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In
Harm's Way - By: Luis
Carpio, Director of Transport and Natural Disasters of the
Association of Caribbean States. |
Posted April 13, 2007;
"Science chases money and money chases its tail
and the best minds of my generation can't make bail
but the bacteria are coming to take us down, that's my
prediction
it's the answer to this culture of the quick fix
prescription"
Ani DiFranco: Garden of Simple
 IT'S
THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN. Right on cue, after the Oscars,
it's the Naming of the Atlantic Storms, better known to us
locally as the precursor to the Caribbean Hurricane Season.
This year, Alberto, Beryl, Chris, Debby, Ernesto, Florence,
Gordon, Helene, Isaac, Joyce, Kirk, Leslie, Michael, Nadine,
Oscar, Patty, Rafael, Sandy, Tony, Valerie and William
promise to be blockbusters, sure to keep our emergency
services suitably entertained and our people (hopefully)
glued to their seats.
The naming also comes on cue for what is quickly becoming a
sad global tradition when, following the reports of the
UN[1] in 1990, 1995, 2001 and now in 2007, through a mind
boggling act of prestidigitation and misdirection on the
part of the ubiquitous "THEY", the world finds itself at
loggerheads regarding global warming and its causes,
conveniently ignoring the fact that, whatever the pathology
may be, the symptoms are here, now.
Nowhere is this hijacking of the discourse more pathetic
than in the Greater Caribbean where our ability to have an
effect on the cause, whether natural or anthropogenic, is
negligible to say the least, but our economic, social and
political situation gives us the combined potential to rise
to the challenge, if only we would look in the right
direction, away from the smoke and mirrors.
At some point very soon, we need to wake up to the fact that
even renowned naysayers of man-made climate change, global
warming and increase of storm activity, admit to the growing
number and intensity of hurricanes in the
Atlantic/Caribbean.
Fortunately, there has been a growing tendency whereby the
grassroots level, the scientific community and international
organisations have found common ground in the need for
policy-relevant information that sidesteps the Byzantine
debate on causality in order to address the real threats
faced by real people in harm's way due to climate change.
At the heart of the debate is the need for humans and their
settlements, particularly in the developing world, to adapt
to circumstances over which we have so little short-term
control. Carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for
decades and oceans store heat for centuries, so regardless
of the cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions, previous emissions
will keep the Earth toasty for quite a while. Even if
emissions were to stop before this comes to press, it is
believed that temperatures will keep rising, and all the
impacts will continue to add up for some time.
Though such statements would certainly have had anyone
tarred and feathered as a sell-out only a few years ago,
there is growing acceptance for the need to assess
scientific, technical, environmental, economic and social
aspects of the vulnerability (sensitivity and adaptability)
to climate change, as well as options for adaptation.
Adaptation, then, should continue to gain ground in our
efforts to conceptualise and face climate change. Human and
natural systems will inevitably adapt on their own to some
degree, but planned adaptation can supplement autonomous
adaptation in a way that enhances maximum benefit, bearing
in mind that some pundits now go as far as to speak of the
potential boon of climate change to certain regions which
adapt successfully.
According to Roger Jones, a co-author of the IPCC report:
"Adaptation to climate change is now inevitable; the only
question is whether it will be by plan or by chaos."
[1] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made up of
2.000 scientists from around the globe.
The views expressed are not necessarily the official views
of the ACS. Feedback can be sent to: mail@acs-aec.org
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