Archives for June 8, 2016
Healthy Oceans, Healthy Planet
June 8, 2016 By
Today is the day proclaimed by the United Nations as World’s Oceans Day. It is a day set aside, as with most of the international days of observances, to shed light on important issues affecting the world that are often overlooked. The theme for this year is “Healthy Oceans, Healthy Planet”, with emphasis being placed on reducing plastic pollution in our rivers and oceans.
Plastics can contribute to the reduction of our carbon footprint because of their stability and resistance to degradation. They provide improved insulation, lighter packaging, and are found in phones, computers, medical devices, etc. However, the very properties that make plastics so useful, namely their stability and resistance to degradation, are also what cause them to be so problematic after they have served their purpose.
These materials persist in the environment and are not readily degraded or processed by natural biological organisms. Research from the United Nations has outlined that once discarded, plastics are weathered and eroded into very small fragments known as “micro-plastics”. These together with plastic pellets are already found on most beaches around the world, suspended in seawater, and on the seabed in sediments.
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), plastic debris causes the deaths of more than a million seabirds every year, as well as more than 100,000 marine mammals. At least 267 different species are known to have suffered from entanglement or ingestion of marine debris including seabirds, turtles, seals, sea lions, whales and fish.
Research has shown that much of the waste and plastics found at sea originates on land. “The effect of coastal littering and dumping is compounded by vectors such as rivers and storm drains discharging litter from inland urban areas,” says the UNEP report on plastic debris in the world’s ocean.
UNESCO posits that plastic materials and other litter can become concentrated in certain areas called “gyres” as a result of marine pollution gathered by oceanic currents. “There are now five gyres in our ocean. The North Pacific Gyre, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, occupies a relatively stationary area that is twice the size of Texas.”
According to the UNEP report, “seven of the EU Member States plus Norway and Switzerland recover more than 80% of their used plastics. These countries adopt an integrated waste and resource management strategy to address each waste stream with the best options. However, waste and disposal remain an issue in most of the world.”
This brings us to Guyana, where our culture sadly is to use our roads, lands and rivers as the bins and receptacles for our plastic and other wastes. This is invariably contributing to the pollution of the oceans. While we have legislative sanctions against littering, they do not seem a formidable deterrent since littering continues unabated.
Thankfully, from an institutional level our leaders are pushing for Guyana to become a green economy. Part of the push entails the ban on the importation and use of Styrofoam in Guyana. Once we have exhausted our domestic supply of existing food boxes, plates and cups, etc, made of Styrofoam, it is expected that the ban will be fully implemented and we will have no choice but to use only environmentally safe bio-degradable alternatives. So, in the event, our litter culture does not change, at the very least those biodegradable alternatives will decay after a while.
The problem does not end there though: we have to start making a concerted effort to improve our environment and country by ensuring that other non-biodegradable waste products such as water bottles, other plastics, and aluminium products are safely disposed of and do not reach our ocean, becoming marine debris.
There are recycling plants in Guyana that recycle cardboard and paper; it is not clear whether we have plants that recycle plastics and rubber. In the final analysis, however, we incur clean-up and disposal costs, amounting to millions of dollars, a cost borne by the taxpaying public. It would, therefore, make sense for us to go the route of Norway and the EU member countries and “adopt an integrated waste and resource management strategy to address each waste stream with the best options”. Maybe this is an area that the Government can invest in via a Public-Private Partnership.
Ming cops podium finish in F1600
June 8, 2016 By
Guyanese race car driver, Calvin Ming continued his impressive performances in the F1600 series where he managed to get yet another podium finish, this time in third place at the 2016 F1600 Formula F Championship
Series descended at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) over the weekend.
In race one, Ming started in the 2nd position as he had qualified brilliantly in a time of 1:59.408 which was only about a half second behind the pole sitter. The race had numerous battles throughout the field with # 82, Calvin Ming of Team Pelfrey narrowly missing the podium and finished 4th overall behind # 07,
Steve Bamford in the Rice Race Prep car out of Canada. # 81, Phillippe Denes, Ming’s teammate was nipped at the finish line by a narrow margin by race winner # 3, Neil Verhagen of K-Hill Motorsports in the 13 car field that saw a few caution flags.
Race 2, # 82, Calvin Ming once again started in the 2nd position after a wonderful qualifying session and battled hard amongst the 14 field (setting a best lap time of 1:59.622) before being edged at the finish line by 0.053 seconds in a 3-way photo finish but, nonetheless a podium finish with his Team Pelfrey teammate # 81, Phillippe Denes
Calvin Ming started 3rd on the grid with another decent qualification and was part of the exciting battle towards the checkered flag. Fortunately, Ming was able to avoid the incident that included a number of lead cars on the final lap. He went on to finish 4.103 seconds behind in 5th overall. The podium was filled by # 07, Steve Bamford in 3rd overall (Masters Winner), # 90, Trenton Estep in 2nd place with his teammate in the Exclusive Autosport Spectrum entry, # 92, Ben Auriemma capitalizing on the last lap incident to claim his first victory.
Ming completed the podium for Team Pelfrey, saying: “It was a battle royale and a pretty good race.”
With a decent weekend(4th, 3rd, 5th), # 82, Calvin Ming picked up needed points towards the championships and will no doubt be ready to contest the next round to be held at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on July 1- 3, 2016.
Deputy Mayor not authorised to speak on Council’s behalf – Mayor
June 8, 2016 By
City parking meters
By Ramona Luthi
Georgetown Mayor Patricia Chase Green has revealed that the comments of Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan on the issue of parking meters in the city are reflective of his own views and not those of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC).
The Mayor made the disclosure on Tuesday when this newspaper sought clarity from her on a contradiction between Duncan’s comments and that of the contractor with respect to ownership of the meters and revenues that would be collected.
According to Chase Green, the only persons with authority to speak on the Council’s behalf were the Town Clerk, Royston King or the Public Relations Officer, Debra Lewis.
“The Deputy Mayor speaks of his own personal reservation. He doesn’t speak on behalf of the Council. The only persons that can speak on behalf of the Council are the Town Clerk and Public Relations Officer,” the Mayor said.
This statement comes after Duncan on Saturday said that the installation of parking meters, which was said to begin in September, would be a contracted agreement inherited from the previous Administration. The Deputy Mayor highlighted that though there was an intended partnership between the city and the contractor, Smart City Solutions, the latter would be the sole owner of the meters.
Prior to this revelation by the Deputy Mayor, Guyana Times spoke with Chairman of National Parking Meters and the Director of Smart City Solutions, Kamau Cush who announced that the city of Georgetown would benefit from the parking meters with an annual income of $100 to $200 million. However, Duncan contradicted this statement by relaying that the city would instead be receiving a standard 20 per cent gross income accumulated by the parking systems.
In response to this, Cush confirmed that Duncan’s statement held some truth with regard to the percentage of income for City Hall, but contended that the city would be 50 per cent owners of the parking system project.
The Deputy Mayor said although he was of the opinion that the installation of the parking meter system would benefit the city, thorough consultations must be done before this huge step was taken by the M&CC.
“The architecture of such policy must be the construct of several stakeholders, chief of which consultation, on every facet of such a plan and project with members of the public and their elected representatives, is paramount. And that consultation should be meaningful. I have no illusion that our municipality needs investment like this. Yet, even as investments are important, we have the responsibility as good stewards of our city to make sure we have the best investments for all the residents of Georgetown,” Duncan had said.
Family Court finally operational
June 8, 2016 By