NYT Claims 'Embargo and Socialism' Protected Cuban Environment from Freedom 'Tsunami'

July 1st, 2015 4:33 PM

Keeping people poor and unable to buy new cars, new homes or much of anything sure is nifty for the environment.

The New York Times sure thinks so. The Grey Lady (new name, the Green Lady) warned of an environmental “tsunami” approaching Cuba as relations normalize with the United States. In a tweet July 1, NYT Science claimed that the “embargo and socialism helped protect Cuba's environment,” but that this was about to change.

The tweet linked to an article by national correspondent Erica Goode. She claimed U.S. restrictions on travel and trade with Cuba, “combined with Cuba’s brand of controlled socialism,” had protected the country’s environment. Goode said that an increase in tourism following normalized relations with the U.S. could lead to a fate similar to Cuba’s neighboring islands. She wrote that tourism had “eroded beaches, destroyed forests, polluted rivers, damaged coral reefs and wreaked other forms of environmental havoc” elsewhere in the Caribbean.