How Cuba is tackling the energy crisis
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — "One thing Cuba has to be grateful the US blockade for", Cuban environmental scientist Rolando Alfredo Hernandez Leon told a forum here on November 4. "It's taught us to be independent, to live on our own resources, not to waste what we have.
"Cuba is the most independent country in the world. We have few resources, but they're ours. We don't have any Texacos", he said.
"This blockade has a political and an economic aspect to it. Cuban resources are not exploited by any other country, only Cuba.
"If the Cuban government were subjugated by other countries, other governments, other companies would get an economic gain."
"The biggest environmentalist in Cuba is Fidel Castro", Dr Leon noted, pointing to Fidel's powerful speech at the Earth Summit in Brazil in June.
Dr Leon, who is director of energy for the province of Sancti Spiritus, outlined Cuba's response to the energy crisis brought on by the blockade and the collapse of Soviet oil supplies.
The sugar industry is now a net producer, not consumer, of energy through the creation of bagasse from the cane.
Only organic fertiliser is being used in Cuba this year, and natural predators are being utilised for control of pests.
Previous plans for the construction of nuclear plants for electric power have been shelved.
"Even if we discovered the biggest reserves of oil, even if we became part of OPEC", Dr Leon said, "we wouldn't go back to being oil dependent".
Dr Leon's forum, held at the Resistance Centre, was sponsored by the Environmental Youth Alliance and the Cuba Solidarity Committee. His Australian tour is being organised by the Green Team, which is promoting an environmental camp in Cuba to develop alternative technologies for Cuba and the Third World.