When we self-harm

File photo/Roger Jacob
File photo/Roger Jacob

Just when we should be scaling down, as the end of the year approaches, and gearing up, as the Christmas season starts, we get hit by the double whammy of a record murder rate and residential and street flooding, the likes of which we have not seen before.

Neither of these pretty disastrous realities had to happen, but they did, because we created the circumstances and the environment in which they could occur.

The outcome of COP27, the global climate conference that ended in mid-November in Egypt, was nothing if not extremely disappointing. It showed how divided we are as world citizens when it comes to deciding what really matters.

There was a cleavage between those wanting firm temperature-level limits set, above everything else, and the others focused on compensation for countries damaged by climate change induced by first-world industrial development.

In the end, despite Barbados' PM Mia Mottley’s forceful earlier argument that a 1.5-degree temperature increase was a death sentence for small island states, COP27 ended with no clear commitment to end the use of fossil fuels any time soon.

A more powerful argument emerged from Pakistan, one of the world’s poorer countries, which was able to leverage the bold evidence of the spectacularly ravaging 2022 floods that did billions of dollars' worth of damage.

Although that lobby extracted an agreement that poor countries like Pakistan should be financially aided for “loss and damage,” it attracted, reportedly, only a miserly commitment of US$260 million from “rich countries” for “poor countries,” which technically include China. It is an embarrassing handout that will probably end up – after the decision is made about who gets how much/little – in some corrupt politicians' bank accounts.

Much better if the blame game had not been adopted, on the one hand, and the rich countries, on the other, had a sense of fair play when it comes to the existential threat to the planet and all the life it supports. We need a proper plan for helping all countries to adapt to climate change – cash alone does not solve problems – and for international trade to favour green technologies that investors globally should be pouring their money into.

In the Caribbean, where rising sea levels and coastal erosion are real issues, we need particular knowledge and equipment to enable us to combat it. Massive amounts should also be earmarked for educating inert populations like ours who do not seem to understand the relationship between the choices we make and the consequences we suffer.

Yes, the industrial revolution and every other leap forward for mankind has taken a toll on our environment, but we are part of that single world and also harm the environment.

We should consider the specifics of what we do that make our lives more difficult than necessary at the local level. We seem not to equate the unprecedented week-long floods in Trinidad with our actions, both direct and indirect. Our Minister of Works blamed a Bamboo Settlement No 2 resident for the devastating breaching of the river last week, where 80 feet of the Caroni riverbank had been cut away. Residents also blamed a local contractor for compromising the riverbanks.

Will those delinquents be made to pay for the damage they have done, like the first-world countries for their development? What do the clear infringements say about the supposed rules and regulations and controls that are supposed to exist to prevent such illegal activity?

It is criminal that contractors, now among the richest people in TT, are allowed to and paid to build without any nod to the fact that we live in an earthquake and a hurricane zone and that we are set to have increased rain during longer wet seasons. It is clear that anyone can get around all legitimate obstacles and everyone pays the price.

Once, all rural houses were built high, on stilts or tall columns, and when there were no stilts, there were stones and blocks holding more modest structures off the ground. Now, cheaply built housing is constructed by the state and private investors in what were once agricultural lands, with probably inadequate drainage and absolutely flat on the ground. Homes in areas known for high water levels are also lacking elevation, and almost every bit of space under elevated houses has been adapted as additional dwellings.

In my area of Port of Spain, large houses and apartment blocks cover the once verdant surrounding hills but the roads have not kept pace with the amplified occupation; nor has the drainage system. For the first time, we faced a flood in my front garden from the unconsidered additional runoff.

It all comes down to poor governance at local and state level. The business of a government is to keep its people safe and we can safely say that in TT that is not the case.

We, the people, have been allowed to break all the rules and successive governments have let the rot set in with their own corruption and negligence. Doing the right thing is not always easy and we have shamelessly taken the easy way out.

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"When we self-harm"

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