Carmona: Environment tops crime

“I think in all honesty, in order for there to be crime, there must be an island to be standing on, and therefore the environment ought to be our prime priority,” Carmona said.

He was speaking during a ceremony in which new Canadian High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago, Carla Lyn Hogan Rufelds, presented her credentials at the Office of the President, St Ann’s, yesterday morning.

The President also addressed students from the Trillium International School, Chaguanas, and Maple Leaf International School, Westmoorings.

These schools followed the Canadian curriculum.

The President said as a small island nation, we are on the threshold of every environmental disaster.

He warned that if nothing was done soon, in 40 years time, 246 tourist resorts in the Caribbean would be under water.

“The impact of this on tourism, our way of life, will be catastrophic,” the President said.

“We need to engage in environmental outreach in a way that we have never done before.

We need to tell the governments of the region that climate change is here. It was here since yesterday and it will be with us for all time.

Climate change may not affect you now, it may not even impact on your children, but your grandchildren and great-grandchildren can be affected in a very fatalistic way.

We must be aware of what is taking place,” said Carmona, a father of two.

The President praised Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, who donated CAN$2.6 billion to countries that were suffering from climate change throughout the world on his own, without any advice or demand He noted that just this week, United States President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping had decided to sign on formally to the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

Carmona said these two bodies alone represented 40 per cent of the world’s emissions of greenhouse gases