Conserving the environment is more than scientific theories and big meetings held at the United Nations headquarters says the European Union Ambassador to T&T, Peter Cavendish. He believes everyone, including youths, must take active roles in preserving and restoring the environment.
“It is clear that the [climate] crisis may overtake us. We were talking ten, 15 years ago of a 1.5 degree change to climate, now we’re talking 2 degrees—this is catastrophic,” Cavendish said yesterday.
He was speaking at the Santa Rosa First Peoples Community Centre in Arima, during Earth Day 2024 celebrations, the theme of which was Planet vs Plastics.
“They used to say a country has reached a civilisation when one generation plants trees for the next generation. Now, we’re talking about survival ... we’ve moved beyond civilisation and demonstration. We’re in a survival mode,” he said.
Chief Ricardo Hernandez of the Santa Rosa First Peoples Community also echoed the Ambassador’s words in that the traditional knowledge held by first peoples ought to be respected considering that their own respect for Mother Earth was a “way of life” shared by all first peoples across the globe. He said their goal was to remind people of the bountiful provisions that the earth had and continued to provide its inhabitants.
“Protection of the environment is a way of life for our indigenous peoples throughout the world. The planet, or Mother Earth, is given to human beings to live and occupy as caregivers with an eternal duty to protect and nurture its sacredness. Human beings are allowed to live and produce on Mother Earth only through sustainable means. Our goal, therefore, is to cultivate a love of Mother Earth in the minds of every sector of the population,” Hernandez said.
Although she was not present at the tree-planting ceremony, Minister of Planning and Development, Pennelope Beckles, shared with Guardian Media that the ministry would continue to place the preservation of the environment at the centre of T&T’s socioeconomic development.
“We at the Ministry of Planning and Development take stock of what we have accomplished and most importantly what we have yet to do. While to date we have made accomplishments with biodiversity management, climate change mitigation, we are undertaking land management projects, ozone management initiatives, solid waste management projects and more to continue the work to place the environment at the centre as per the goals Trinidad and Tobago’s National Development Strategy, Vision 2030,” Beckles said.
As a Small Island Developing State, according to the Vision 2030 report, T&T will continue to experience the adverse effects of climate change if serious initiatives to protect coastal and marine ecosystems are not taken. This in addition to adapting to other global trends will require Trinbagonians by 2030 to be tech-savy, multi-skilled, and multilingual (https://www.planning.gov.tt/content/vision-2030).
Following remarks made by specially invited guests, trees donated by Dr James Hospedales, former director of the Carribean Public Health Agency, were planted at a site not far from the community centre.