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DECEMBER  2 0 0 7
Issue 11
S U S T A I N A B L E L I V I N G |
| A NEW SECTION BUT NOT A NEW IDEA!
"Sustained progress depends on moving away from a fossil fuel-based, economy to a renewable energy-based, diversified transport, reuse/recycle economy".
When relocating to an urban or non-urban situation in the Caribbean, a wonderful opportunity to assess how to create a sustainable lifestyle presents itself.
In this new section we will be exploring books, websites, articles, press releases, projects, companies, nations, NGO groups, grass root organizations and everyday people that are promoting sustainable living practices, processes and systems.
In doing so, we hope to unearth new concepts and lifestyle trends that are helpful to sustaining our living practices in the region…. as well, we hope to pique our reader’s interest in developing their own individual sustainable lifestyles within the context of Caribbean living.
| |  Only twenty Nevisian style villas to be built in a community with restaurant and health spa. The detached homes will enjoy individual pools with views out towards St. Kitts and magnificent sunsets to the West, against the imposing backdrop of Mount Nevis.These investment properties are just a two minutes from the quiet white sand beaches of Nevis. |
| LIVENEVIS DEVELOPMENTS LTD. SUPPORTS THE PRODUCTION OF GEOTHERMAL ENERGY IN NEVIS As an affiliate member of Green Globe 21, LiveNevis Developments Ltd. has a keen interest in sustainable travel and tourism. As a company, we are committed to an improved environment and as such have embraced the news that exploration for renewable energy has commenced in Nevis.
Geothermal, meaning 'earth heat', is produced by the heat of the earth and is normally found in volcanic and seismically active regions. West Indies Power (Nevis) Ltd., the company charged with discovering the geothermal energy, anticipate producing the energy by simply taking the top vapor above Nevis' volcano.
 Geothermal power plants work pretty much the same as normal power plants: the energy source, in this case steam, is fed into a special turbine connected to a generator to make electricity. The cooled water can then be pumped back below ground to be reheated by the earth. The electricity is then fed through transmission wires to power homes, schools and businesses.
Although geothermal energy occurs naturally, it isn't strictly renewable. However, it avoids many of the pollution problems associated with fossil fuels and nuclear energy. This is a very exciting time for the Nevisian people, once the energy is discovered and the company is able to produce and sell the energy to NEVLEC, the price of energy as delivered to the consumer will be considerably reduced. The island will have energy in reserve which will bring a number of benefits including attracting new companies to do business with the island. Also, once the project meets it objective, Nevis will be in a position to export renewable energy to St. Kitts and surrounding islands at a cheaper rate than they could produce their own energy given the cost of oil market prices.
With the above in mind, LiveNevis Developments Ltd. design team is currently looking at ways to improve the environmental efficiency of their new development of luxury affordable villas at Sunset Ridge, Cades Bay, Nevis. In an unlikely twist, they are currently studying the carbon foot print created by the production and installation of solar panels versus geothermal production.
Ph: +44 1435 860660 (outside the UK) or 0800 707 6691 (from the UK)  More Info About LiveNevis
| | ANTIGUA ENVIRONMENT DIVISION STRUGGLES TO DO ITS DUE DILIGENCE Governments for most developing countries are constantly faced with a choice between the push for development over the environmental consequences.
It often happens that the international developer has a better understanding of good business and environmental practices, whilst the local developer isnt always aware of the long term consequences of unsustainable construction and services.
Those nations that have switched from long term agriculture to the construction of upscale resort developments and its concomitant stresses that ultimately fuel the growth of the tourism sector, have long struggled with an acceptance of sustainable development.
Particularly in small developing states, like those found in the OECS, special attention has to be given to the pace and size of development so as to ensure that the valuable resources and the ecosystems within which these massive structures are constructed, are not left too exposed to the obvious consequences of development. Small island nations have seen the impact of badly managed non-sustainable developments along some of the most beautiful parts of the Caribbean.
Sometimes the goal of a developer is not in the best long term interest of the country, and although legislation is in place it behoves civil servants and Ministers to try to enforce those rules and guidelines against financial enticements that are sometimes irresistible.
In Antigua just such an example is taking place this week.
The media is citing senior Ministers and Officers from the Ministry of Tourism, Planning Department and Development Control Authority as having prevented the Environment Division from carrying out its due diligence.
The Division applies checks and measurements to ensure that a number of large, hi-profile developments, such as LaPerla NonSuch Bay, are properly monitored to protect the state of Antigua and its natural resources for the future.
| | ZERO CARBON RESORT PARADISE BAY EXPANDS ORGANIC GARDENS
By James Post
Paradise Bay, a recently opened Beach Resort & Spa in Grenada, Caribbean has expanded its organic gardens. In addition to serving the needs for Paradise Bay, a sustainable resort, the organic vegetables are also supplied to Real Value, a local supermarket in response to the demands from expats and St. George University students.
