EDITORIAL - Children and the environment

If environmental responsibility is to be more than a buzz phrase here in Jamaica, we have to aggressively get children to understand that poor environmental practices can have disastrous consequences for the environment.

That is exactly what the Environmental Management Unit at the University of the West Indies, Mona, is hoping to accomplish through its plastic-bottle recycling programme which began in 2008 and now involves some 25 schools in the Corporate Area. The project, which targets mainly plastic drink bottles, is being expanded to include participants in western Jamaica.

Head of the unit, Professor Dale Webber, recently emphasised the key role children must play in effecting the necessary behavioural changes for safeguarding the environment.

Not so fast, professor. While the mission of the unit is commendable, one must ask, what about the parents? While we applaud the work of the unit in trying to teach our children to become good citizens, we submit that environmental awareness must begin with adults recogni-sing that improper disposal of garbage, high levels of pollutants, noise nuisance and contaminated air and other abusive actions will weigh heavily on the environment.

For example, parents, no matter their income levels, ought to introduce actions to reduce energy and water consumption in the home in order to encourage their children to become more environmentally friendly.

If the environment is not part of the decision - home within the home - we can hardly hope to reap success in the wider society. In the long run, children have to genuinely care about the environment, and this has much to do with their upbringing.

Policy development, decision making

In pursuit of engendering awareness and effective behavioural changes, a renaissance in attitude is required at all levels. Policymakers, relevant agencies, academia and the private sector must collectively come together to identify weaknesses, gaps and opportunities so that environmental matters can become a key factor in policy development and decision-making.

How can we hold Government accountable and get its commitment to environmental responsibility? Have our governments given environmental issues a central place in their agendas? How have they encouraged the population to shift to renewable sources of energy like wind and solar? The fact that the environment portfolio was neatly wedged into the prime minister's long list of responsibilities does not signal that this most important subject will get the attention it deserves.

It's no exaggeration to say that our actions today will impact generations to come. In that regard, there is an urgent need to reassess, for example, the usefulness and effectiveness of a national environment agency like NEPA. There is every indication from a recent audit that the agency has fallen woefully short of fulfilling its role. In the face of that damning report, we have not heard from the Government how it intends to fix the problem or even what new pathways it hopes to find to fix environmental woes.

Effective control of the environment is essentially a measure of good governance. Jamaicans must come to an understanding of the environmental problems that face us in our homes and communities and how to tackle them.

So even as we establish the strong relationship between education and environmental responsibility, we must recognise that change will not necessarily come from the top but must come from the citizens themselves.

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