UWI prof warns climate change on path to destroy Caribbean

BRUSSELS, Belgium:

The global community is being urged to take immediate action to slow the effects of climate change which, evidence shows, has over several years resulted in the development of significant catastrophic events across the world.

These consequences of climate change are especially concerning to the more vulnerable regions such as the Caribbean as its impact continues to worsen.

“Without that kind of action over the next two decades, our future is very much in jeopardy,” said Dr Michelle Mycoo, professor of urban and regional planning at The University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago, who was speaking at the recently concluded EU-Latin America and the Caribbean Forum - Partners in Change: Youth, Civil Society and Local Authorities, which was held from July 13-14.

Continuing her presentation, which focused on projections indicating that climate change will destroy the Caribbean and, more specifically, small island developing states (SIDS), Mycoo stated that, if a change is not made, the ripple effects of climate change would result in many islands becoming uninhabitable.

Every year, the Caribbean is exposed to potentially life-threatening weather phenomena like heatwaves, drought, and earthquakes. Not to mention during the Atlantic hurricane season (June 1 to November 30) when the region begins to experience extreme weather conditions, including tropical storms, tropical depressions and hurricanes that lead to landslides, flooding and loss of lives and property.

More recently, on July 4, the Earth’s temperature unofficially spiked to a record-breaking high, making it the hottest day experienced in decades. The globe’s average temperature reached 62.9 degrees Fahrenheit (17.18 degrees Celsius) according to the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer, a common tool based on satellite data, observations, and computer simulations and used by climate scientists for a glimpse of the world’s condition.

Just one month earlier, in June, the country’s capital city of San Juan had a record-breaking heatwave that caused the heat index to soar to 125 degrees Fahrenheit (52 degrees Celsius).

“So, for example, in Dominica in 2017, we saw the impact of a hurricane that destroyed almost all of Dominica’s infrastructure, and it amounted to about 225 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP), that’s just one island and these are tiny islands,” she said.

She further explained that such disastrous events have led to not only the loss of lives, limbs and economic assets but caused tremendous damage to human beings by causing mental stress.

Four main areas of concern

Mycoo raised concerns about four main areas, the first being the loss of SIDS’ ecosystem and biodiversity. Within the Caribbean, she said, there are rich-but-fragile ecosystems and biodiversity.

“In fact, if we reach three degrees Celsius as a result of global warming, we can lose a hundred per cent of our island endemics,” she said, further arguing that nature-based tourism would be severely impacted as well, because of any change in temperatures as well as 99 per cent of coral reefs being lost under warming of two degrees Celsius or more across the region.

Secondly, Mycoo pointed out that agriculture and food security would be at risk.

“What that means for us is that we may have crops maybe wilting that will impact on our food security and, when there is extreme heavy rainfall, we can experience flooding ... that will compromise food security, health and nutrition,” she said, as farmers will resort to using unclean water to irrigate crops.

She stated that the drought risk projections for the Caribbean region indicated that, between 2043 and 2071, there will be a significant water resource problem, especially depleting freshwater resources.

If glaciers continue to melt, Mycoo said, the ground water supply that many Caribbean islands depend on will be lost because of the rise of sea levels. The repercussions of this could include migration, she added.