The Tribune

Dear Prime Minister, Cabinet, Loyal Opposition,

I know you are busy, all of you, but please stop for a moment.

Just stop, look around you. Breathe in the air. Gaze at the sky. Frame and hold the mental image of the waters of The Bahamas, the rich blues of Abaco, the swirling turquoise, aqua and gold hues of the Exumas, think of the white and pink sand beaches, the cliffs of Long Island, the coral reefs, fish, conch, crawfish, the mangroves, the land bursting with colours so vivid artists are challenged to do them justice.

This is your land, our land, this Bahamaland, one of the most beautiful places on the face of the Earth and you hold what happens to it in your hands. Only the decisions you make and acts of God or Mother Nature can preserve or destroy our beautiful Bahamaland.

You have a critical decision to make. Please, please hear our passion and heed the plea from all of us who have the privilege of living in this amazing land of unparalleled and fragile majesty.

Leave whatever oil that is beneath the waters right where it is. Please, for the sake of your children and their children and generations to come. Do not take the risk. All it would take is one tanker to run aground, just as boats do every day on a coral reef in our shallow waters. All it took was one tanker, the Exxon Valdez, to run aground in Prince William Sound spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil to destroy 1300 miles of Alaskan coastline in 1989.

Nearly 30 years have passed since that one tanker hit, $7 billion has been spent and yet the land, coastline, marine life and the people who depended on the life within that body of water have not recovered. The social costs, including increased violence and alcoholism say experts, are incalculable. 30 years and no full recovery, just imagine the legacy.

Or imagine this: Closer to home in the Gulf of Mexico the BP Deepwater Horizon rig begins leaking oil. It goes undetected at first and by the time it is visible, even 200 miles of containment booms and millions of litres of dispersants dropped from planes flying nearly non-stop overhead cannot control the damage. Some 230,000 tons of crude oil oozed, destroying just about everything in its path. Birds, fish, reefs, tourism.

Another legacy.

And both of those accidents, totally unpredictable, touched the US where there are strict laws about safety and pollution and immense resources to deal with the aftermath of an oil spill. Still there was no magic fix because there is no such thing as an easy fix for an oil spill. It takes years for eco-systems and the industries that depend on them, including fishing, to recover, if they ever do.

Please, Sir, you promised you would not do anything that would harm the environment. That’s the promise we hold you to after one year and will hold you to each year thereafter. Say no to oil drilling. We can explore other means, LNG or CNG even until such time as renewables are more widely available, but, please, Sir, no drilling. We cannot afford the risk. You cannot afford the legacy if one ship hits one coral head or a single rig goes wrong. Someday you will have grandchildren and they deserve to enjoy The Bahamas you know, the fish you love, the waters you swim, the beaches that draw the visitors and the life that we all treasure.