- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 07/07/2024 07:44

Our changing world

It takes some effort to expel the sense of an impending apocalypse, not exactly in the biblical sense, although devout believers can see that the end of the world is at hand. But whose hands is it in? If the future is entirely in our hands, then we are shaping it in a way that leaves many very worried. To any interested observer, there is something inexplicable about our determined, relentless desire to experience the world differently from before and to change how we live, to do things in other ways, seemingly oblivious to and uncaring about the possible negative impact. To many, that is frightening and to be resisted at all costs. Truth be told, though, change is perpetual, and that tension has always existed. Admittedly, it feels as if it is very taut at the moment. The last week was particularly frightening for many people, as we seemed to lurch a little closer to Armageddon. The old folk used to say about the rainy season and the probability of Atlantic hurricanes: “June, too soon. July, stand by. August, a must. September, remember. October, all over.” Last weekend, Beryl turned the first part of that adage on its head by becoming the record-breaking, earliest category-4 hurricane to arrive in June. In 1999, Hurricane Lenny did the same to the last bit of the adage when he lashed the Caribbean that November. And in November 2020, Iota was the record-breaking 30th named storm and the 14th hurricane. Beryl was not just too big for the month of June; her course was also too southerly. She has confounded experts, who worry about the rest of this hurricane season, which is already predicted to be very active. They note that in June our seas are hitting above the 30-year average temperature for levels in September, which is peak time, and that is not just the surface temperature. Changing weather systems were forecast decades ago but the pace has quickened as the planet warms further. Everybody knows that 2023 was the hottest year on record and 2024 could be worse. All over our region, the warmer seas with rising levels are already having a long-term impact, quite apart from the devastation of hurricanes. One of the Guna Yala islands off the coast of Panama in the Caribbean Basin, is being abandoned by 300 indigenous Guna families who have always lived there, to be rehoused on the mainland. The Associated Press reports that the rising sea has contaminated freshwater reserves and the frequent floods have eroded the landmass beyond its ability to sustain human life. Panama may be the first Caribbean Basin country to evacuate citizens from an island because of climate change, but elsewhere, in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, the effects of global warming have been experienced intensely too. Coral islands in the north and south atolls of the Maldives have drowned since I was there some 30 years ago, and people have had to find new homes. It will happen here in due course. The advancing erosion of our south and north coasts is very evident and it is predicted that by 2100 only two-thirds of Trinidad’s landmass will still be intact. One wonders about the Grenadines, Anguilla, Barbados and other smaller islands in our archipelago. The world is watching, but is there any real will to reshape the apparent future? That is the burning question. Beryl was not the only outlier of the last week. The French far right won the first round of electoral voting there, while the new head of the European Council is someone who avows right-wing populism and decries migration into Europe. I cannot imagine inhibiting climate change is high on his political agenda. In the US, the media circus created by CNN’s outlandish debate has been the catalyst for a Democratic meltdown. The party is talking itself into Donald Trump’s return to the White House, which is the worst news in relation to global warming, immigration, the rule of law, geopolitics and, especially, developments in the Levant. Even more depressing, the Supreme Court ruled bizarrely that former presidents have “absolute immunity” from prosecution for core official acts while in office. Meanwhile, President Biden’s confession that he "screwed up" the debate only because of jetlag and a cold does not convince everyone, but he says he’s running and he’s going to win because he can. Democrats should support that. It is too late to change horses. Biden makes winning more likely by asserting it and repeating it. Trump has not yet won, and it might never happen if voters vote. A very wise friend sent me this quote from the writer Rebecca Solnit and I will end with it: "There’s a public equivalent to private depression, a sense that the nation or the society rather than the individual is stuck. Things don’t always change for the better, but they change, and we can play a role in that change if we act. Which is where hope comes in, and memory, the collective memory we call history." The post Our changing world appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.