Tornado terror

THE WARNING was clear. The Met Service said at the start of this month that temperatures would soar. Days later, on October 7, heat in north-west Trinidad contributed to shifting air columns over land and sea, which culminated in the formation of a destructive tornado. Roofs were ripped off in Westmoorings, affecting dozens. Hundreds lost power. Tree branches damaged structures and flying debris, captured by phone cameras, triggered panic, anxiety and a traffic pile-up. Luckily, no one was injured, giving credence to the oft-quoted saying: God is a Trini.

But another saying also comes to mind: God works in mysterious ways.

Tuesday’s terror came just over a week after the Prime Minister addressed the UN General Assembly in New York and maligned the global campaign to tackle climate change as one involving “blackmail” by unspecified developed countries, an “antagonistic approach” by unnamed climate activists and the “weaponisation” of access to unidentified “financial systems, media platforms, and new technologies.”

With her indignant tone, in a speech that described climate-change sceptic Donald Trump as “correct” on the issues of immigration and trafficking, Ms Persad-Bissessar departed from the economic pragmatism of her predecessor, Dr Keith Rowley, and transformed net zero from an existential imperative into a mere culture war breeze. The torrent in the capital city this week is a signal, whether or not divinely ordained, of the need for an environmental policy reset by her administration.

The sparring this month between the ruling UNC and the PNM over the Met Service is almost beside the point. For sure, the opposition party is correct to highlight the importance of accurate and timely meteorological information and the need to support the service. Equally correct is Minister of Public Utilities Barry Padarath, who noted a decade of stagnation and policy drift under the previous government: since 2016, the PNM kept recurrent expenditure funding for this department more or less flat, even as its importance exponentially increased.

But climate change’s primary danger comes from how it makes weather patterns increasingly unpredictable, even with the best staffing and tools.

When she announced a potentially lucrative deepwater deal with American oil behemoth ExxonMobil in August, Ms Persad-Bissessar, like her predecessor, stood by hydrocarbon extraction but pledged “to keep emissions as low as possible.” That was the kind of telling assurance that was missing from her UN speech.

Dragon gas deal resurrection notwithstanding, Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo’s October 13 budget will be a chance for her administration to lower the heat and return to balance. In the fiscal package, the government must do more than pay lip service to diversification; it must wean the country off volatile and environmentally dangerous fossil fuels. With this week’s weather, it has been duly warned.