James Post, the resort's owner and general manager: "We started the organic vegetable gardens essentially because we had little other choice, as there was no reliable local source. We decided to expand to allow other conscious consumers the benefit of the garden, as a way of setting an example for local farmers and also to educate the public on organic produce".
The gardens are setup as a co-operative with an experienced local farmer, a concept which is a fairly new to the region.
Technical support and advice in promoting best practices was given by Caribbean-wide agency CARDI (Caribbean Agricultural Research & Development Institute) and local NGO ART (Agency for Rural Transformation).
A second purpose of the organic gardens is to give an example to local farmers that organic gardening is an economically viable alternative - in contrast to local common beliefs.
 Organic gardening is just a small subset of the resort's sustainable practices. Earlier this year, Paradise Bay was the first hotel in the world to install a utility-grade windmill and the first - in the world - to announce a Carbon Free Vacation, whereby carbon dioxide emissions caused by flights, stay and activities of all guests of the resort are compensated by planting trees in Ethiopia (typically 40 trees for a transcontinental return flight - far more than usual). An agricultural revitalization program is the resort's major 2008 Community Service project. The project will compliment and combines well with the organic gardens that serve as a model garden for this purpose. The revitalization program is aimed at crop and tree farmers with the older farmers being a priority. Many farmers never restarted their gardens after hurricane Ivan and moved into construction work. Now that the reconstruction boom is over they find themselves without a steady job and typically have no reserves. This is not only a social problem for the farmers themselves: vegetables now have to be partly imported to satisfy the demand at sharply increased prices, while many destroyed nutmeg trees were not replanted. The program helps the farmers back in turn, from clearing their overgrown land to providing manure, seeds and seedlings, as well as advice on how to produce more economically. The service is provided by resort staff and volunteers.
 Since local volunteers are rarely available, the resort decided to introduce the Volunteer Vacation program - a program which offers a balance between volunteer work (4 hours on week days) and enjoying the island. Volunteers only pay for meals, drinks and services; the accommodation is free.
Volunteers work every morning on weekdays and enjoy a very busy program, including social contacts with locals.
James can be reached at (++1) 473 405 8888
For More Information
Email : James Post  Paradise Bay Resort and Spa features 9 Caribbean tropical villas on 8 acres amidst 1000's acres pristine nature with great ocean & beach views, offers gourmet cuisine, personal service, (beach) massage and a small gym.
The resort broke ground by including expensive Spa treatments and excursions and called it Super Inclusive. All meals, house drinks are included with the $94.50 pp Super-Inclusive add-on, but also whales/dolphins watching, a Catamaran trip, scuba diving, island tour, horseback riding, walks and/hikes. The first Eastern Caribbean resort with a windmill and flight carbon offset program offers guests a Carbon Free Vacation. More Information on Paradise Bay Resort | | ROCK GARDENS, CROQUET LAWNS AND APPLE ORCHARDS COOL OUR WARMING CITIES Covering city buildings in vegetation - creating "green roofs" and walls - could substantially save energy by reducing the need for air conditioning on hot days, say researchers.
Green roofs and walls can cool local temperatures by between 3.6°C and 11.3°C, depending on the city, suggests their new study.
Eleftheria Alexandri and Phil Jones at the Welsh School of Architecture, at the University of Cardiff in the UK, mimicked the microclimate around and inside buildings using computer modelling. They compared local temperatures when buildings were made of bare concrete with when the concrete was covered in vegetation.
 Such green surfaces are already in use - roofs that are strong enough to take the additional load can be covered with mosses, turf and even trees. In Switzerland, roofs covered in alpine plants that require little soil are becoming increasingly common. Walls can also be greened, often by climbing plants planted at ground level.
The researchers compared the effects of green surfaces in nine cities around the world, including subarctic Montreal in Canada, temperate London in the UK, humid Mumbai (India), and tropical Brasília (Brazil). In all cases, they studied the month during which that city sees its hottest temperatures.
They found that green walls and roofs cooled the local climate around a building in all of the cities - and the hotter the climate, the greater the cooling effect.
If, for example, a group of buildings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is entirely clad in vegetation, the gap between the buildings will become 9.1°C cooler during the day, according to the researchers' model. The gap's peak temperature of the day is brought down by 11.3°C. And in London and Montreal, the peak temperature drops by just over 4°C.
Green surfaces cool local temperatures in two ways. Firstly, the green surfaces absorb less heat from the sun. Hot surfaces warm the air around them, so by cooling the surface, the vegetation also affects air temperatures.
Secondly, the plants also cool the air by evaporating water in a process known as evapotranspiration.
