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Guyana must heed climate change warnings

Apr 15, 2010 Editorial

Climate change continues to dominate the discussions in the various countries. There is the continued fear that low-lying coastal plains and islands are doomed to inundation. The fear is that when the climate rises the polar ice caps would melt and the sea levels would rise flooding these pieces of land.
Scientists point to the irregular weather patterns that prevail. They contend that the extreme harsh weather patterns that prevail in certain parts of the world result from climate change.
Indeed, in recent times there have been severe floods in some countries, extreme dry conditions in others; there have been rains that have triggered mudslides that have buried villages.
There are scientists who say that they have measured the global climate and it has risen to levels that are cause for concern. They have traced this rise in temperature to increased carbon dioxide emissions particularly by the industrialised countries.
The prevailing view in these quarters is that to combat the carbon emission there is need for, among other things, trees which have long been considered the lungs of the earth. Trees remove carbon dioxide with the consequent result that there is less in the atmosphere and there is a corresponding drop in global temperature.
Guyana with its vast forests feels that it has a right to help protect the planet but such protection come at a cost. It is for this reason that President Bharrat Jagdeo has been promoting what has become known as a low carbon development strategy.
One of the contentions is that countries that emit vast amounts of carbon dioxide and who must move to cut their emissions, should in addition to undertaking this cut, pay those countries that still have forests.
It is here that things get complicated. Many developed countries seem reluctant to first of all cut their emissions to manageable levels.
They are also reluctant to pay for standing forests. It may be this reluctance that has sparked views that run contrary to global warming. And increasingly the voices of these opponents are growing louder.
Indeed, their arguments are convincing and there seems to be a growing following to these opponents. It seems to be a case of people refusing to accept grim realities. So we debunk arguments that suggest that global climate is rising.
Even in Guyana with its low coastline is prone to flooding. Should the sea level rise as is predicted then Guyana could be doomed. Its fertile farmlands would disappear; the bulk of the coastal belt on which people live would be inhabitable. In short, Guyana as we know would no longer be.
But the reality is that there are those who want to dispute this fact. People have been sponsored to attend conferences that debunk the idea of climate change. They accept the arguments that scientists have misread the data.
And indeed, some have pointed to the recent weather in North America. The winter was especially severe so scientists argue that the weather pattern is cyclical and has nothing to do with global warming.
Whatever the truth, Guyana cannot hedge its bets on one group of scientists being wrong. It must safeguard its interests. It must heed dire warnings. It will have no time to correct any mistake. We are convinced that disaster looms.
For example, we are experiencing some weather patterns that are unusual to say the least. Indeed from time to time some things would appear to challenge the reality.
There would be rains and drops in temperature because movement in global temperature is never a constant rise. There are bound to be fluctuations. These fluctuations do not mean a reversal of a trend. This is a lesson that we have learnt and one we do not intend to forget.

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