Climate change threatens food security – – ECHO

May 18, 2008 News

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…Canada pledges far-reaching help

The effects of what is described as global warning and climate change is really the loud distress cry of the earth, which seeks to draw attention to the huge amount of pressure that human beings continue to put on its environment.

This is according to Royston King, Executive Director of the Environmental Community Health Organization (ECHO).

King made the remark while addressing a gathering at Le Meridien Pegasus yesterday, during ECHO’s hosting of an environmental awareness breakfast.

Under the theme, ‘Towards good environmental stewardship’ the topic of climate change, its effects, and mitigation measures were discussed by Canadian High Commissioner Charles Cort, and Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud.

In his welcoming remarks, King told the gathering that negative human activities have caused the earth to react in frightening ways.

The ‘throwaway culture’, he noted, is helping to fuel the global food crisis, which threatens the stability and security of nations, and the situation becomes ever urgent.

“We have endangered our communities by our own negative actions towards the environment. Further, social problems can be made much worse by our poor management of the environment.”

King pointed out that the world is witnessing a kind of ‘barbarization,’ where the rich are trying to insulate and isolate themselves from the consequences of climate change by living in gated communities.
The poor and vulnerable, on the other hand, he said, are left to fend for themselves in very harsh conditions.
Rich countries have the technology and the money to do the research and put mechanisms and measures in place to ease the burden of climate change on their citizens, but poor nations remain vulnerable to this phenomenon, he added.

This is the reason, he stated, why ECHO is seeking to flag up public awareness on the changing environment, and encourage citizens to help Guyana to adapt and to mitigate climate change.
ECHO, King said, will be advocating for change in the marketing strategy of local corporations to move consumers away from the use of plastic to more environmentally-friendly materials.
“Supermarkets and other such businesses have a great role in the way commodities are packaged. Therefore, we would advocate for them to take the lead in this area.

We will also push for a recycling plant to treat with plastic bottles and allied materials.”
During yesterday’s breakfast, Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud pointed out that no one can doubt that climate change is real.

Delivering the feature address, the minister said that the discourse and discussions on climate change should not be about the ‘fancy language’ and the ‘platitude’ which are often heard.

The time for histrionics is over, he said, and there is need for this issue to be dealt with in terms of looking at the real facts and what needs to done.

“Guyana is not a contributor to greenhouse gases, our practices do not threaten the environment, but we have to prepare for the realities that are hitting us every single day.”

Guyana’s adaptation interventions, the Agriculture Minister said, are focused on expanding, modernizing and developing further drainage and irrigation systems.

Speaking about the most susceptible area as a result of this change, Persaud pointed out that agricultural activity would be most affected by climate change.
All countries, he stated, have to develop their own set of activities to combat this fight.

Guyana’s activities are focused on adaptation, but this cannot be driven or led by Government only, he said.
“Every single citizen has to be mobilized in this fight, and we have to identify specific tasks and areas where every single citizen can play a role. They have to recognize that individual action can make our country and our communities much more vulnerable, and also individual actions can prevent and minimize the effects on our livelihood and community and our country as a whole.”
The current global food crisis, Persaud said, is a direct effect of climate change, which is affecting all the countries of the world.
“If we are going to talk about successfully emerging from this global food crisis that the world is facing…we also have to recognize that we have to deal with the issue of climate change, which can threaten food, which is the basis of our existence,” Minister Persaud stated.
Also speaking about the effects of climate change and mitigation efforts was Canadian High Commissioner Charles Cort.
He told the gathering that Canada has recognized the urgency in taking care of the environment and is taking strong domestic action.
The High Commissioner also stressed that no country can effectively address climate change on its own, but, instead, all countries that are in a position to act must do so.
Canada remains fully committed, he said, to the goal of reducing absolute emissions of greenhouse gases by 60 to 70 percent by 2050.
To reach that goal, the Canadian Government announced in April 2007 its Regulatory Framework for Air Emissions.
This Regulatory Framework, Cort said, with its integrated approach to addressing both greenhouse gases and air pollutants, fits the country’s unique circumstances.
“We believe that the principles underlying our approach can assist in forging consensus around a new international framework.”
The Regulatory Framework is a plan to progressively reduce greenhouse gases, in absolute terms, to meet Canada’s mid-term goal of greenhouse gas reductions of 20 percent by 2020.
“Even if we could stop all greenhouse gas emissions, the impacts of climate change would continue to preoccupy us for decades, and perhaps centuries.”
In Guyana and the Caribbean, he said, Canada has already contributed to protecting the environment and addressing the challenges of climate change.
(Tusika Martin)

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