Peter Espeut

What do Australia and Jamaica have in common? Both countries have elections coming up, and both ruling parties are seeking a fifth term. But there is a major difference: environmental issues loom large in the impending Australian elections, but are absent from the Jamaican political landscape.

Like his Jamaican counterpart, Prime Minister John Howard of Australia does not have a strong environmental record. Australia did not sign the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change because he said he did not want to hold back the economic development of his country. Australia is in the grip of one of the worst droughts in its history, directly attributed to global warming and climate change. The Australian public (which is more environmentally aware than the government) is up in arms, which has forced the Prime Minister to change his tune. He has now proclaimed (as an election strategy) that he is going to take the initiative on climate change matters.

President Bush of the United States of America, himself an enviro-sceptic, has also recently changed his tune because of pressure from the American public and from Europe. His predecessor, President Clinton, had signed the Kyoto Protocol, but Bush reversed that decision and pulled the USA out. Going into the G-8 summit this week in Germany - a major topic for discussion will be climate change - he claims he will take the initiative on global warming. The 2007 hurricane season is less than a week old and already the USA has been hit by two named storms. You can be in denial for only so long before it hits you.

Australia and the USA take seriously the international treaties they sign; some countries sign agreements and then promptly ignore them. Jamaica signed the Kyoto Protocol without a murmur; clearly we didn't think signing it would hold back our national development. Subsequently we have announced two major highway-building programmes designed to encourage more private cars on the road, disgorging more greenhouse gases; and we have shut down our relatively environmentally-friendly railway system. The public outcry has been deafeningly silent.

Real difference

And this exposes the real difference between Jamaica and Australia-USA; they have an educated population which is environmentally aware while we have a largely uneducated population. The current government policy on education calls for 60 per cent of children to be able to read at the end of Grade six, suggesting that the current level is below that. After 45 years of independence our people have been kept largely illiterate, poor and preoccupied with hunger, conditions which do not produce environmental activists.

And as we approach a general election neither the Government nor Opposition even mention the health of the natural environment as an issue. The fifth term is not going to be won or lost on ecological issues, even though our present quality of life and our future possibilities are being seriously affected. Environmentalists are unfairly dismissed as light-skinned over-educated antidevelopment malcontents who live intheir own rarified world, and who can be safely ignored with no political consequences.

I understand that in this election season there is a shortage of goats; our people have been kept so poor and so hungry that they will sell their votes for a plate of curry goat. Can you imagine election campaigns in Australia and the USA being conducted on this basis? The environmental movement needs to realise that public pressure will never mount on environmental issues as long as the public is in the grip of illiteracy, poverty and deprivation.

Did you know that this week is being marked as Environmental Awareness Week by the Government, under the theme: 'Melting Ice - a Hot Topic?'. As a small-island state Jamaica is going to be unrecognisable in a few decades as we feel the bite of stronger and more frequent hurricanes, sea level rise, and more virulent epidemics and plagues of pests. This week as the G8 leaders meet in Germany to discuss climate change, we are supposed to be doing the same thing nationally. Or is the environmental discussion on matters crucial to our future being drowned out by the electioneering of those jockeying for their place at the political trough - and the sound of curry goat hitting plates?