Ms. Felicia Hennis of Radio Anguilla
In a candid interview with Radio Anguilla’s Information Officer, Felicia Hennis, Mr David Carty, Environmental Activist, has cautioned our leaders not to turn the page yet on Hurricane Irma.
“I have a lil difficulty when our leaders talk about turning the page on Irma,” he stated. “I don’t know if Irma’s first cousin or sister is coming so don’t turn the page – read the page properly and learn from that page. What do we have to do to start preparing ourselves for a changed society, a changed environment and a changed economy – what does all that mean? I won’t pretend that I have all the answers. But in the same way policy decisions have been taken to set up the Department of Disaster … you need a policy decision on a broad level as to do what do we do.”
He said Anguillians have been stressed by a natural event. “Hurricanes are not caused by global warning or climate change…the issue now is they have become more intense and the issue no longer debated is probability and intensity.”
“Is there a growing probability of more hurricanes? Yes. Will they be more intense? Yes. We’ve had three category five storms in less than 3 weeks buzzing the north eastern Caribbean with one right over us.”
He said the question now is – How do you resource Anguilla to mitigate itself against climate change? “I have always argued again to deaf ears, that when you go to lending institutions, whether it is the British Government, CDB or the World Bank, you argue about your vulnerability as a Tropical Island to climate Change.”
Carty pointed out that is what Dominica’s Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit did at the United Nations Assembly when he stated we the tropical islands are in the “firing line.”
He said the PM quoted that particular phrase “firing line” from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change-IPCC.
“He is the first Prime Minister in the Caribbean to deal with the issue straight up. If I’m in the firing line, you – the developed the countries (that have started this whole thing) can give me a 100 million dollars (if I have to pay back give me a discretionary rate 50 years at 1% or 0.5%).”
Carty maintained: “You can leverage climate change as an economic argument for infrastructural development if you are small Tropical Island, which we are but nobody studying that, this is a strategic move.”
“We know the British government will be tight on us and even more so after the Brexit. There are Warren Buffet and Bill Gates who have put together the Billionaires club to deal with this issue (climate change). Why are we not knocking on their door? There needs to be a coordinated strategic approach based on the facts of the reality of climate change to attack both government and non-governmental sources for serious money when it comes to mitigation and creating our resilience,” Carty insisted.
