In the first two instalments Charles told us not to allow the ugliness of the plastic debris floating along our shoreline, in our rivers, on our beaches and drains, to become an accepted part of our national psyche, and warned that if we fail to take measures to begin recycling we could be faced with a crisis situation on our hands requiring drastic measures. 

This week, Charles, using his experience of working with the largest contract manufacturing plastics plant in T&T, suggests a way forward. 

Having built and operated the largest contract manufacturing plastics plant in Trinidad and Tobago, we have over the years acquired an intimate knowledge of plastics and its applications. 

It is a major challenge to select the most appropriate grade or combination of plastics for particular applications, as one has to factor in the processes available to the manufacturer, the equipment to be used, the product to be made and resin prices and availability before selecting a particular resin for a specific use.

This results in a diverse range of plastic types and grades ending up in our dumps and the general environment. 

 This week in Guardian Media environmental series feature writer, editor and blogger Pat Ganase tells us just why growing our own food is not only good for our economics, but for our health.

LIVING LA VIDA

You are what you eat. So said the French doctor Anthelme Brillat-Savarin in his 1826 book. The idea that what we eat influences or has a direct bearing on health, state of mind, even personality is today not merely philosophical. 

 Look at how cheap high calorie food—replete with tasty fats and sugars—is reshaping the profile of a generation. Couch potatoes indeed! How can we be expected to clean up what’s around us when we can’t begin to clean up what goes into our own bodies? 

 A generation ago in Trinidad, children ate what their mothers cooked at home. This usually meant a meal that included locally grown vegetables or green stuff, carbs in the form of rice or roti, green fig, ground provision and, if any, a tiny but flavourful portion of meat or fish. 

This is the second of a two-part series on incentives geared towards reducing greenhouse gases in T&T, collectively written by six students of the University of the West Indies— MATHEW EDWARDS, SALEEM ABDUL AZIZ, MARSILIO MOHAMMED, KEENAN RAMNATH, DARREL LUTCHMAN, AVINDA BHAIROSINGH and FARIA RAMJOHN.

According to the results of a study conducted by a group of Environmental Economics students on which this article is based, the main contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in Trinidad and Tobago was found to not surprisingly be the industrial sector.

Transport is listed as the second highest contributor with domestic and agricultural sources being third.

In terms of industrial activity, market-based incentives such as tradable permits on pollution and taxing are necessary in making a step in the direction of more environmentally sound operations.

Levying taxes on activities such as polluting, could result in a paradigm shift where unfavourable items and activities would hold a charge as opposed to activities regarded as positive for society such as savings being tax free.

This is the first of a two-part series on incentives geared towards reducing greenhouse gases in T&T, jointly written by six students of the University of the West Indies—Mathew Edwards, Saleem Abdul Aziz, Marsilio Mohammed, Keenan Ramnath, Darrel Lutchman, Avinda Bhairosingh and Faria Ramjohn.

“It is often been said that our quest for wealth has time and again generated much of the pollution that plagues our society and contributes to general degradation of our natural environment. “Living in a way that is less damaging to the Earth is not easy, but it is vital, because pollution is pervasive and often life-threatening,” says Dr Azad Mohammed, UWI lecturer and eco-toxicologist. Necessity is the mother of all inventions. This popular quote, originating from Plato, a renowned Greek philosopher, can be applied to the global crisis with which we are confronted today.

Street food like oysters are an integral part of life in T&T and more so with Carnival in the air. In this guest column, Daana Kanhai MPhil student of Environmental Biology from UWI warns us of the risks associated with raw oyster consumption.

“Environmental contamination resulting from human activities is an issue which is of prime concern for the scientific community because of the potential impacts on human health and the overall well being of ecosystems. Yet, to certain members of the public, this issue often remains an abstract concept until it becomes glaringly apparent that human health is being threatened. Here, I use the example of the mangrove oyster to illustrate how environmental contaminants in Trinidad can be a serious issue which has the potential to adversely and directly affect human health.

For decades we have neglected our environment, but it appears that there is hope for the future as the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) has begun actively reaching out to young people through schools throughout the country. In this two-part series, Tisha Marajh, manager, Corporate Relations and Public Education/corporate secretary of the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) tells us more.

Thank you for printing my letter of January 8th regarding the above in your newspaper. I would like to say that it generated immediate, positive feedback.

As a direct result of its publication a gentleman from the Ministry of Health visited the site and recognized it to be a health hazard insofar as much of the debris is foodstuffs, plastic, glass and Styrofoam and, therefore, a breeding ground for vermin, not to mention the leeching of toxins and water-borne diseases into our watercourses. He immediately met with the appropriate Executive at the San Juan/Laventille Corporation. Workers from the Corporation were dispatched to the site and a barrier to block access was promised.

In the second of this two-part series JOHANNES C Nonner associate professor at the Institute for Water Education of UNESCO-IHE in The Netherlands offers up some solutions based on his vast experience to the huge problem of flooding in T&T after a heavy rainfall.

Trinidad and Tobago is vastly different from The Netherlands. The socio-economic structure, the culture, but also the physical environment of the island states appear to have nothing in common with the Dutch mainland delta area in Europe. Trinidad and Tobago comprises two islands which have rocky mountain ranges and blessed with a pleasant tropical climate, whereas The Netherlands is part of a continent, is predominantly flat and, especially in winter, has a harsh cold climate. Despite this contrast the two countries still have a lot in common. Both states have a long coastline that may be threatened by rising sea levels as a result of climate change, are characterised by sensitive deltaic areas and have a fair amount of heavy rainfall leading to the occasional flooding of urban areas and the countryside.

In the first of this two-part series in our ongoing Cleaning Up The Mess space, JOHANNES C NONNER, associate professor at the Institute for Water Education of UNESCO-IHE in The Netherlands, tells us how a low-lying country with a long coastline is meeting the challenge of controlling its floods and at the same time protects its environment to enhance safety and the general well-being of the people in the country. An outlook to the options for Trinidad and Tobago and activities carried out so far are highlighted. 

The Netherlands have been known for its focus on water management and environmental concern for many years. With more than half of the country lying below sea level, the land is protected from the sea and rivers by natural dunes and an intricate system of dikes. High tides in the North Sea and floods in rivers have challenged the robustness of the dikes. Who does not know the story of the little boy who put his finger in a hole in a dike to prevent it from collapse? Sea dikes were not strong enough in February 1953 when a combination of spring tide and an excessive north-westerly storm caused these structures in the province of Zeeland to fail.

This week as our guest columnist British High Commisioner to T&T, ARTHUR SNELL, continues his commentary on the UN’s ECLAC report on the Economics of Climate Change for the Caribbean. He tells us in this commentary that the British Government will spend at least £22 million on climate change and risk reduction up to 2015 (from a wider Caribbean programme of £75 million).

The British Government has prioritised action on climate change—we have committed to cut our national emissions by 80 per cent by 2050—this is one of the toughest targets of any major world economy and will require the UK to make significant changes in energy usage and production. We have also shown the strongest of leadership on finance. Our commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of national income as official development assistance by 2013, the first major economy to meet that UN target, has enabled us to create an unprecedented £2.9 billion (TT$29 billion) UK International Climate Fund. Our ministers have agreed three broad priorities for our support under this fund: