Climate Change Report Points to Serious Threat for Bahamas

by Sir Arthur Foulkes

In all the furore over the Anna Nicole Smith affair and the excitement normally generated at election time, some Bahamians may not have paid much attention to a big news story about a matter that has the most profound implications for The Bahamas.

It is about a threat not only to our incalculably valuable marine resources but to the very existence of these islands as the home the Bahamian nation. But it got very little attention in the local media making the front page of one daily below the fold.

In what The New York Times described as “a bleak and powerful assessment of the future of the planet”, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that global warming is an unequivocal phenomenon and that it is very likely being driven by human activity.

The debate about the impact of human activity on the natural environment has been going on for decades and in 1962 ecologist Rachel Carson challenged humanity about its abuses in her seminal work Silent Spring.

The book became a rallying cry for a new generation of environmentally-conscious people, but resistance to the new movement -- principally from industrial interests – has been fierce and continues up to this day. So the pollution of the environment and the over-exploitation of the world’s resources continued apace.

Rivers, lakes and streams were poisoned; fish stocks around the globe were depleted, leading in some cases to armed confrontation; many species were threatened, and thousands were wiped out altogether; deserts advanced; and coral reefs and forests – the earth’s lungs and hatcheries for many species -- suffered extensive damage.

As populations in the developed countries became more aware of the polluting habits of their industries and governments, there was growing resistance and the development of the nimby syndrome – not in my backyard. The dumping of toxic materials and its devastating consequences caused communities to mobilize protest movements.

Then the developing countries became targets for the location of dirty
industries and the disposal of toxic wastes, and the British and American Governments connived in the dumping of poisonous wastes in the Caribbean.

In 1967 the Americans ignored the objections of Bahamian officials and, with British approval, dumped canisters of nerve gas in Bahamian waters. Up to this day we do not know what effect, if any, this has had on our marine resources and our health.

But Africa suffered most from this practice as corrupt governments colluded with industrial companies to dispose of all kinds of toxic waste.

Just recently, the Dutch oil trading company, Trafigura, sent a ship to Ivory Coast with a load of toxic waste. The result was that 10 of the natives died when the lethal cargo was offloaded and the Ivory Coast was left with a challenging clean-up job.

The company at first denied that the material was toxic and said that in any event they had a contract with a local company for its disposal. The Government of Ivory Coast imprisoned three of the company’s executives and demanded $197 million reparations before releasing them.

That denial was reminiscent of the 1967 incident in The Bahamas when the Americans said the nerve gas they were dumping here was not harmful. Sir Cecil Wallace Whitfield, then a Government Minister, replied that if that were the case they should dump it in the Hudson River.

But the most dangerous element of the assault on the global environment is the profligate burning of fossil fuels – coal and oil – to produce energy.

The hundreds of scientists and reviewers who participated in the IPCC are 90 per cent certain that global warming is a reality and that a major contributing factor is the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases produced by fossil fuels.

If this process is not stopped or slowed, then the world will be in for dramatic climate changes with catastrophic consequences for humanity.

The threat of immediate concern to The Bahamas is rising sea levels and more violent hurricanes which could literally wash away the ground from under our feet. In the Indian Ocean and the Pacific some low-lying islands have already disappeared or are about to go under.

Anyone who lives in Family Islands such as Grand Bahama and witnessed the effects of the recent hurricanes would fully appreciate the threat. The sea took over. Even on certain parts of the New Providence coast, the danger is obvious.

But what can we do?

It seems that the protective work started along the western shoreline has slowed down or been abandoned altogether and has not even started in some islands where the need is obvious. So the first thing we can do is to identify all the places where such work is feasible, and get on with it.

The Bahamas has a very small voice in the international community but at least we can make common cause with other island countries and even continental states that are also threatened by rising sea levels and help to make the case for corrective action before it is too late.

We do not contribute as much to the process as some of the big industrial countries and the rapidly developing countries but we should still have a national campaign to sensitize Bahamians to the threat and to do our little bit in reducing carbon emissions.

Our climate seems ideal for research and development of alternative energy sources such as wind and solar energy. There is certainly no shortage of sunshine in these islands and the government should encourage the use of available solar energy technology which is expensive to begin with but becomes cheaper in the long run.

And under no circumstances should we encourage in these islands industries and development practices that are clearly a serious threat to our environment, especially our marine environment.

* * *

The American Government and its oil and gas industry have been exerting tremendous pressure on The Bahamas to allow the construction of a an LNG regasification terminal on Ocean Cay and the laying of 50 miles of pipe on the ocean floor to supply the state of Florida.

This poses obvious environmental and security threats for The Bahamas where reefs and marine resources are already under attack. But it appears that the PLP Government has buckled under and will let the Americans do what they want.

