NGP Leader Urges Saint Lucians To Think, Live Green

The leader of Saint Lucia’s National Green Party (NGP) has called on Saint Lucians to think and live green, in a statement critical of global efforts to address climate change.

Andre ‘Pancho’ de Caires issued the statement amid ongoing COP27 climate change talks in Egypt.

His complete statement appears below:

World leaders and the elite met in Indonesia this year to discuss how they, these world leaders and billionaires will solve the climate crisis once again, as our Planet cries out in pain and agony from the continued onslaught of ever expanding human civilization.

We find it quite ironic though, because we are here on edge of this precipice of extinction, as a result of these global leaders’ specific economic policies.

There was the Rio Summit, then the Paris Summit and now the COP Summits. What has been accomplished since all of these commitments were made years ago in Rio, to reduce the emission of greenhouse gasses by all the countries that signed on to the protocols? What about all the deadlines? Absolutely nothing has been done. All deadlines broken.

In fact, things have gotten progressively worse, as we see the rapid increase in natural disasters due to climate change. Just take a look at the news. Floods, heat waves, droughts, super storms and on and on.

Reality is that these leaders cannot and will not do anything to curb the human  addiction to fossil fuel and the continued desire to consume and consume more, and this latest summit was just another talk shop gathering of the elite and privileged.

The main drivers of greenhouse gas emissions are transport, heating and cooling of buildings and homes, the operation of factories, agriculture, construction, and the production of plastics.

All of these sectors require some kind of internal combustion engine to run their respective operations, as well as the need for raw materials, a high percentage  of which are petro- chemical derivatives. Whether it be cars, buses, heavy equipment, trains, boats, ships, planes, generators etc,, fossil fuel is required to operate the machines that drive these sectors.

The big question is, ‘Are the companies that manufacture these machines planning to cut production to tackle climate change?’ For example, are car manufacturers going to produce half the number of units? Are airlines going to cut their routes in half? Are cruise lines going to reduce their ports of call? Are factories going to reduce production by say 50%? We think not, as our entire economic system is driven by GROWTH. Capitalism. Profits before planet.

And what is even worse, is that the fossil fuel industry does not only produce fuel for all of these machines and engines mentioned above, but is responsible for the production of  plastics, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals and construction materials.  It seems virtually impossible at this point for humans to wean themselves off of this addictive dependence on the fossil fuel industry. And to believe that these politicians that met in Indonesia who are basically puppets of this economic system, have the power to convince huge multinational corporations to reduce production, is just a fantasy.

To put things into perspective, Saint Lucia, which is basically carbon neutral, meaning that we contribute very little greenhouse gas emissions, relative to our carbon capture and storage, yet are greatly affected by climate change, which fundamentally means that we are on our own when it comes to dealing with this crisis.

The best that we can hope for is for our Government to lobby those donor organizations or countries responsible for funding, whether it be in the form of grants or low interest loans, to secure these monies in order to create climate change resilient infrastructure in all of our economic sectors.

Commitments and promises will be made by these large organizations and First World countries to help SIDS, but unfortunately, history shows that in spite of these commitments,  the monies never seem to arrive. The situation is endemic. Look no further than Haiti after the earthquake.

Adding insult to injury is the war in Ukraine, where Russia has been forced to cut off fuel and energy supplies to Europe due to the crippling sanctions placed upon them by NATO, and as a result some European nations have started to fire up their coal burning power plants. The exact scenario that we have been trying to avoid for decades.

The very same countries that want to force third world developing nations to adhere to strict climate change mitigation regulations are now firing up their coal burning power plants to save themselves. How convenient.

Reality is that we live in a world driven by ego, power and greed, the desire to be bigger and better than the next person, whether at an individual level, a corporate level or at a national level, the desire  for growth remains the same. Humanity has embraced this path of collective suicide where we are all helping each other by the choices that we are making, to destroy our only home, Planet Earth.

If we as a massive conscious collective do not wake up and make the required changes to save our Planet for our future generations, then we will have failed. Depending on politicians and billionaires to save us is from ourselves is true madness.

People of Saint Lucia, Fair Helen is a special place, a blessed land, a beautiful  land, heaven on earth. Let us all come together, regardless of political affiliation and make the necessary changes in our lives, in our purchasing habits, in our lifestyles, in our  diets, in the way we deal with our waste, in the way we deal with each other in order to maintain this paradise that is our beautiful island home.

Let us buy local, eat local and give our money to another Lucian instead of purchasing imported processed foods that are killing us while the packaging fills up our landfills.

We may not be able to change the weather, but if we work as team Saint Lucia, I know that our people have the capacity to become self sufficient and build up resilience to climate change events. We have a lot of work to do, so let us ignore those so called leaders and do what we have to do as a united people. Think Green, Live Green.