COUCHIE, COCONUTS & CLIMATE

“We are not major contributors to climate change, but we are major victims.”

Laugh still...

That’s our story and we’re sticking to it. Don’t mind the appliances clogging the river ways and the pastics choking the turtles and the chemicals bleching the coral off our shores. We didn’t blast a hole in the ozone. But when the water levels start to rise, we’re going to suffer first. Well, second. Barbados is going to suffer first.

St Lucia imports 1.4 million barrels of oil a year. 4% increase. $300 million. Three times ten years ago.

Alternative energy is still a pipe dream in St Lucia. Apart from wasting solar energy on heating water and the few private farmers who turn their livestock poop into energy, St Lucia is a little gold mine for the Trinidadian oil exporters. We’ve just done nothing to our own benefit when it comes to energy. Even while Vanuatu and Fiji proved that coconut oil worked in diesel engines, we listened to people who told us that coconut oil was useless. We made edible coconut oil when no one wanted it and no that they want it, our factory is dead. Only one producer has figured out that virgin coconut is the way to go and his stuff isn’t even on the shelves anymore.

It almost sounds like we were sabotaging ourselves. I mean someone had to get paid to ensure that we remained this stupid. It couldn’t have happened for free.

Not photoshop...climate change is real..

Government wants us to produce 20% of our energy by alternative means by 2020. To reduce operating costs. To have our own buffers against the volatile oil markets. To improve our image as a green destination. Long term savings like joke. And of course, energy as an economic growth sector.

But the government is still thinking of wind, solar and geothermals. There’s no talk of bio-fuels. And that’s what we can do fastest, cheapest and best. The diesel engine is just waiting for us to get real.

Government imagines that there can be 50 small energy producers on the electricity grid. Perhaps the garbage energy friends of Guy Joseph could be among them. Incentives for that will come later in the year. Also a special loan facility at SLDB for this. No word on when LUCELEC’s monopoly on generating electricity will meet its well-deserved demise.

Already, 50 LED street lights have been installed in the city, while VF, Gros Islet, Soufriere all get more lighting, some of it secondhand from Castries.

As for the pollution, the Refundable Containers Act takes aim. One would think that between DuBoulay, SMJ and the bottled water people they would have figured out how to take responsibility for themselves, but apparently not. They will have to be legally forced to stop polluting the whole damned island.

There was opposition to this in the past. One wonders who would open their mouth and oppose recycling. 

By the way, this article has nothing to do with couchie. It was just meant to get your attention. The FLOGG is not responsible for any sexual feelings aroused during the reading of this article.

Still laughing?