Did you know you can contribute to the fight against climate change by doing something as simple as planting a moringa tree?
Throughout its lifetime, one moringa tree can remove at least 80 kilogrammes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere per year as moringa trees absorb more than 20 times the amount of carbon dioxide other trees absorb.
So when some people think about how they can adopt more climate-friendly practices, and driving an electric car or even using solar power comes to mind, climate activist Donald Baldeosingh wants them to know every effort counts including the ones that may seem small, like planting a tree.
Since creating the Carbon Zero Institute of Trinidad and Tobago (CZITT pronounced “seize it”) in 2015, Baldeosingh has been on a mission to help people become more climate conscious by encouraging them to be more aware of the issue and adopt more climate-friendly behaviours in their daily lives.
[caption id="attachment_955540" align="alignnone" width="681"] Donald Baldeosingh became more aware of TTs high carbon dioxide emissions while serving as Petrotrin chairman from 1996-2000. -[/caption]
In a recent interview with Business Day, Baldeosingh said, “I hope that our citizenry can start looking around with a more open mind to what is happening with climate change.
“We have to adjust every aspect of life in Trinidad and Tobago because we have spent more than 100 years producing carbon through our oil and gas industry.”
An electrical engineer, Baldeosingh has worked in TT’s oil and gas industry.
But it was while serving as Petrotrin chairman from 1996-2000 that he became more attentive to “what was going on around him” which eventually sparked his climate activism.
“I had a stint as the chairman of Petrotrin in the late 1990s during which time I was horrified when I understood better what contribution we were making as TT to global carbon emissions.”
During his chairmanship, TT’s then eight operational ammonia plants collectively produced over three million tonnes of ammonia a year, with two and a half tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted for every tonne of ammonia produced.
Today, TT has ten ammonia plants which collectively produce over five million metric tonnes of ammonia a year (making the country one of the world’s largest exporters of ammonia) and emits at least 12.5 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Even if those emissions seem minuscule to some, Baldeosingh points out TT’s ammonia production isn’t the only source of carbon emissions.
TT also has seven methanol plants, the Phoenix Park Gas Processors Ltd (one of the largest natural gas processing facilities in the Western Hemisphere), various power generators to produce electricity and, not to be forgotten, people’s daily activities which generate emissions.
While methanol plants use carbon dioxide as a feedstock and displaces a small amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, Baldeosingh said the net emissions produced from ma
