Trinidad and Tobago Needs More Protection and Less Management of the Environment

Posted July 2nd, 2008 by Taran

While leeching internet access at a friend's place (jm), I ended up passively watching reruns of Trinidad and Tobago parliamentary debates while checking email. My friend came out, and we discussed the Caroni 1975 shenanigans which I'll write of another time. But we also discussed, quite briefly and poignantly, what a major problem related to the environment of Trinidad and Tobago actually is.

It is, quite simply, a nuance in language which demonstrates the problem. An 'Environmental Management Agency' manages the environment in the context of what the government wants to do. As my friend rightly pointed out, an 'Environment Protection Agency' is what is needed - not some group of people that attempt to mitigate risk to the environment by softening the blow of whatever it is the government, or any other group, wants to do. The aluminium smelter is a brilliant example of this. Instead of saying that it should not be done, they simply said that it would be relocated elsewhere... and there's really been no word as to what is going on with that.

In a more simple context, an Environmental Management Agency says where you can dump things that can damage the environment. An Environmental Protection Agency would say, "You cannot dump here."