Stop this assault on our environment!

04.JAN.08

Editor: It has been just days since the end of the world Earth Summit on global warming. St Vincent and the Grenadines will be one of the nations greatly affected by a rise in sea level due to global warming.

It was, therefore, with amazement that I saw on SVGTV and the front page of one newspaper, pictures of a conflagration of tires. {{more}}Thick black smoke emitting carbon dioxide and other noxious substances was rolling into the air, while several high profile members of Vincentian Society stood around having their pictures taken in front of the conflagration with satisfied smiles on their faces.

Vehicle tires are after all made of four gallons of oil for each and every one. Oil is a fossil fuel, and it is the burning of fossil fuels that increases the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere leading to global warming. This pollution was allowed to drift all over St Vincent, depositing droplets of oil on the people living below who were obliged to breathe these noxious chemicals until it dissipated over the ocean so that the ocean creatures could ingest this chemical soup.

I understand that St Vincent and the Grenadines is not obliged to control its emissions by the Kyoto Protocol, but surely common sense not to foul one’s own environment should have occurred to these paragons of Vincentian Society. This is the second year that I have seen this devastating sight. Surely, there must be another way of destroying illegal drugs, which are, after all, organic in nature, and, therefore, there must be an organic way to dispose of them. One has to ask who authorised this assault on the environment; why has the GREEN Party been absent from issuing a statement on this most serious of GREEN matters; what lesson does the general population learn from such an act; is it that polluting the atmosphere is a good thing?

The ill maintained vehicles and vehicles that should no longer be on the roads which belch out black smoke is bad enough, both for the environment and our lungs without the unnecessary burning of tires. This is using one crime to destroy the product of another crime. Will no one in St Vincent and the Grenadines stand up for Mother Earth and the Environment?

Clean Air Advocate