THE DARK SIDE OF URBANISATION- ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION
God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.-John Muir
For my last entry I would touch on environmental degradation. With urbanization it is clear that the environment has to suffer in order to facilitate this development. This picture shows a variety of different activities taking place that each depletes the environment in some form or fashion. Two of the pictures show construction, one shows the government buildings on the water front, the other shows garbage on the street and the big picture in the middle represents the Golf of Paria at Sea Lots.
With respect to development looking at the parliament buildings by the water front we must understand that the land there was once swamp. Therefore an ecosystem was destroyed killing many species that once resided there to facilitate this development As with most of the western side of Port-of-Spain it is reclaimed land. Additionally these buildings because they are so tall must go deep into the ground. This distorts the water table making it rise therefore increasing the risk of flooding in the city.
Additionally there are no building laws with respect to replanting when constructing new buildings. Therefore the city just becomes a concrete jungle and the environment is depleted. This lack of greenery in the city results in warmer temperatures and fewer rainfall events.
The construction pictures show no coverage of the construction site therefore dust particles enter the air having effects on the environment and on human health. The litter picture just shows the attitude Trinis have towards the environment- complete disregard. Lastly if any one passes by Sea Lots and looks at the water its is absolutely disgusting. It is almost black in color, engulfed with debris from the nearby residents as well as their sewage.
Another environmental problem is traffic congestion, this results in emissions of greenhouse gases in high concentrations into the environment and because there is limited plants there is no carbon sink to absorb these gases there they remain in the air and add to global warming.
To combat this issue leaders are leaning towards the establishment of sustainable cities. The question with sustainable cities is how feasible is this for developing countries? You can not tell a poor man about saving the environment if he has no food on the table to feed his family, or tell someone who has no access to water or education to save the environment. Social issues take rank and until that is fixed then conservation, sustainability and the environment are the bottom of the list in terms of priority.
I don't think we're going to save anything if we go around talking about saving plants and animals only; we've got to translate that into what's in it for us.-Jim Fowler
You will die but the carbon will not; its career does not end with you. It will return to the soil, and there a plant may take it up again in time, sending it once more on a cycle of plant and animal life.-Jacob Bronowski
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Nicely written and I like the collage of the pictures at the top.
ReplyDeleteI have a similar post to this under the topic of "Sustainability" and I do see where you are coming from when you wrote "The litter picture just shows the attitude Trini’s have towards the environment- complete disregard".
It is a horrible habit that Trinidadians have to ignore the simpler rules of the land and for this we would have to pay the consequences of the lack of aesthetic beauty and environmental degradation.
Theory.
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