Due to density, regions of concrete and paved surfaces, cities and towns lose the cooling effects of vegetation. This generates what is known as the "urban heat island" effect.
Alexandri and Jones say their results suggest the urban heat island effect could be countered by introducing green roofs and walls in cities.
They point out that, other than making cities more comfortable and safer to live in, green roofs could also significantly reduce the demand for electricity - most of which is generated by burning fossil fuels and therefore contributing to man-made global warming.
In recent years, Europe and North America have been hit by severe heat waves, the effects of which are often most extreme in cities. In 2003, a heatwave in Europe is thought to have killed 35,000 people and hundreds died this summer in Eastern Europe. Research has shown that the frequency of extremely hot days has nearly tripled in Europe since 1880.
"In addition to the fact that they add a further insulation layer to the building, the green surfaces can decrease air conditioning demands inside the building," says Jones.
In Brasília and Hong Kong, he and Alexandri found that the need to air-condition a building during the hottest month of the year is eliminated if it is given a green roof and green walls. Buildings in these cities would normally need air conditioning in the afternoon and early evening.
In hotter cities, such as Riyadh, the number of hours when air conditioning is needed would be cut from 12 hours to just 5. More reading at:
Website - http://www.greenroofs.com/
Website - http://www.livingroofs.org | | CRUISESHIPS AND MEGAYACHTS BRING A HIDDEN DANGER
Pollution kills 60,000 every year
from the Newscientist.com
Some of the most vulnerable Caribbean economies depend on the seasonal cruiseship visits, and yet these very cruiseships bring a hidden pollution that is endangering the lives of the local populations.
According to research scientist, James Corbett from the University of Delaware, pollution from ships, in the form of tiny airborne particles, kills at least 60,000 people each year. And unless action is taken quickly to address the problem - such as by switching to cleaner fuels - the death toll will climb, researchers warn.
Premature deaths due to ULTRA-FINE PARTICLES SPEWED OUT BY SHIPS will increase by 40% globally by 2012, the team predicts.
Ships release an estimated 1.2 million to 1.6 million metric tons of tiny airborne particles each year. Less than 10 micrometres in diameter and invisible to the human eye, most come from the combustion of shipping fuel which releases the ultra-fine soot. This includes various carbon particles, sulphur and nitrogen oxides.
Particles released by ships fall into this category, with most measuring less than 2.5 microns across. So James Corbett of the University of Delaware in the US and his colleagues decided to determine what portion of premature deaths can be linked to soot emissions from the shipping industry.
Tiny airborne particles are linked to premature deaths worldwide, and are believed to cause heart and lung failures. The particles get into the lungs and are small enough to pass through tissues and enter the blood. They can then trigger inflammations which eventually cause the heart and lungs to fail.
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Sosua, Dominican Republic
A secure gated community that offers luxurious beachfront condominiums, Infiniti Blu stylishly incorporates living space with lush tropical gardens and a charming semi-private beach.
The first class ocean front development of 20,000 square meters (approximately 5 acres) combines spectacular views with a hi tech sophisticated infrastructure contained within European standard architectural detail.
The spacious Caribbean condos range from 159m2 (1711ft2) to 355m2 (3821ft2). Each one is carefully positioned so there is no need to cross a street while you walk through the tropical gardens to either of the two pools or to the beach, and is just a short five minute walk to town.
| The researchers used two independent inventories of the emissions produced by the global shipping industry. They fed these into computer-run climate models to predict where the emissions are carried by the winds. Using population data from the World Health Organization, they then overlaid the location and concentration of the shipping emissions and population density. Using data from the two emissions inventories and two climate models, "our best estimate is 60,000 deaths" worldwide each year, says Corbett, adding that the number may be "conservative".
"The figure does not surprise me," says Mike Moore, who leads the UK Natural Environment Research Council's programme on environment and human health. "If anything, I would have thought it might be bigger," he told New Scientist.
What is more, the number is set to increase. Corbett and colleagues ran a simulation of what the picture may look like in 2012 given current estimates of the growth in trade. They found a 40% rise in premature deaths. The analyses showed that organic carbon particles and sulphite were responsible for roughly 40,000 deaths per year - or over 60% of the total deaths linked to shipping emissions. Emissions of all of these particles could be limited by using more refined fuels in the shipping industry, which typically is powered by diesel fuel. Click here for more information
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| | | | OH THOSE FOREIGN INVADER SPECIES! The tiny, uninhabited island of Sombrero lies about 38 miles west of Anguilla. It is best known for its lighthouse whose flashing beam, 166ft/50m above sea level, protects ships passing from the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea through the Anegada Passage. Sombrero is the northernmost islet in the Lesser Antilles. It is a 95 acre rock, one mile long and a quarter mile wide, the relatively flat top of the rock is 40 feet above the surface of the water yet the treacherous northern rollers are known to wash over the entire island even on relatively calm days. On a wonderful blog about Anguilla I found the following unfinished story. I do hope this one has a happy ending, but throughout the islands this is an oft repeated scenario. For example the little coqui frog from Puerto Rico has been virtually eliminated in the BVI by the imported invader species of Cuban Tree frog. The Cuban Tree frog is much larger, and unfortunately poisonous. http://corruptionfreeanguilla.blogspot.com/
Goat’s Foot! Beach morning glory is called “goat's foot” in Anguilla, and erroneously sea bean, which is a different species often found growing on or near the same beaches. In the US, where it's commonly found on the Atlantic Coast, it's called Railroad Vine.
