There is a mesmerising gulf in the narrative about climate change and how we are to mitigate the worst effects of our reliance on fossil fuels.
We have all now, even the recalcitrants, accepted that we, perhaps more than our planet, are pretty much doomed unless we do something radical to stop the steady rise in global temperatures that has put nature into a fury. Our actions are causing environmental mayhem.
At the level of the citizen, focus has been very much on carbon emissions from cars and planes and even on methane gas from bovines. Much less has been said about shipping and the massive contributor the world’s maritime industries constitute.
For us in the region, the conversation about the causes of climate change and our own contribution to it is an uncomfortable one. TT is an old energy-based economy and Guyana is all poised to be one of the biggest regionally, whilst many of our other smaller economies depend on tourism, almost entirely.
The pandemic was in many ways a godsend for the planet, keeping aeroplanes out of the sky and cruise liners moored for nearly two years, but we have to live with the economic consequences.
In a 2021 report, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) announced that as airline seating capacity fell by around 50 per cent, only 1.8 billion passengers were taking flights through 2020, compared with around 4.5 billion in 2019. That adds up to a shocking annual loss to the industry of around US$370 billion, with airports and air navigation services providers losing a further US$115 billion and US$13 billion respectively; US$22 billion of that total loss in Latin America and the Caribbean region. Things picked up slightly in 2021, but remain challenging for the airlines, national economies and workers.
Aviation is fundamental to the tourism industry, one of the world’s biggest economic drivers. The effect, therefore, of tourism’s global economic contribution falling by 72 per cent below 2019 pre-pandemic levels is not insignificant. According to preliminary estimates of the UN World Tourism Organisation, the reduction is from US$3.5 trillion pre-covid to an estimated US$1.9 trillion in 2021. The cruise-liner sector contributes heftily to that. In 2019, it amounted to more than US$154 billion for the global economy, according to the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA).
This is where the Janus-headed quandary arises. Notwithstanding the greenhouse gases, many Trinis felt relieved, I am sure, that our national airline, CAL, seemed to have avoided pandemic-induced ruination and has come back looking good and strong, with a new fleet and a rejuvenated staff quotient.
And news reports claiming that the cruise liners are anxious to return to the Caribbean would have made many Caribbean people breathe a sigh of relief – but we all know that moving people around on big boats, for pleasure, is not really an eco-friendly pastime. Cruising is a major pollutant of the sea, air and soils and destroys fragile
