quality energy services to the poor, mainly because of the low population densities, which makes it costly to serve remote locations, and the low incomes of the poor, who often use little energy compared with wealthier households. At the end of the day, subsidies benefit the rich (ownership of several vehicles, use of a greater amount of electricity) over the poor (greater use of public transport due to less ownership of cars, less households that use a vast amount of electricity), believe it or not.

If the government’s goal is to improve the living standards of the environment and poor, there may be other ways to do so. Renewable and green energy sources are something we as a Caribbean Island should be focusing on in 2017. The need to focus on solar, hydroelectric, wind, tidal and geothermal energy is of great importance. As it was mentioned before, once our natural resources are used up, there will be nothing left. Better transparency, planning, communication, and consultation prior to implementation of price increases are needed for success in the complete removal of fuel subsidies.

Tell me, what is your take on this?