Three for Green Globe status

THREE MORE properties in Barbados are making an attempt to become Green Globe certified. Cobblers Cove Hotel, Asta Beach Resort, and Southern Palms Beach Club were presented with their certificates of intent at the weekend by the Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism (CAST) which are regional representatives of Green Globe. This means they have committed to deadlines and targets to make their properties ecologically acceptable.

Five others are already certified. They are Casuarina beach Club, Treasure Beach Hotel, Almond Beach Club, Royal Pavilion Hotel, and Glitter Bay Resort. Another nine are already working towards certification. Chairperson of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association's (BHTA) environment committee, Gill Whitley, said this was a new and important direction for the hospitality industry. She said that there was an increase in guests' attitude towards choosing a vacation destination which was in-line with their own principles and
philosophy.

"There have been polls and surveys around the world which show that environmentally friendly hotels is a criteria high on the list of quite a lot of travellers," she said.

Whitley said the local industry was committed to this new direction and as a result the BHTA hired its first environment officer to oversee the transition. She is Wendy Rudder, an environmental engineer, who starts a two-year term on February 1. She will be responsible for implementing a range of activities which is expected to include, for the first time, a sustained approach to environmental audits of all participating hotels.

Half-million-year-old looking over them

RESIDENTS of Bakers, St. Peter, may not be aware of it but one of their neighbours is over half a million years old. They are living in the shadow of the old coral reef in Barbados which now forms the cliff overlooking the development. Between 500 000 and 800 000 years ago, conditions became right for the growth of corals and associated reef organisms and this one grew in the shallow, clear, well-lit waters of the west Coast.

"About 500 000 years ago, a particularly strong tectonic push lifted the oldest reef terrace almost entirely out of the ocean, such that the living reefs fell dry and died off. This uplift effectively enlarged the island," wrote Professor Hans Machel in his book Geology of Barbados, published last year.

Another tectonic push 400 000 years later pushed it to the position it is at today and cause another reef to be pushed out of the water. The second reef is the first cliff walking inshore from the south and west and now forms places such as Rendezvous Ridge and West Terrace. The book which explains the complex subject in very simple terms, also states that if Holetown had existed 20 000 years ago, it would not be where it is today. The town and the coastline would be about two kilometres inland. That was because sea levels were 130 metres below present levels making Barbados much larger than it is today. The island has since "shrunk" because global climate became warmer melting polar ice-caps and glaciers. 

Chemical-free but fewer strawberries

THE phase-out of the chemical pesticide, methyl bromide, is likely to cause a reduction in strawberries according to a University of California Davis study. For years, strawberry growers have injected methyl bromide into the soil before planting to reduce weeds and kill pests. The chemical also is used to fumigate crops after they have been harvested, and in the wine grape industry.  The pesticide is being phased out because it is an acute toxin known to cause birth defects and nerve damage. It also depletes the ozone layer. The pesticide is being reduced by 50 per cent this year in the United States and will be banned by 2005.

Maxi prizes for mini parks

THE island's three top mini parks will be presented with their  prizes next week. Wilson Hill, St  John, captured the top position in last year's Independence Mini Park's Contest which judged the parks on a variety of environmental, conservation, and aesthetic criteria.
Second was Haile Selassie of Hillaby, St  Andrew, and third was Six Men's Ancestors' Memorial Park. The presentations will be made at Wilson Hill, St John on February 6. Special prizes for recycling and use of plants will also be awarded.

'Keep Sandy Beach clean'

A FRIENDLY appeal to the South Coast Sewerage Project from a Barbadian beach-goer. She has asked that we publish this little note to ask the people at the project to please restore Sandy Beach to a condition equivalent to which they found it last week, as soon as work there is completed. She said she understood and appreciated the nature of the job and hoped they too appreciated the therapeutical and leisure properties of the beach.

2 000 premature deaths from foul air

INCREASING air pollution in Hong Kong results in 2 000 premature deaths per year from respiratory diseases, a researcher has said.
Speaking at the Hong Kong Allergy Convention, held in conjunction with the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, Dr. Moira Chan-Yeung of the University of Hong Kong blamed worsening air pollution for a 23 per cent increase in hospitalisation for respiratory diseases since 1996. Chan-Yeung and her colleagues have shown that there is a significant relationship between higher air pollution levels and an increased rate in hospitalisation for asthma, and that this "significant relationship" persists for up to five days after such an increase. The percentage of emergency visits attributable to asthma increases 3.3 per cent for every ten micrograms per cubic metre increase in sulphur dioxide, 5.5 per cent for every ten microgram increase in nitrogen oxide, 3.0 per cent for suspended particulate matter and 5.9 per cent for an increase in ozone, according to Chan-Yeung.