As Dominica joins the rest of the international community today in commemorating the ‘International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer’, Minister for Environment, Rural Modernisation and Kalingo Upliftment Cozier Frederick is calling on Dominicans to continue to protect the ozone layer.
His call came while delivering a statement earlier today.
“This commemoration offers an opportunity to focus attention and action at the national, regional and global levels on the protection of the ozone layer to create awareness on and to adopt environmentally friendly techniques to reduce the use of ozone depleting substances,” he said.
He continued, “In the face of a pandemic I am sure it seems that issues such as ozone should be placed on the backburner, but the theme of World Ozone Day 2020, ‘Ozone for Life’ reiterates the importance of this universal concern.”
According to Frederick, the theme reminds persons that ozone is crucial for their lives on earth and they must continue to protect the ozone layer.
He mentioned also that this year’s theme celebrates the critical role that the Montreal protocol has played in caring for life on the planet, by simply phasing out many of the most potent ozone depleting substances.
“The protocol has prevented potentially massive damages to human health and the environment from excessive ultraviolet radiation from the sun, “Frederick stated.
He called on all to work together to assist the efforts of the government of the Commonwealth of Dominica in maintaining the true foundation of the Montreal protocol, which is to increase the resilience of the planet to withstand the adverse effects associated with the depletion of the ozone layer and in turn protect the atmosphere for generations to come.
Below is the full text of the Minister’s address.
Minister for Environment, Rural Modernisation and Kalingo Upliftment Cozier Frederick is calling on Dominicans to continue to protect the ozone layer. Considerable numbers of dominicans dont respect the environment, they dont respect their communities, their neighbors and sometimes themselves. We burn rubbish at any time of day regardless of proximity to neighbors, we play music as loud as we want without any consideration for those living around us, we throw garbage out of our passing vehicles or as we walk along the roads, we go to the rivers we boast about and leave all our trash and kfc boxes and old food exactly where we ate it as if someone will pick it up for us. We have no recycling operations. So i dont know how we are continuing “to protect” the ozone layer. Thankfully we are underpopulated in this regard else we would have mountains of trash and all over the place and other kinds of pollution (air, noise, etc)