On July 30 Anguilla kicked-off a two-day workshop as part of a programme to mainstream climate change into disaster planning. This is the way to go, and even though there is no set time frame for when a nation should address such an issue, the time is now. Many countries around the globe are busy addressing this issue.
A recent United Nations (UN) report released early July entitled, "The Global Climate 2001-2010, A Decade of Extremes," reported that our planet experienced "unprecedented high-impact climate extremes" between 2001 and 2010 and more national temperature records were broken during that period than in any other decade.
The first decade of the 21st century was the warmest for both land and ocean temperatures since measurements began in 1850. Extreme floods, droughts and tropical weather systems (eg. Hurricanes, cyclones) were all experienced across the world throughout the decade, and more than 370,000 people died as a result of these, representing a 20 per cent increase in causalities from the previous decade.
Floods were the most frequently experienced extreme events over the course of the decade. 20 million people were affected by floods in 2010. Tropical cyclones were also prominent throughout the decade, with more than 500 cyclone-related disaster events killing nearly 170,000 people, affecting over 250 million, and caused estimated damages of US$380 billion.
A UN senior official stressed that this year will be a "turning point" in how governments view and respond to extreme weather events, and floods in particular, which have been already affecting several countries around the world.
We’ve all seen the news reports of floods in India, Nepal, and Canada and in many European countries. Major contributing factors include poor urban planning which increases flood hazard due to unsuitable land use change, increases in paving and other impermeable surfaces, poorly maintained drainage, sanitation and solid waste infrastructure.
According to the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, flood management systems need to be designed so that even if they are overwhelmed by floodwaters, the failure is not catastrophic. A number of investments have been made in country Sint Maarten’s water management and infrastructure, and some projects are still currently on-going.
Climate change is a given fact and it is induced by humans. A global framework has been established to help countries and communities cope with long-term climate change and associated extreme weather events.
Michel Jarraud, Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization which produced the report said: "We are already seeing the effects of climate change and so we need to take action through the use of scientifically-based climate services to cushion the impact on our environment, our economies and our societies.
"Decisions on flood defences and dams, for instance, are often based on past experience and not on the likely future. But the past climate is no longer a sufficient guide to the future. We need to anticipate the climate we shall have in the next 50 to 100-years. It’s a huge challenge but it’s not a hopeless challenge if we all work together."
Where is country Sint Maarten when it comes to climate change? The main aim of the Anguilla workshop is to develop an awareness of climate change and impacts at the national level including existing development challenges, vulnerabilities and future risks. The Executive Council of Anguilla in 2012 gave its approval to a Climate Change Policy. Anguilla also has developed a Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment for the Tourism Sector to Climate Change.
The St. Maarten Hospitality and Trade Association (SHTA) just concluded a Hurricane Preparedness Seminar on Tuesday where more than 100 businesses were represented. The SHTA seminar was organized to inform the business community about the current state of affairs regarding country readiness in the event of a storm/hurricane strike. Those in attendance had the opportunity to ask questions as well.
The organization of the seminar at this current stage of the hurricane season was a good initiative by the SHTA since it has been forecasted that the season would be a very active one. The country is approaching the beginning of the peak period of the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season which is from mid-August to mid-October, so the timing of the seminar was perfect.
Another very important issue is "Climate Change," and this would make for a very good lively discussion, and the SHTA would be a great organization to take the initiative in organizing such.
Roddy Heyliger