The mission statement of BEST (Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Taskforce) is:
“To preserve and enhance the quality of life in Bermuda for present and future generations by advocating for sustainable management and development of the physical, social and economic environments.”
Stuart opened by giving us some background on BEST. We are best known for our advocacy for the physical environment but, there are aspects of the economic and social environments that merit our attention too. BEST has four main areas of activity. Number 1 is Responding to Events. The first public stance of our predecessor was protecting the Botanical Gardens; our latest involved the development proposed for Devonshire Marsh. In between, there are dozens of developments where our interventions don’t become news items, and hundreds where we don’t intervene at all. The 2nd area of activity is Influencing Policy. We made over forty submissions to the Draft Bermuda Plan 2008. We also made a submission to the Ombudsman’s investigation into SDOs (Special Development Orders).and are anticipating release of her Report any day now. The 3rd area, Education & Outreach includes youth activities, events like the annual Earth Day Celebration and public information events. We also produce position papers, and we distribute information via our website and Facebook. Building Capacity is the 4th area of activity. That is to enable ourselves and other organizations to become more capable of fulfilling their missions. We initiated a community empowerment workshop a few years ago and recently initiated and hosted a workshop on Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs).
BEST has hosted several public forums. Our first was on Tourism and Sustainability and more recently we initiated and hosted a workshop on EIA Environmental Impact Assessments. This is the kind of thing we’d like to do more of.
BEST supports and promotes sustainable development. What is sustainability? For us it is a system of management that balances near-term interests with the protection of the interests of future generations.
The first of the major issues that we believe will impinge on our future, is population growth. The world's population is growing by 222,000 additional people per day. That’s births minus deaths, 222,000 every day (more than three times Bermuda’s total population); 9,260 every hour; 150 every minute; 2.6 every second. Why is this important? Because every day those 222,000 additional people means the planet has to find 222,000 additional places at the global table for breakfast, lunch and dinner; 222,000 additional units of housing; 222,000 additional toilets and solid waste disposal capability, every day. Schoolbooks and school teachers for 222,000 additional children, every day. We have to be thinking about job opportunities, jobsites and paychecks for an additional 222,000 people today and every day this week, and every day next week. And, unless we want to introduce some diabolical scheme of war or disease or social design that compensates for that growth, that’s 222,000 additional people every day competing for everything we make use of. On the local side of the population issue. Bermuda is adding one person per day due to natural increase, that is births minus deaths. Bermuda already has 3,200 people per square mile, making a 7th most densely populated state on the planet. So we’re number 1 in population density for standalone communities. There are many things for which we are proud to be in front — this is not one of them. In densely populated territories, social and economic problems are linked to dense population. As examples (again from 2006-08 stats which were the last years before the current economic downturn began to bite): traffic congestion, accident increase, the shortage of affordable housing alongside an excess of luxury condo construction. Crime was up 70%; car thefts doubled and burglaries were up 11%. Crimes of violence were up 46%. Firearm offenses up from zero in 2007 to 8 in 2008 — now they are off the chart.
The second major issue that is affecting us now and will affect us more so in the future — a facet of our economic environment, our labour force. While overpopulation is already a serious problem, Bermuda's pool of workers doesn't provide enough people to do all the jobs being created. We generate more business than we can fill solely with a local workforce. This situation has shifted lately with the economic tide, but it was true in 2006, when the economy was booming. What we were hearing from leaders was that we must create more jobs. But look at the statistics. In 2006, 75% of new jobs created went to people who had to be imported to do the work. Another 15% went to foreigners already living here. Non-Bermudian spouses of Bermudians took a further 4%. Only 6% of jobs created were filled by Bermudians. Is this our economic future, that for every 100 jobs created, only 6 Bermudians will actually get a job? Or, looked at another way, in order to get 6 Bermudians employed, do we have to import 75 foreign workers? If that is our future, we are in serious trouble the demands of 75 workers for housing, transportation, food, recreation, entertainment and health and social services is an extortionate price to pay for putting a mere 6 Bermudians to work. This is not sustainable economic model.
We recognize that a big part of successful tourism is about getting visitors to the Island; about having a variety of residence options, adequate transportation, entertainment and activities. But at its core, tourism is about relationships. In addition to our attention to infrastructure, hotels and activities, we must give attention to the relationships between our people as hosts, and individuals who come here as tourists and/or guest workers. This relationship is in jeopardy. The main providers of foreign currency are tourists and International Business. The vast majority of them are white and they’re all foreign. As a majority black population with racially injured past, Bermudians must resist the temptation to present a hostile face to our clientele, most of whom are white, whether they be tourists or the movers and shakers of the International Business sector. We must resist as locals the temptation to be hostile toward our guests who are predominantly foreign, whether tourists or imported workers. Is there anything to gain by stirring up racial hatred when the vast majority of our clientele are white? I don’t think so. Is there anything to be gained by stirring up feelings of ethnic hatred, xenophobia? I don’t think so.
I call on citizens on all sides of the racial and ethnic divides to Speak (write) without being offensive, listen (read) without being defensive and disagree without being disagreeable. These are prime ingredients in the recipe for a healthier social environment and will help insure our future success.
It wouldn’t hurt for these to be adopted as ground rules for every arena where healthy relationships can improve the outcome: parliamentarians in their debates, businesses in their meetings, parents and children in their homes, teachers in their classrooms, students on the playground, reporters/journalists in their writing, moderators for their weblogs, hosts for their talk shows — wherever what we say can be hindered or helped by how we say it.
While we at BEST can see clearly our path to protect the physical environment, solutions for the economic and social environments are more elusive — they involve a wider dialogue. We do recognize, however, and accept our responsibility to analyse and comment on these facets of Bermuda’s environment as part of our Mission.
Our mascot Kermit the Frog would say, “It’s not easy being green”, but we’re trying our BEST.
