Climate change workshop at start of the hurricane season
Wednesday, June 1, 2005
Climate change is a pressing global issue and with the start of the
hurricane season few people here need reminding about the devastation that can
be caused by extreme weather.
Experts from the UK and the Caribbean are coming to Grand Cayman for a
workshop on 2- 3 June about how to best prepare for the predicted impacts of
climate change, such as more intense hurricanes, flooding and coastal erosion.
The workshop will look at what climate change means for the region and
allow delegates to share experience and ideas on what small islands can do to
live with and prepare for the impacts of climate change.
Low-lying small islands like the Cayman Islands are already vulnerable to
extreme weather, and scenarios of climate change show that extreme weather
will increase in intensity over the next 50 years, in addition to sea-level
rise as waters warm-up and arctic and mountain glaciers melt into the oceans.
Global warming because of increasing carbon dioxide pollution in the
atmosphere is thought to be changing the earth’s climate. The planet’s average
temperature has risen by 0.6 degrees in the past 100 years, and the hottest
years globally were in the 1990s.
“The Caribbean region already experiences intense storms, flooding and
coastal erosion. Climate change is likely to intensify these phenomena and has
implications for everything that happens on these islands – not only existing
buildings but future tourism, exports and imports, and transport links.” says
Dr Emma Tompkins of the UK’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, who
has been working with Lisa-Ann Hurlston at the Department of Environment to
research how the Cayman Islands and other Caribbean islands can best adapt to
the impacts of climate change. Participants at the workshop will set planning
priorities for a future where hurricanes are more intense because of climate
change. “We have a reasonable idea of what climate change is bringing, and we
need to face-up to this and adapt our infrastructure to cope.”
Dr Tompkins’ research is funded by the UK’s Department for International
Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (DfID-FCO) through the
Overseas Territories Environment Programme (OTEP) as part of a larger
programme to work with the UK’s Caribbean Overseas Territories in preparing
for and adapting to climate change. As part of the project, six Caribbean
officials went to the UK as Tyndall Centre Fellows last year to start work on
a guidance manual that explains how Caribbean islands can adapt to climate
change. The manual will be published later this year.
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