Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley is calling on Barbadians to create a small nursery in their backyards.
Ms. Mottley made the call as she launched the Million Trees for 2020 Project, at Daryll Jordan Secondary School, in St. Lucy, last Friday.
She said Government’s aim is to plant more than a million trees on this island by the end of 2020.
“We want you to do your…part at home to plant your own five, 10 or 15 trees. Get your child to take a little video and we will have a place where you could upload the video. We will count the trees planted at home and publicly,” she said.
The Prime Minister added that any sceptics who believed that one million trees could not be planted on this island of 166 square miles, should watch on as history was created.
She noted that the entire world, including Barbados, was involved in the climate crisis fight. The Prime Minister urged the children to assist Government in showing the world that this small island could rise to the challenge of playing its part in the climate crisis.
Building on her point about the impact of the climate crisis on countries, she told the children that just a few weeks ago, the island experienced a lot of rain which flooded St. Lucy.
She said she had never heard about that parish flooding like it did then, thus reinforcing that “something is different”.
Ms. Mottley said former head of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, Dr. Chelston Brathwaite, will lead Barbados’ efforts to plant one million trees.
Dr. Brathwaite told the children that Barbados was joining the international community in seeking to fight climate change.
“In Barbados, we are planting a million plus to demonstrate to the world that we are committed to finding solutions to the global challenges; solutions to sargassum, solutions to terrible hurricanes that are affecting our people and solutions to providing food security,” he stated.
Children, Dr. Brathwaite emphasized, are an important part of the future. He encouraged the students to join Government in making Barbados green again.
“This is go green; make Barbados a country that responds to its international commitments and is capable of fighting climate change,” he encouraged.
During the programme, Cultural Ambassador Dr. Anthony Carter sang a song encouraging persons to plant a tree.
Some scientists have proffered the view that planting hundreds of billions of trees across the world would assist in mitigating climate change. According to research shared, as trees grow, they help stop climate change by removing excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.