Reckless consumption

Yes, many sporadic issues arise from time to time to raise ideas of ecological conscience, but to what extent are we each willing to make small changes in our lifestyles to sustain a much broader move towards us living in balance with our planet? This morning, how many SUVs will drive to work along our highways with one sole occupant with air-conditioning blasting, run by State-subsidised fuel? Ever heard of car-pooling? How many of us will dry our clothes not by the trusty clothesline used by generations before us but in electric dryers whose only use, if at all, should be in the rainy season? Even amid the recent panic about dissolved chemicals, known as leachate, draining from the country’s dumps into the waterways that might be feeding our aquifers and/ or reservoirs, how many of us are taking steps to reduce the horrendous amount of garbage we each produce each year, such as the plastic bottles that litter this land or the Styrofoam lunch boxes that nearby Guyana has had to show us the way towards abolition? We humbly suggest that this country’s changing economic fortunes can in one respect be a blessing in disguise to allow us to practise a much more responsible consumption of our various resources, whether energy, water, food or similar.

The country needs a wake-up call and such may well have come from the launch on Monday at the NGC Bocas Lit Fest of United States author David Mc Dermott Hughes’ book, Energy without Conscience: Oil, Climate Change and Complicity, at the National Library, Portof- Spain. In his opening remarks, Hughes quite radically proposed a cessation of oil drilling in TT on the grounds of its contribution to global climate change.

Energy Chamber CEO Dr Thackwray “Dax” Driver countered that energy has shaped the development of every society throughout the ages, to the extent that the use of hydrocarbons as feedstock for fertiliser now enable the planet to support seven billion people when without such the capacity would be only four billion.

Hughes seemingly amended his position to suggest that hydrocarbons be highly valued and used as such feedstock and not be recklessly burned off, saying, “I’d not want to abolish oil but to use it responsibly.” We certainly support the responsible use of our depleting resources.

For example, instead of a clamour for State subsidies to our gasoline, cooking gas and electricity, all generated by depleting hydrocarbons, isn’t it time to follow the example of little Barbados and outfit our homes with solar panels for water heating and electricity generation? Amidst the debate on relocating our dumps and into whose backyard, shouldn’t we be finding ways to reduce the packaging of waste that we throw out, either by cutting down such consumption in the first place or finding ways to reuse and recycle? This will both reduce our headache of dumped waste and reduce the energy utilised in the manufacture of even more such materials.

In each of our homes, meal planning should take account of the huge amount of climate-wrecking methane that is generated by the rearing of farm animals, as opposed to the consumption of plant-based foodstuff. Further, when fruits and vegetables are peeled in the kitchen, the peelings can be utilised to create compost heaps to facilitate home-grown gardens of herbs and food crops.

Two oil booms set the stage for reckless levels of consumption, but we owe it to ourselves and our planet to see the silver lining of the economic downturn to garner healthy new lifestyles