THE WORLD is bracing for what President George W. Bush termed "the first war of the 21st century" and though Barbados is not directly involved, the environmental consequences, depending on the scale of the battle, could affect small island states in the short and long term. In the worse case scenario, there could be direct implications for food availability if transport from the countries on which Barbados relied for its staples, was disrupted. Even if transport was not disrupted, food might become unavailable due to the extent of environmental damage in the countries involved. 

For example, India and China produce rice. They border Afghanistan - the expected staging ground of the new war. Other countries such as Canada and the United States produce wheat which is another staple but they may wish to stockpile even greater quantities for their own citizens.

The environment can take such a beating that breakthroughs in medical research can be set back, as biodiversity is destroyed. Biodiversity can also be affected when armies set up bases on huge tracks of land. The fallout from war - biological, chemical, nuclear, or fire would decimate huge areas of the environment and render them infertile or useless for an incalculable period of time. The explosion of a bomb can create temperatures up to 3 000 degrees Celsius which would vaporise all biodiversity and destroy the lower layers of soil, which can take between 1 500 to 7 400 years to regenerate. This shrinks the land available for food production and puts pressure on existing food production systems. As vessels are sunk and aircraft shot down, thousands of gallons of oil contaminate waterways and the nearshore marine environment effectively killing marine life. Another example of the fallout was when retreating Iraqi soliders set ablaze Kuwait oilfields. Emissions such as carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide which constitute acid rain were released into the atmosphere, causing black, greasy rains to fall in Saudi Arabia and Iran and black snow in Kashmir more than 1 500 miles away. 

The global environment which could be so affected that the result would hit at the already precarious and soft underbelly of vulnerable small and low-lying coastal areas. There will be an increase in the use of fossil fuels for military purposes. Documents from the United States Department of Defence revealed that the America bought 2 000 billion barrels of oil for military use in 1989. The upsurge in the use of these fuels will lead to a domino effect according to the theory behind human-induced global warming. The burnt fuel would spew greater quantities of damaging chemicals into an already stressed global atmosphere, leading to higher temperatures and triggering a wave of nasty effects including faster melting of ice in polar regions which in turn leads to faster rising sea levels which then inundate vulnerable low-lying coastal areas around the world.

In a world where the population is rapidly expanding and the natural resources are rapidly shrinking, the quality of life globally can be significantly affected depending on the extent of the beating given to the environment.

ENVIRONMENTALIST Dr Colin Hudson will deliver this year's Graham Gooding Public Lecture tomorrow at 7:30 p.m., at the Sir Hugh Springer Auditorium,  Solidarity House , Harmony Hall. He will speak on the topic Defining And Measuring Sustainability - How Are We Doing? All are invited.

Hudson came to Barbados in 1961 as a research student in agronomy, fresh from undergraduate studies at Cambridge University. After completing a prize-winning external PhD at University of the West Indies in 1968, he worked as agronomist in the sugar industry with the late Graham Gooding. He then went on to be CEO of Carib Agro-Industries, developing a series of harvesters for cane and other crops which were used world-wide and backed by over 20 patents. In 1994, his innovative talents were put to new use in creating a Village Of Hope for the 1994 United Nations Global Conference on Small Island Developing States. The success of this led to the development of the Future Centre and more recently Treading Lightly. He was honoured with the Guinness Award for Scientific Achievement in 1982 and a GCM in 1995. He has written over 200 papers during his careers as agronomist, engineer, and environmentalist. He is the indefatigable leader of the Barbados National Trust's Stop 'n Stare Hikes.

FISHERIES are in crisis world-wide. Conventional methods developed for large-scale temperate fisheries have not worked well for small-scale fisheries of developing countries. Today, small-scale fisheries employ 50 million of the world's 51 million fishers, practically all of whom are from developing countries. And together, they produce more than half of the world's annual marine fish catch of 98 million tonnes, supplying most of the fish consumed in the developing world. At the same time, increased fishery over-exploitation and habitat degradation are threatening the Earth's coastal and marine resources.

Most small-scale fisheries have not been well managed, if they have been managed at all. World-wide, the management and governance of small-scale fisheries is in urgent need of reform. Drs Mahon and McConney have teamed up with colleagues Dr Fikret Berkes, of the University of Manitoba, Dr Richard Pollnac, University of Rhode Island and Dr Robert Pomeroy, World Resources Institute, to write this book that looks beyond the scope of conventional fishery management to alternative concepts, tools, methods, and conservation strategies. There is, for example, broader emphasis on ecosystem management and participatory decision-making. Interested readers will include fishery managers,  instructors and students in fishery management; development organisations and practitioners working on small-scale fisheries; and fishers and fishing communities that wish to take responsibility for managing their own resources.