THIS WEEK’S weather, with its disruptive impact on the ability of young students to sit examinations, will lead many to suggest the climate crisis should be a key issue ahead of the local government election.
But make no mistake, climate change is not merely a local government issue. It is, or rather should be, one of the defining issues of our national politics.
Those who are still unconvinced about the direct impact of this crisis on ordinary life need look no further than the plight of students whose egress to CSEC/CAPE examinations was blocked by flood and landslide on Monday and Tuesday.
If some have been able to ignore the boiling temperatures on our diurnal temperature index or the deluge of floodwaters confronting us year after year, it is difficult to ignore the scenes this week when children were bundled into maxis in the hope that they would get to school safely.
“We had children sitting in that maxi, on their way to write the Mathematics Paper One who had tears in their eyes because instead of focusing on exams, they had to study how they were going to get to school,” said one Tabaquite resident.
These scenes have become and will become more common.
When it comes to flooding, the conversation has largely focused on the maintenance of local government infrastructure, the workings, or lack thereof, of regional systems, the politics of resource allocation, the need for compensation and the inflationary impact of agricultural losses.
All are important. But the deeper issue of the increased burden on our infrastructure caused by the climate crisis has been left by the wayside in favour of partisan bickering. Expect more of the same as August approaches.
Meanwhile, the children affected by this week’s weather have the most to lose, and we here refer to not only the fact that some will have to be graded on their school-based assessments and whichever papers they have already done.
This month, a ground-breaking lawsuit, filed in the US by 16 young residents of Montana, will go to trial alleging state officials have violated their constitutional right to a healthy environment.
The repercussions of Held v Montana, which is the first-ever constitutional climate trial in US history, could be monumental and could redefine the global paradigm of how countries respond to environmental issues.
US vice president Kamala Harris recently unveiled US$98 million in new funding from the US Agency for International Development to address climate, energy, food security and related issues in the Caribbean.
But our local leaders need to wake up to the fact that they risk being seen as asleep at the wheel.
Long-term funding is one thing. Immediate action to cut emissions, redefine land use and jumpstart cultural change—those are missing.
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