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| Caribbean Property Magazine Home / January 2009 / 'Sustainable Living January 2009' | SEND THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND  |
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JANUARY  2 0 0 9Issue 24
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| WWF'S EARTH HOUR WILL ONCE AGAIN SPARK WORLDWIDE UNITY One major event to keep in mind for 2009 is Earth Hour 2009. Earth Hour 2009 aims to reach one billion people in 1,000 cities around the world and 71 cities in 62 countries have committed to Earth Hour 2009. During times of economic downturn one opportunity that should be taken on is to steer the economy into safer sustainable future. 62 countries have committed to switch off for WWF’s Earth Hour in 2009. The campaign, which hopes to reach out to more than one billion people in 1,000 cities around the world, asks individuals, businesses and governments to switch off lights for just one hour on Saturday March 28, 2009 at 8:30pm to create a platform of support for action on climate change. Earth Hour 2009 in an event that is a major part of the global fight against climate change. As one of the most pressing challenges facing mankind today, climate change is in no way less alarming than the evident threat of terrorism that the nation is currently reeling under. The lights out initiative, which began in Sydney in 2007 as a public awareness raising campaign, has grown significantly over the past two years and now has 71 cities ready to flick the switch in 2009.  Cities already committed include Los Angeles, Las Vegas, London, Hong Kong, Sydney, Rome, Manila, Oslo, Cape Town, Warsaw, Lisbon, Singapore, Istanbul, Mexico City, Toronto, Dubai and Copenhagen. At 8.30 pm on Saturday March 28, the world will witness some of the most recognisable landmarks on the planet dim the lights in support of decisive action on climate change. Icons switching off include England’s National Football Museum, the world’s tallest hotel building in Dubai — the Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest tower - the CN Tower in Toronto and in Rome — Quirinale - the official residence of the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano. Director General of WWF International Jim Leape said, “When leaders gather in Copenhagen in December 2009 to negotiate a new deal on climate they must feel that the eyes of the world are upon them. Earth Hour provides an opportunity for the public to send a powerful signal that they are watching and expect action.” Executive Director of Earth Hour Global, Andy Ridley, said, “Recent events have shown that the world can unite in a time of crisis. The global economic crunch is an example where, when it matters, decisive multi-lateral action by powerful nations has been shown to be achievable.” Mr Ridley also said 2009 was the planet’s “destiny year,” with critical decisions needing to be made at the Copenhagen meeting on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. “2009 is the year we decide the future of the earth. It is the year the world finally agrees on a plan to massively reduce carbon emissions across the globe. This is the time to invest in new ways of doing business in a new low carbon economy. We must all step over the line together. The sum of our actions today can change history and secure the future of our planet.”  CORAL REEF LOSS SUGGESTS GLOBAL EXTINCTION EVENT The world is on the brink of a massive extinction event, according to the United Nations. Rapid releases of greenhouse gas emissions are changing habitats at a rate faster than many of the world's species can tolerate. "Indeed the world is currently facing a sixth wave of extinctions, mainly as a result of human impacts," said Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Programme in a statement. A study earlier this year in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science said the current extinction period, known as the Holocene extinction event, may be the greatest event in the Earth's history and the first due to human actions. Unlike previous events, however, extinctions are happening over the course of decades rather than centuries. Recent studies suggest that a quarter of the world's species may go extinct by 2050. The UN warning accompanies an increasingly frequent round of sobering news about ecosystem failures. The latest global coral reef assessment estimates that 19 percent of the world's coral reefs are dead. Their major threats include warming sea-surface temperatures and expanding seawater acidification. Zooxanthellae, the tiny organisms that give coral reefs their vibrant colors, are emigrating from their hosts in massive numbers as oceans heat up, killing themselves and the coral they leave behind - a process known as coral bleaching. The report, released by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network Wednesday at the international climate change negotiations in Poznań, Poland, predicts that many of the remaining reefs may disappear within the next 40 years if current emission trends continue. "If nothing is done to substantially cut emissions, we could effectively lose coral reefs as we know them, with major coral extinctions," said Clive Wilkinson, the network's coordinator, in a press release.  Overfishing, pollution and invasive species continue to be risks as well, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The IUCN declared in October that 38 percent of the 44,838 species it studied across the world are threatened with extinction. Its Red List of Threatened Species considers 22 percent of the world's mammals, 31 percent of amphibians, and 14 percent of birds threatened or extinct. Steiner's warnings of mass extinction came last week as the U.N. Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals added 21 migratory species to its protection list. Migratory species are among the most at-risk to climate change, according to a UNEP report released last year. To its list of protected animals, which include the cheetah and Egyptian vulture, the convention added six dolphin species. Nearly one-quarter of the world's dolphin species are threatened with extinction, mostly due to habitat loss and live capture, according to IUCN. The demise of coral reefs, however, affects the entire ocean ecosystem - a quarter of all marine fish species reside in the reefs, according to The Nature Conservancy. In addition, IUCN estimates that 500 million people depend on coral reefs for their livelihoods. The coral reef assessment found that 45 percent of the world's reefs are healthy - providing hope that some species may be able to endure the changes expected from global warming. Marine biologists are now attempting to understand how certain coral reef species can survive warmer, more acidic ocean waters when others are less fortunate. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Cuba planted thousands of urban cooperative gardens to offset reduced rations of imported food. Now, in the wake of three hurricanes that wiped out 30 percent of Cuba's farm crops, the communist country is again turning to its urban gardens to keep its people properly fed. "Our capacity for response is immediate because this is a cooperative," said Miguel Salcines, walking among rows of lettuce in the garden he heads in the Alamar suburb on the outskirts of Havana. Salcines says he is hardly sleeping as his 160-member cooperative rushes to plant and harvest a variety of beets that takes just 25 days to grow, among other crops. As he talks, dirt-stained men and women kneel along the furrows, planting and watering on land next to a complex of Soviet-style buildings. Machete-wielding men chop weeds and clear brush along the periphery of the field. Around 15 percent of the world's food is grown in urban areas, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a figure experts expect to increase as food prices rise, urban populations grow and environmental concerns mount. Since they sell directly to their communities, city farms don't depend on transportation and are relatively immune to the volatility of fuel prices, advantages that are only now gaining traction as "eat local" movements in rich countries. In Cuba, urban gardens have bloomed in vacant lots, alongside parking lots, in the suburbs and even on city rooftops. They sprang from a military plan for Cuba to be self-sufficient in case of war. They were broadened to the general public in response to a food crisis that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba's biggest benefactor at the time. They have proven extremely popular, occupying 86,000 acres of land across the Caribbean island. Even before the hurricanes, they produced half of the leafy vegetables eaten in Cuba, which imports about 60 percent of its food. The co-op, which began in 1997, now produces more than 240 tons of vegetables annually on its 27 acres of land, which is about the size of 13 soccer fields. The gardens sell their produce directly to the community and, out of necessity, grow their crops organically. When the Soviet Union fell apart, Cuba's supply of oil slowed to a trickle, hurting big state agricultural operations. Chemical fertilizers were replaced with mountains of manure, and beneficial insects were used instead of pesticides. Unlike developed countries, where organic products are more expensive, in Cuba they are affordable. Some experts fear that rising international food prices along with the destruction of the hurricanes will return Cuba to the path of agrochemicals. The government is planning to construct a fertilizer plant with its oil-rich ally Venezuela. And, in September, the government began renting out unused state-owned lands to farmers and cooperatives, measures that met with approval of international aid groups | ||
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A PAINTED LADY IN DISTRESS IN TRINIDAD Visitors to the Queen’s Park Savannah (a sugar estate turned public park) in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad are struck by the diversity of architecture along its perimeter, where commercial buildings sit incongruously amid Victorian structures. Even the Magnificent Seven, a row of famous colonial buildings including a French Baroque mansion and a castle inspired by the one at Balmoral, in Scotland, represent a random assortment of styles, in various states of repair. But perhaps no building on the Savannah is more emblematic of Trinidad’s chaotic history than the Boissiere House, a 1904 cottage as majestic as any of the mansions and a rare example of turn-of-the-century Trinidadian architecture. The house is a unique marvel of large gabled dormers separating two Chinese pagoda-like pavilions, marble steps, and intricate fretwork. As John Newel Lewis, an English architect, wrote in “Ajoupa,” his 1983 book on Trinidadian architecture, “The whole effect is magical and nostalgic with mysterious colors and a melancholy air. The house is an example of Trinidad’s visual heritage at its best. The melancholia will pass.” Recently, though, the melancholia has intensified. In February, a sign appeared in front of the house, which belongs to Greta Elliott, a great-granddaughter of the man who built it, announcing that it was for sale. Since then, the house, which is still for sale, has come to symbolize the rapid disappearance of historic architecture here, provoking a sometimes heated debate among residents about the merits of historic preservation, a conversation that has come late to Trinidad. The last decade has seen the destruction of a number of the island’s historic buildings, including the 1904 Union Club, which was torn down in 1998 and replaced by a 21-story office tower; the Coblentz House, an 1877 estate near the Savannah, demolished the following year; and a turn-of-the-century gingerbread house restored in 1954 by Colin Laird, Trinidad’s most prominent contemporary architect, which was torn down in 2005 and replaced by a faux French chateau. When the Boissiere House was listed for sale, many feared a similar outcome, given its location on prime real estate.  