–symposium hears

Panellists at the first seminar in the University of Guyana 40th Republic Anniversary Public Symposia Series focused on Science and Technology said there is need for change in the management of natural resources, so that when they are exploited for livelihood it is not at the expense of the physical environment.

In a press release UG said the meeting was hosted under the theme ‘Guyana and the Challenge of the Environ-ment’ last Friday at the National Library Conference Room. It was aimed at addressing national developments in science and technology, in the arts and culture, and in republicanism–the impact of the republican ideal on social, political and cultural development since Republican status in February 1970.

The symposia considered Guyana as a nation in the context of the major focus on environmental issues that have become one of the most urgent concerns of the world in the past four decades, the same time Guyana became a republic. Director of the Institute of Applied Science and Technology Dr Suresh Narine, who was recently awarded a Cdn$1.25M Research Chair in Green Chemistry and Engineering at Trent University in Canada, served as moderator of the panel discussion. Dr Narine set the stage for the discussion by placing it in the context of “the world at the Cross-roads,” declaring that “these are bleak times” for a world facing major concerns about how “to safeguard the future.” “The end of petroleum is staring us in the face; … rising costs, financial and energy crises. We are just coming out of a food crisis, a crisis of access to fresh water is on the horizon and climate is under serious threat. For the first time since the Industrial Revolution, we can’t say to our children that life in the future will be better than what we have been accustomed to,” he said. Against this background, Narine said it was significant to note that Guyana has taken a lead role on the world stage with the development of the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).

Panellist Navin Chanderpal, a physicist who served as agriculture minister and presidential advisor on science and technology, gave a comprehensive examination of “what constitutes the environment”. “The essence of the challenge is for Guyana to be competitive socially and provide for its people without destroying the physical environment and while being able to act in a global arena against the prevailing forces there…the LCDS arose in that context,” he said.

Chanderpal posited that the differences between countries lie in their handling of science and technology when dealing with the challenges of climate change. He argued too that developed countries have betrayed agreements such as Agenda 21 of the RIO Declaration and have further shown this indifference in trends leading up to the Copenhagen meeting. Chandarpal said there are roles for the university, the ministry and the private sector in changing attitudes toward the natural environment.

Additionally, Dr David Singh who served at UG, IAST and at Iwokrama and who is currently Director of Conservation International (CI) posited that the challenge is “being able to understand and take charge of the environment.” He said CI empowers societies to care for the environment and human wellbeing, for example in water and food security as 90% of the world population depends on the forest for food and livelihood. Dr Singh told the meeting that a recent study found that “if everyone were to live like the average American, we would need four and a half earths in order to sustain life.”

Singh said too there is need to measure “the economic advantages of the Georgetown-Lethem road against the costs and local threats” that it poses to communities along the route. He also posited that there were some positive outcomes to Copenhagen such as the agreement “to include forests in global contributions to climate change” and the fact that “Guyana forests are now included and stand to benefit.”

Meanwhile, Dr Patrick Williams, senior lecturer, Dean of Arts and Heard of Geography at UG as well as the Country Director for the World Wildlife Fund drew attention to “spatial issues” and “temporal issues.” He said “some environmental issues do not recognise national borders” and used as examples the Cuyuni River whose source is in Venezuela but is mainly a Guyanese river and the River Nile whose source is in Uganda but runs through other countries, mainly Egypt. He said environmental degradation and pollution caused by mining up the Nile in Uganda has had repercussions further downstream in Egypt.

Dr Williams said temporal issues involve the fact that it takes a long time and is very difficult to clean up environmental damage. He said these issues also concern the “significant rise in world population and the several global and national impacts of world population growth.”

He concluded by saying there is need for “a common global vision. Whatever happens in one country is likely to affect others. Only a common vision and cooperation can effectively address this.”

John Caesar, senior lecturer, former Dean of Natural Sciences, Head of Biology at UG and chairman of the National Parks Commission said “every citizen has a duty to participate in activities designed to preserve the environment and protect the health of Guyana.” He said this clause is enshrined in Article 25 in the Guyana Constitution. According to Caesar, in observance of that article “we have failed” and he echoed previous perspectives that there is “need for a change in mindset.” He posited that citizens need to examine whether there values will sustain the earth as there are a number of problems including an “ignorance of ecology” which affects the way persons treat the environment. “We need to consider health impact assessment, not only environmental impact assessment” as the importance of these increase with the understanding that 50% of the rainfall in the Amazon Basin is generated by forests “but we have poor environmental ethics and poor conservation ethics,” he said.

The release quoted Caesar as saying that there is an “arrogance” which causes lack of appreciation of the of the environment which is made worse by a “lack of professional courage” which causes those in the filed to fail “to publicly condemn” acts of environmental abuse. He said he believed the real source of the problem arises from exploitation of natural resources for human survival and cautioned against destroying the environment to gain wealth.