The Green Page - Nov 28, 2001

Publication: Daily Nation
Paper Page:21A
Paper Date: Wed, Nov 28, 2000
Byline: Compiled by Terry Ally

Page sponsored by Texaco Caribbean Limited

• Protectors of the Earth
• New climate change computer model coming

Protectors of the Earth

THIRTEEN individuals and groups received awards from Counterpart Caribbean on Sunday for their outstanding role in helping to protect Barbados' environment.

Chief Justice-designate David Simmons presented the awards in a ceremony at Harrison's Cave and said that in his opinion the environmental message had not gotten home to Barbadians and he called on all environmentally-conscious groups and people to pull out the stops and conceptualise strategies to turn around the degradations of the environment in Barbados

In his address, Senator Keith Laurie, chairman of the Committee, said in the coming year the watchwords must be: REduce, REcycle, REuse, REspect and REsponsible.

"It would be irresponsible of me not to chide the 'powers that be' for the lack of their support of those pioneers and entrepreneurs who have attempted to recycle significant amounts of our garbage going to the landfill.

I am sure that the time has come when Barbadians would be willing to sort their household garbage by separating those portions that can be recycled, thus extending the life of our solid waste landfills and also significantly improving the environment," said Laurie.

The awardees were:

• Jean Baulu for his leadership in the conversion of plastic waste into building materials. (Along with Andrew Simpson, a previous awardee, Baulu initiated and pursued research and development of the technology now employed by Duraplast in making its roofing shingles. Baulu is a director of that company);
• Professor Oliver Headley for a lifetime's work in research and for the development of solar energy for rural and small island communities;
• SRM Architects Limited for their environmental friendly design of the CIBC Complex at Warrens with particular appreciation for saving old growth trees on site;
• David Staples for his work in the conception of the environment friendly CIBC Complex at Warrens with particular appreciation of rehabilitation of the old great house for business use;
• Colin Riley for his exemplary efforts in water conservation through its collection and storage particularly of rainwater from the roof;
• Dr Julia Horrocks for her outstanding work in the protection of biodiversity with specific reference to endangered sea turtles;
• Stephen Foster for his pioneering ventures with Diceabed and Groganics showing that composting and recycling are viable businesses while reducing Barbados' waste;
• The Sanitation Service Authority for its noteworthy and comprehensive efforts at improving service and keeping Barbados' particularly the streets and highways cleaner. (Sweeping changes in its operation were acknowledged. These include: investment in better trucks, improved collection schedules, special cleanups on major highways, prompter cleanup following public events, public education campaigns, and work in communities.)
• The Coconut Court Hotel for its marine educational programme for guests, its turtle nesting programme, mooring project and initiatives to "green" the hotel's entire operation;
• The Barbados Marine Trust for its promotion of environmentally and socially sustainable use of the marine areas of Barbados
• Dr Lance Bannister for his inventive use of scrap metal in sculpture and
• play equipment, conveying important messages about resourcefulness and creativity;
• Reverend Beverley Sealy-Knight, Rector and the Church Council, Church of the Good Shepherd and others involved for their community effort in the restoration of the church building;
• Robert Kirby for his historically and aesthetically sensitive choices in building the Courtyard Complex, Hastings, Christ Church, which included restoration of a colonial building and sympathetic design for a new one.

Counterpart Caribbean is the successor to the Future Centre Trust which awards outstanding people who make a difference to the island's environment. Each year, the awardees are eligible for the Governor-General Award for environmental excellence. They will be personally selected by Governor General Sir Clifford Husbands.

New climate change computer model coming

UNTIL now there have been educated guesses at the climate change scenarios for the Caribbean. However, a new computer forecasting model for regions like the Caribbean will be unveiled in Barbados today.

According to studies undertaken by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, likely climate change impacts for the Caribbean are reduced rainfall, increased storm activity and warmer oceans. The region is already feeling these effects and there has been speculation that these are linked to climate change. A regional climate model like the one developed by the Hadley Centre, to be demonstrated today, will give both scientists and policymakers the necessary information to predict climate change events and plan for future events. This will help avoid the devastating losses of human lives and critical infrastructure associated with severe weather events.

Projections of sea level rise will inform on how close to the high water mark construction can take place; projections of rainfall will encourage increased water conservation measures and perhaps inspire the agricultural community to explore drought resistant varieties of crops; projections of storm surges can encourage investment in sea defence structures to protect the coasts.

This afternoon a representative from the British-based Hadley Centre will demonstrate the use of their recently developed computer-generated model to forecast climate scenarios for the region. This demonstration is part of the fifth meeting of one of the subsidiary groups of the IPCC which is discussing ways ways to gather and incorporate more detailed regional climate information into the recently developed regional climate model, to better predict the future climate of regions like the Caribbean.

The Caribbean Planning for Adaptation to Climate Change (CPACC) project will be working with the Hadley Centre next year to adapt this model to the Caribbean region and explore the development of an even higher resolution model for very small islands. The present 100km grid size regional climate model is best used for the larger territories in the region like Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad. However projections for the small island states are still somewhat more accurate than previously used global models - used for the entire planet.