November 29, 2022
So COP27 has come and gone, but the region is still feeling the impact of climate related trauma. Despite efforts to gather up the gumption to agree on the Santiago damage and loss fund, there are things that we need to do now.
The fund has not even been funded properly yet, no pun intended. We have had up to a few hundred millions of dollars “pledged” but nothing on the ground yet. I remember when Thailand suffered a tsunami back in 2004. The US pledged a few million and then Japan pledged $500m off the rip. The US had to ashamedly come back and say that the first few million was only a start and then came back a few days later with a $350m pledge. Still not enough for the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean.
But still, Trinidad is under water right now. Images of people standing on their balcony, yes the balcony, watching flood waters as they wait for it to recede. I saw a video of a farmer trying to assess his fields and his poor dog came swimming out of nowhere, trying to keep up with him- a touching scene of a man and his dog.
So, where will the pledges from the COP27 go? What is there to do now? Trinidad probably needs all of the money pledged at COP27 now anyway, so give it to them. But remember, lots more will need to be done.
Countries like Trinidad and Guyana are prone to flooding, and not the weak flooding that comes ankle deep. We are talking of basketball rim high flooding, and the type that you have to swim through to get to higher ground.
The larger countries have done us in with the degradation of the environment and atmosphere. While a bit of flooding is expected, every year it gets worse as the waters get higher and higher. Someone has to find workable solutions for this. Find new engineering that builds structures higher to a degree where flooding is not a major problem as it has become. The developed countries can do that. I know they can. They have the scientists to make it happen. So, let’s put our best and brightest together on this.