Dear Barbados Free Press
I am 9 years old and working on a project on the environment for school. Could you please tell me 3 environmental laws we have in Barbados please? I know there is the Coastal Conservation Act but can you tell me two more?
Thanks,
“Thomas” (Real name & email withheld by Barbados Free Press)
BFP Answers…
Hello Thomas,
That’s wonderful that you are working on an environmental project for school. We hope you keep it up because Barbados needs young people (and old people!) who realise that there is a direct connection between the health of our environment, the health of our economy and our personal health, happiness and quality of life.
Unfortunately, every DLP and BLP government for the last 46 years has promised to implement an Environmental Protection Act, but they have never done so. That is true for our current Prime Minister Stuart, and it was true for our past Prime Ministers Thompson and Arthur.
We think the reason for this lack of environmental laws is that large corporations give ‘political donations’ of money to the DLP and BLP to assist with their election campaigns, but in return the politicians unofficially promise the companies that they will not make any environmental laws that would harm the business interests of their political donors.
As a result, the corporations are pretty well free to do whatever they want in Barbados with no government environmental oversight or rules. Don’t forget, it costs money to be clean and to properly dispose of chemicals. The corporations don’t want to do things properly if they can get away with cheap solutions.
This has harmed Barbados and our environment in the long run and is threatening to wreck our tourism industry.
Thomas, we hope that you will continue to research and learn about the environment in Barbados, and that when you are confident in your position, you will start to challenge the politicians about their poor record when it comes to protecting the environment.
Good luck!
Marcus, Cliverton, Robert, Nevermind Kurt, Auntie Moses, George and Shona. We are BFP!
