Future of the planet at stake

Published: 27 Nov 2009

Dr Murray Simpson
Prior Beharry

Dr Murray Simpson, of Oxford University Centre for Environment, says climate change is even bigger than the HIV/Aids pandemic. “This is almost on a big scale as Aids, if not bigger...We are talking about the future of the planet here,” he said. “I don’t want to downgrade the HIV/Aids issue because that is a huge issue as well. But, this climate change affects every single person on the planet and it affects the planet we live in,” Simpson said in a recent interview at the Hyatt Hotel in Port-of-Spain.

Water
He said the projections of a two-degree Celsius increase in temperature would affect four billion people access to water. “Forty per cent of species under a two-degree temperature increase will disappear,” he said. “It is not a future event. It is happening now. And we need to address the issues now.”
Simpson, an expert on climate change, has worked in 25 countries in the Caribbean and noted that climate change was having an impact on the livelihood and economic development of these countries.

logo“There are a range of physical impacts like sea level rise, coastal erosion, impacts on biodiversity like coral reefs bleaching...although the scientists are a bit unclear on hurricanes, there is certainly a correlation between the increase in sea surface temperatures and the increase in the frequency and intensity of hurricanes in the region.” “There are health issues, the increase in dengue fever and malaria potential in the region,” he said. Another issue is the impact on water resources—sea water infiltration into fresh water aquifers as we have storm surges.

Tourism
Simpson noted that the Caribbean was one of the most vulnerable places on earth, since it was very tourism reliant. And climate change was now affecting the size of beaches and the coral reef—“one of your greatest natural assets.” He said climate change was now affecting the tourism source markets such as the UK, US and Canada. Simpson said one example of this, is the aviation passenger duty and other regulatory policies that different countries were bringing to air travel. “This will impact on the growth of tourism in the region,” he said. “In terms of awareness, we need to educate people from the ministerial level down and also from the community level up.

So we need to be educating primary school children, secondary school children, community groups and also at the ministerial and prime ministerial level. So we will be attacking the awareness from all sides.” He noted that the region only contributes about one per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions to the world in total. “However, this is a problem for all of us and the future for energy is not fossil fuels, the future is in renewables for everybody. There will come a time when there will not be any more oil or gas.” He said the Caribbean needed to get “green in their attitudes.” He said tourists will want to travel to destinations using green approaches and have green philosophies—one of those philosophies is the use of renewables.

“Saving energy is very important, not only will it reduce emissions, but it will save you money,” Simpson said. “Wherever possible you should embrace renewable energy or reduced-emission technology so hybrid cars for example and assist in monitoring programmes in terms of collection of data, for example, on sea level rise or coastal erosion.” Simpson touted Sand Watch where primary school children collect data and monitor what was happening on beaches closest to them. It was about pollution and a monitoring coastal erosion and monitoring sea level rise, he said. “It is raising awareness for the people who will be in control of the planet in the future—the children,” he said.

Agriculture
A lecturer at the St Augustine campus of University of the West Indies, Pro John Agard said climate change has an impact on agriculture. “If the weather changes then what will you plant? You will have to change some crops or the varieties; if it turns out there is less rain, then you may have to get more drought-tolerant crops,” he said. Agard said in some countries such as Australia and the US, insurers have already stop covering people who live in the coastal zones.

Fishing Industry
Agard said some studies have already shown that the increasing temperatures have impacted on the migration of certain commercial species of fish such as tuna. “They require water of a particular temperature,” he said. “It is projected that in the Caribbean some of the water will be too warm for certain commercial species and they will migrate towards North America. “So the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre in Belize has some maps with some projections where the fish are going to move to.”

Source: http://guardian.co.tt/news/general/2009/11/27/future-planet-stake,/a>