The Aripo Savannas a priceless treasure

THE EDITOR: I don’t know if it is necessary to do so for the benefit of the citizenry or of the Law Lords, but may I add an impressive fact to the conflict now under consideration at the Privy Council in faraway London on the subject of the government-proposed highway adjacent to the world-admired Aripo Savanna.

The Aripo Savannas, all citizens of TT should be thrilled to know, are Ice Age savannas (Boomert 2016). That is to say they are a living relic of the ecological state of Trinidad as it existed before becoming an island.

Trinidad only became an island when the sea level rose about 7000 BCE at the close of the last Ice Age. Thus, the ecosystems were very like those of northern South America. Since becoming an island the vegetation has changed greatly but the Aripo Savannas exist today as they did when Trinidad was part of South America.

They are irrefutably a priceless treasure. It is, or would be in an enlightened nation, unthinkable that the Aripo Savannas be threatened by something so inimical as a highway for the passage of metal boxes on rubber wheels spewing all the while spent hydrocarbons poisoning the air.

The Aripo Savannas must be cherished. They are irreplaceable. The metal boxes and their uninformed occupants can travel as they used to.

Fishermen and Friends of the Sea is pursuing a noble cause and is to be thanked by all who have respect for beautiful Trinidad.

A BLADE, Tobago