The public will have to embrace change in order for Bermuda not to turn into another Hong Kong, the Sustainable Development Round Table (SDRT) said yesterday.

SDRT member ? and Chamber of Commerce president ? Peter Everson said increased pollution in Bermuda could be the final straw for Bermuda?s tourism industry.

?One of the great success stories of the last 50 years was the economic development of Hong Kong, which has many similarities to Bermuda because effectively for a long time it was an island-state,? Mr. Everson said in a press conference yesterday. ?It?s very successful, the living standards of the people have moved ahead, it?s obviously very densely populated, but if you stay there, the radio and the TV will give you warnings in the morning that the pollution index is so high they recommend under-fives to stay indoors.

?So if we got anywhere close to going down that road we know that tourism as we know it, it would not work in Bermuda. So I think that is a good mirror. There are places in the world we can say, we are so far ahead of them we don?t want to slide back and get close to them.?

However, while SDRT member and former Bermuda National Trust director Amanda Outerbridge said the success of the Sustainable Development Plan depended on whether both Government Ministers and the public got fully behind it, it was important to understand it was ?not something being done to us?.

?This is not a report being imposed on us,? Ms Outerbridge said. ?It actually won?t work if we see it like that. It has got to be all of us.

?There are large things and systemic things that Government will need to do but there are other things we can all do individually and also apply an overlay of sustainable development consideration to everything that we do. It?s the only way we are going to make a significant difference.?

Ms Outerbridge was optimistic about the plan because it had brought environmental activism out from the margins.

?I don?t think that people who are environmentalists are now being called ?tree-huggers? as they used to be. But it is a logical thing that we want to preserve and protect Bermuda and ensure that we develop in a sustainable way.?

SDRT member and columnist Stuart Hayward said this was the first time a Government had invited a group of lay persons to have input to policy decisions that impact all of its Ministries.

SDRT Chairman and KPMG managing director Malcolm Butterfield asked whether Bermuda dared to change its unsustainable ways.

?We have now got to live sustainable development, not just speak it,? Mr. Butterfield said. ?We have to live it or it will be to our own peril.

?We have done well with our two pillars of industries, international business and tourism, and it is important we maintain a leadership role. We don?t want to find ourselves competing globally and losing the leadership slot we currently hold. That is just an example of where we don?t want to go,? he said, adding SDRT would be an advocate for change.

?I?ll be very frank, sometimes we will probably support some of the views coming out of Government and we will not support some of those views. If we think something is being missed it will be our role to get the Government?s attention,? he said.

?I understand the Ministers and Cabinet have given their input to (the Sustainable Development Plan) and will transfer that document back out to us. It?s important that there is a commitment from Government, from Ministers and Ministries the consultation process will involve senior segments of the civil service.

?Have they spoken? I can?t say we know all of their answers, but I am starting to hear the word ?commitment? coming from where we, as an independent group, need to hear it from.?

Mr. Butterfield said it would be a challenge to make the current 400-page sustainable development plan readable before its expected release in June, however, feedback would also be provided by written and electronic media, as well as public meetings.