Former president Anthony Carmona has apologised to the nation’s youth for his generation’s and those before for neglecting climate change and failing to put adequate measures in place to mitigate its effects.
He was speaking to students of the Miracle Ministries Pentecostal High School, McBean, Couva on Tuesday.
A group of students from this school is among the 16 qualifiers for National Secondary School’s Climate Quiz.
“One thing I have to do today - I have to apologise, I have to apologise to every single one of you here sitting, you all referred to as Generation X - for the failures of my generation and previous generations in relation to climate change,” Carmona said.
He said they were being warned about it but no one cared to listen, as they were all pre-occupied with earning money.
“Nobody cared about mother earth and the environment,” he said.
Despite these failures, however, he urged the students to keep looking forward and take up the burden of making that difference.
“What we are trying to do, basically, recognising that failure, not blaming but looking forward, what needs to be done, what has to be done and what must be done. In order to affect that, you must be agents of change. You all must become child advocates to ensure that we have a better planet, a safer planet, a more sustainable planet.”
He warned that if nothing is done to mitigate the effects of climate change, some 250 tourist destinations within the Caribbean would fall victim to rising sea levels within the next 50 years.
Carmona said this was the prediction of an Antiguan scientist who represented her country at the climate change conference in Paris, France. By the end of the century, Carmona said the nation’s capital, Port-of-Spain, would be under water along with other cities built on reclaimed lands such as New York City, in the United States and Amsterdam, in the Netherlands.
It is in the interest of this awareness that the Carbon Zero Initiative of Trinidad and Tobago (CZITT) is hosting their National Secondary Schools Climate Quiz.
Simultaneously, they are allowing the competing schools to devise a plan for the world to combat climate change which would be broadcasted with the help of their media partner — Guardian Media Ltd.