In 1999 the Anguilla National Trust commissioned a report on the ecology of Sombrero.
The following is from the resulting 1999 report by Dr. Michael A Ivie, a conservation biologist who is a Professor at Montana State University:
"Ipomoea pes-caprae. The Beach Morning Glory is a very common beach plant, familiar to every naturalist with expertise in the West Indian region. It was not present when Ogden et al did their inventory in 1985, but was established by the time ICF Kaiser made their visit in 1998. In their report (ICF Kaiser 1999) it is misidentified as Sea Bean, Canavalia rosea, a member of the Fabaceae. The lighthouse keepers say the plant was introduced with sand from Anguilla used in the reconstruction after Hurricane Luis. This plant is a very large vine, highly invasive, and an aggressive competitor. It is currently beginning to spread out of the immediate housing area, and is a threat to the native species of plants to the north of the bunkhouse, and the large populations of natives in the southern pit we called the Hanging Gardens of Sombrero. No native invertebrates were observed utilizing this species".
Karim Hodge, then of the National Trust, agreed to see to its removal, which at the time might have required five minutes with a shovel or hand trowel. Dr. Ivie says he offered to remove it at the time, but was told it would make a great field trip for the National Trust and they would take care of it right away.
By the year 2007, the goat’s foot has taken over the island of Sombrero. It now threatens to strangle the remaining native species that provide food for the lizards and insects living on the island. Nothing that I know of eats or uses any part of the goat’s foot plant.
If left alone it will completely take over Sombrero and strangle to death all forms of life on the island. Dr Ivie has a website with some more revealing photographs.
He writes, "I tried to send a power point file with 8 photos on 3 slides of the plant situation in 1999, but file was too large and got kicked back. Therefore, I loaded it on my server at [Click here to view]. The left hand photo in the first slide is the total extent of the beach morning glory in 1999. The light house is to the right in this view, the "dock" to the left. The second page has views of the native plants in the pit to the south. The third slide shows the area infested in the 2007 photo without BMG. Note that the low angle of the top photo obscures the many native plants actually on the rocks, visible at the feet of the folks in the lower photo. These plants were the ones eaten by the Ameiva, and by several of the native insects that were also eaten by lizards. This might give some idea of how much has changed." Michael A. Ivie, Ph.D., F.R.E.S.
How many government officials have visited Sombrero in the ensuing eight years?
And, now we read of an initiative by the British House of Commons.
Yesterday, 28 November, Joan Ruddock (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) stated in the House of Commons:
"On non-native invasive species, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), the statutory adviser to Government on UK and international nature conservation, has undertaken a review of non-native species in the UK Overseas Territories. This review is being used to guide various projects relating to invasive species in Overseas Territories. In June 2007, JNCC also hosted a workshop on invasive species in the Overseas Territories bringing together a range of stakeholders to share information, and to discuss future collaboration in this area of work."
One has to wonder why are they spending money sending people to invasive species workshops if we then fail to do the actual work? If we can be this nonchalantly negligent over what might seem to be simple issues, can you imagine how careless we are over the important issues?
| | We invite readers to send all information and links that they
feel would be suitable and thought-provoking for our new section called
Sustainable Living. editor at caribpro dot com
| | | Only twenty new Nevisian style villas
are being developed
in a charming community with restaurant and
health spa. | The detached dwellings will enjoy individual pools with views out towards St. Kitts and magnificent sunsets to the West, against the imposing backdrop of Mount Nevis. The villa complex will use the surrounding tropical gardens to create privacy without isolation. The individual garden lawns will be cut out of the scrub and peripheral shrubberies will be introduced around the open areas. In this way, a series of random green rooms will be created. The use of these green rooms will allow residents to enjoy an extension of their home into the outside environment without the loss of privacy or sense of place.
Our villas will be built utilising modern construction techniques in the local style, thus exemplifying the traditional effect and scale of old Nevisian homes. Each villa will be surrounded by a veranda on three sides and will comprise of one en-suite master bedroom, enjoying triple aspect fenestration, two further en-suite bedrooms, open plan living/kitchen-dining area, and private infinity pool.
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