Trinidad’s weak preservation laws won’t protect it if it does sell, and given the asking price — the house was appraised at around $16 million in Trinidad and Tobago dollars ($2.6 million), but was listed at $63 million in local dollars (about $10.3 million) and then reduced to $35 million in local dollars ($5.7 million) — the most likely buyer would be a developer interested in the land. Fortunately, a preservation campaign has been taken up by intellectuals on the island, may prove to be an impediment to the sale. “At first a lot of businessmen were interested in buying the house,” said AnnMarie Aboud, the listing agent and the owner’s spokeswoman. “But there’s been too much politics. They all said, ‘We’re not touching it.’ ” Despite the house’s architectural innovations, though, its appeal is lost on many people here, a state of affairs that Gerard Besson, a local historian, attributes to a deep-seated local resistance to preservation. Unlike Barbados, which has a wealthy preservation-minded expatriate population, or even Tobago, Trinidad’s sister island, Trinidad isn’t dependent on tourism, so there was never a need to promote — or preserve — the colonial architecture, he said. (Trinidad’s economy is driven by oil, which was discovered here in the 1860s, as well as natural gas.) But the resistance to preservation reflects more than just a lack of incentive, Mr. Besson said. In 1962, when the country gained its independence from England, he said, 90 percent of the architecture in Port of Spain built during the late colonial era was intact. Seen through the prism of independence politics, those buildings became symbols of an unpleasant past, with negative associations with slavery and colonialism. “After independence, our built heritage was left to go to rot,” Mr. Besson said. He said that he once gave tours of historic buildings here, but that he has stopped in recent years because there aren’t enough buildings left. There are some who believe that attitudes may finally be changing, though. Rudylynn Roberts, 57, an architect with experience in historic restoration and a founding member of Citizens for Conservation, a preservation lobbying group, began advocating for a National Trust in 1979. It took more than a decade, but legislation was drafted in 1991 and passed in 1999. Most preservationists here agree that adaptive reuse is the most practical way to save these houses. Vel Lewis, the chairman of the National Trust of Trinidad and Tobago, said he favors government grants for homeowners to restore historic homes and a registry of protected buildings. Dossiers on the first 30 recommended for inclusion in such a registry have been made and a fine has been proposed for buyers who alter them. Critics say that the trust is stymied by government inertia and a lack of political will and that the fine, $5,000 (about $820), is too low. The owner of the Boissiere House has done little to preserve it, but the house is still in relatively good condition, something that can’t be said for many of the island’s historic structures. “We are getting to the point where it will be too late,” said Andrew Lawrence, a restoration contractor. A number of the old homes in Port of Spain date to the early 1900s, he said. Without attention, after about 70 or 80 years, deterioration sets in; if a house is vacant, it is particularly vulnerable to salt accumulation, wet rot, dry rot, termites and other tropical maladies. While preservationists say that a number of old houses are still salvageable, it is often cheaper to demolish them and build new ones. Mr. Lawrence estimates that a faithful restoration costs about $250 a square foot. Confronted with that expense, “the perception that it is simply too late” to save a house, and the desire to avoid public outcry, owners often “make the decision to demolish the building under the cover of night,” he said. “They see it as a burden rather than a treasure.”  ENERGY MINISTER UPBEAT ABOUT JAMAICA’S ETHANOL PROSPECTS With the consumption of ethanol globally expected to increase significantly over the next few years, Energy Minister, Clive Mullings, is upbeat about Jamaica's ability to export competitively to the international market. Speaking at the opening of a two-day bio-fuels policy workshop in Kingston, Mullings noted that the global bio-ethanol market is poised to grow rapidly, with the demand expected to be approximately 101 billion litres by 2010, and supply about 81 billion litres. He said Jamaica stands ready to meet some of that demand. Jamaica already has the capability and expertise to produce ethanol that meets world standards. In fact, Jamaica is one of the largest exporters of ethanol to the United States outside of Brazil," the Minister informed. Up to 2007, Jamaica exported upwards of 66 million gallons of ethanol to the United States, the world's largest ethanol market.  The thrust in the development of the local bio-fuel sector is expected to be underpinned through the Centre of Excellence for Renewable Energy, based at the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ). The centre evolved out of dialogue, which commenced in 2005, involving the Ministry, United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and the German Agency for Technical Cooperation. A report on the country's potential for renewable energy was published with a view to identifying national development opportunities. | ||
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