Today is the 40th celebration of World Environment Day, but you would hardly know it in T&T. In two weeks' time, global leaders will attend Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. This year's theme is "Green Economy: Does it include you?" Unfortunately, in T&T, it doesn't. This country is seemingly further away than ever from conceiving -far less achieving-a green economy. Barbados and Jamaica have moved swiftly to install solar panels to cut their astronomical gas-import bill (banks offer financing in Jamaica for solar-panel installation), and the Jamaican Government has set up a wind farm to contribute to the national electricity grid. T&T, cushioned by a sea of natural gas, continues to ignore the need to invest in alternative energy.
Although the Government currently gives tax breaks for solar-panel installation, not one government building has been retrofitted to make it green. Not even the Environmental Management Authority's, which should sure-ly be the model for all state agencies to follow in green design and living. Retrofitting these buildings would also provide real, useful jobs and be a boost for the languishing construction sector. The homepage of the EMA carries an advertisement for its annual Green Lifestyle Show, which takes place on Sunday, will be held, once again, in the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton, and will cost the agency a pretty penny. But what has this event, now in its third year, done to change anyone's attitude to the environment? It certainly has not changed the EMA's-where the last State of the Environment Report was done in 2004. T&T, a powerhouse in the region, attracts migrants from across the Caribbean and Latin America, which means demand for food, water, sanitation and housing is also increasing.
The Ministry of the Environment appears incapable of tackling the pressing issues of inadequate garbage disposal, pollution of waterways and coastlines, unregulated quarry- ing and development on the hills, and industrial waste. A long-running public awareness campaign built into the school curriculum could make a huge difference if children grow up with a proper respect for this very fragile space that sustains this country's enviable standard of living. As UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged in his message on World Environment Day, this country should agree in Rio de Janeiro that measuring growth and wealth by Gross Domestic Product is inadequate. The health of the planet, and its people, is being negatively affected by neglect of the human race's natural habitat. The time for procrastination has passed. All the promised legislation to deal with the disposal of containers, recycling and industrial effluent remain simply promises. Each day that passes, the need to protect what is left of this country's natural beauty becomes more urgent.
Each day that passes, more citizens are exposed to health hazards caused by the unregulated use of chemicals in industry, pesticides and fertilisers in farming, and ignorance of the effects of wasteful life-styles on the environment. Recycling remains an obvious solution to making a dent in the incalculable volume of plastic and paper carted off to landfills daily. Yet simple, straightforward sorting of gar-bage into paper, plastic and organic waste seems beyond the capacity of the Ministry of Local Government. A small country that hosted two global summits in one year can surely sort its garbage, one would think. The political will to protect this land continues to elude successive governments. So the drive for a green economy must come from the private sector. The leaders of industry who harness technology and innovation to create material wealth can and must take the lead in restoring and conserving what's left of T&T's natural resources-for the sake of its environment, and its people.