We could not stop them in 1967 but 40 years later we are now, though small, a sovereign nation and we should tell them no. If they do not want it on their mainland then they can use one of their own little islands, or create one. That is not beyond their ingenuity and capacity.

Canada is also getting heavy pressure from our American friends over LNG but the Canadians are not buckling.

According to an Associated Press report, Canada has told the US that it will not allow LNG tankers through Canadian waters to get to LNG terminals proposed for the Maine side of the Passamaquoddy Bay. They say that is an unacceptable environmental risk.

The Americans want to build two terminals. One of them would be on a Native American tribe’s reservation.

Comments

[EB Christen]

Dear Sir Arthur:

While I agree completely with everything that you wrote here, I think it is important that we, as Bahamians, are honest with ourselves.

Bahamians give much lip service to the environment but the truth is: we litter profusely; we dump illegally wherever we can; we buy lots of large gas guzzlers and decorate them with shiny trinkets, we overfish our waters and have a laughable record on conservation enforcement (what were those Korean boats doing here?); we basically don't recycle at all nor are we trying to do so; we don't push for serious reform of the public trasport sector nor are we prepared to invest heavily, as a nation, into much needed public trasport systems; we have one of the world's largest ship registry's, but have some of the laxest regulations on environmental standards and enforcement is non-existent; we have no real emissions regulations on boats; we have no emissions regulations on motor vehicles; we have an outmoded energy policy that bans or penalizes personal energy efficient power production and stifles any hope for innovative power solutions; we have a massive bureaucratic power company that will preserve its monopoly on energy until hell freezes over; we have recently issued exploratory oil concessions in Bahamian waters (this one still baffles me); we are seriously considering hosting LNG facilities here in our islands when the USA doesn't want them locally; finally, we have a government that doesn't even acknowledge the global scientific communities serious report on climate and its implications for our progeny, because it is so enmeshed with the blonde bombshell affair. (A lot could still be added to this list of environmentally unsound practices.)

In short, we need to take stock.

The threat is serious and real, but Bahamians consume just like Americans and want to live with all the crass perks of Americans while maintaining a 'more moral than though' stance towards our much maligned neighbours. Our memories are short and our government's ideas for action are limited in time and scope, since they are usually just reacting to some event or another that has already happened.

Now for the scary part! Even if we reform our ways, it won't make one iota of difference on the global level. So, our real challenge is: how can we reform our ways AND convince our much more powerful friends and neighbours to lead the charge to reform the world's ways? Is our government up to this challenge? Are the people of the Bahamas up for this challenge?

I hope so. I really, really hope so, but if we don't wake up and read the writing on the proverbial wall, then this little piece of paradise that we all love and call home will disappear and the mighty Atlantis will sink again.

Bahamians need to tell their government to get real on the ISSUES and I hope that is what the message of the next election - no matter the outcome - will be. The stakes are nothing less than the future of our children's lives in this country and the chips are stacked against us on climate issues.

We must remember how to see more than just what is in front of us and what the day at hand is bringing us - there are bigger forces afoot and not all of them are benevolent.

[wil simmons]

Thank you Thankyou Thank you, it is the single greatest threat to our future and 4 out of 5 bahamians probably couldn't even tell you what you were talking about if you sadi global warming, i dont think its even on the social studies syllabus

[Salty Dog]

you speak of this global warming, as if it were fact.
this is far from a proven fact, its a theory full of holes. Al gore has used his very public persona, to push an agenda which i believe is more about controlling the masses, than saving the world.
The earth has, according to various climatologist who have not succumbed to this nonsense periodically gone through periods of warming and cooling. we call them ice ages. while i don't believe we are helping the environment by polluting it, i doubt we are in eminent danger by virtue of our carbon usage of destroying it, we are in more danger by cutting down the rain forest in the amazon which supply's our oxygen and absorbs co2. so tell me why are western countries not going into Brazil to forcibly stop this practice? its because the people behind global warming do not actually care, it is more about control,socialism is just around the corner for the west if you follow this path. The gw nazis operate on the premise that if you can convince people that the deprivations they face day to day are warranted they will not rebel they will gladly give up their freedoms one by one, if you can only link it to the sacred global warming cow. imagine a world where you cannot travel because that causes carbon pollution. and how about the asinine proposal to ban beef in the United Kingdom because cows expel methane gas, so do humans,.. are we next on the chopping block?
do not be so gullible as to buy into this without all of the scientific community getting to weigh in on this matter, many fear ridicule by their more outspoken leftist colleagues as well as losing their grant money and thereby their livelihoods. resistance is emerging in some of the most surprising places see here http://www.themidnightsun.org/?p=222

also read this blog, which a poster on the midnight sun brought to my attention. it debunks much of what Al Gore claimed as factual as weak and unsubstantiated
http://www.colhogan.blogspot.com/
there are tons of others who dispute gw as well.
don't buy into this nonsense until you research both sides.