Inaugural Editorial
The Mangrove Series takes a critical look at what it is that we value as a Bahamian people and the risks that a changing climate poses to these treasures. The series was inspired by the mandate issued to “From Dat Time”: The Oral & Public History Institute of University of The Bahamas in 2012 to document and disseminate the Bahamian story in the face of generational demise and climate threats. In April 2019, Institute Director Dr. Tracey Thompson invited Bahamian climate adaptation expert and then Visiting Scholar at UB Dr. Adelle Thomas to partner in developing the series. Editor Mrs. Astranique Bowe joined the team in June 2019. The series offers a platform for colleagues at University of The Bahamas and persons in the community to explore who we are, what we do, and what we have that is worth our working to preserve and to offer suggestions about how we can safeguard our treasures. The series takes as its symbol the mangrove, whose structure represents the deep Bahamian roots that underpin our social, economic and environmental stability and development. At the same time the mangrove is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, with the potential for it to cease to exist as climate impacts intensify.
Climate Change
Hurricanes Dorian, Irma, Matthew, Joaquin as well as the many others that have affected our country over the years make plain to us that these extreme events have dire consequences for our people, our economy and our environment. The devastation of Hurricane Dorian exposed the extraordinary risks that we face as an archipelago of small islands – risks that are escalating as climate change increases the intensity of hurricanes and results in more extensive damage.
Having more intense hurricanes with higher storm surges is one of many consequences of the fact that the climate of our planet is changing. When we talk about ‘climate’ we are talking about average weather conditions over a long period of time – 30 years or longer. In the past century, our climate has grown significantly warmer. Compared to preindustrial times, the average global temperature is about 2°F warmer. This may not seem like a big change, but it has massive implications for life on Earth.
For The Bahamas, climate change is projected to result in a range of impacts that threaten our very existence. Sea levels are rising, our ocean is becoming warmer and more acidic, coastlines are eroding and marine biodiversity is changing. However, climate change doesn’t just affect the environment: it also has socio-economic implications. For example, as hurricanes have intensified we have incurred higher economic damages, seen the displacement of people, loss of human life, increased human trauma and a myriad of challenges as communities try to rebuild. As our oceans warm and become more acidic, commercially important fisheries are affected, meaning that fishers will be faced with declining yields. Tourism is expected to decline as beaches erode and it becomes hotter. As temperatures increase, it is projected that health impacts such as heat stroke, heat stress and vector-borne diseases will also rise. Rising seas threaten to submerge significant portions of our islands. In sum, climate change will affect every aspect of life on our islands.
What is causing our Earth to warm is human action. Our own decisions and practices, not the workings of nature, are leading to these extensive impacts. The ‘fossil fuel’ industry is our biggest problem. It digs coal and pumps oil and natural gas out of the ground and the seabed. It encourages us to burn those fuels in cars and aeroplanes and homes. The greenhouse gases that issue from burning these fossil fuels warm the planet.
Our Opportunity
There is much that we can do to limit climate risks. Some leaders in our region and around the world are doing it. Nations are developing and implementing plans to shift completely to renewable energy and move away from fossil fuels. Cities are putting measures in place to protect against climate impacts, such as planting mangroves and restoring coral reefs to protect against sea level rise and storm surges. Individuals are recycling products that they already own instead of getting new ones, to reduce their carbon footprints. They are pushing back against environmentally destructive practices. Here at home, we can say no to drilling for oil on our seabed. We can advocate for more attention to be paid to how we will prepare for the impacts of climate change. We can advocate for shifting to renewable energy. We can stress the importance of considering climate change impacts in all of our development decisions. Our future lies in our own hands, not in those of someone else. Like the mangroves around us that take salt water and make it fresh, we can reshape our reality.
Mangroves say “yes we can.” So should we.
WHY WE SHOULD
Valuing Our Story
If we mean to reshape our reality, what are we trying to protect? One of our many treasures is our story. Our story tells us who came to our islands, where we came from, and why. It tells us how we have viewed each other and treated each other. It speaks of ideals that we prized, situations we faced, and how we answered those situations. It maps our lifeways, tracing how, in Andros, with night growing deep and goats and chickens and dogs growing still, men and women came together by lamplight and sang Anglican church hymns in African musical forms and wept over loved ones dying. It traces how, in Long Island, sitting at night around mosquito smoke pots, men played tambourines and accordions and women sang old Irish folk songs to pass the time. Our story is a precious inheritance. If data is the new gold, as some analysts have commented, historical data has long been platinum. We need to do whatever is necessary in order to safeguard it.
Story Brings Strength
Story has economic value. That is especially true for an economy like our own which rests on welcoming tourists to our communities. Story has cultural value. For a people who believe in respecting our elders, story celebrates their legacies. Story has personal value. In a world of absence and silence, story lends orientation, stability, confidence, and sense of purpose.
Story has political value. In a world of enduring divides, story lends power to those who are powerless. Story, in fact, is a foundation of strength. Peoples that have understood this principle are peoples that have thrived. If climate change should overwhelm us and we leave our story behind, we will not endure as a people. On the other hand, if we carry our story with us, whether we live together or live apart will not matter. We remain one community of conversation, sharing in remembering, praying, and rising.
Our Story At Risk
Some of our story has already been captured in history books. However, much of it still sits in family photograph albums and scrapbooks and in office filing cabinets, waiting to be used to enrich our understanding of our past. Much of it sits as well in the minds of our people, in their memories of practices and situations and events and landscapes. Rising sea levels, sudden tornadoes, and hurricanes with their savage winds and their catastrophic sea surges all mean that photographs and documents and artifacts may drown or be blown away. They mean that we may have to disperse and build new homes in far-flung places. Then reconstructing our story grows far harder and more costly than it already is. The time to capture all we can of our story is now, while we are here together.
Safeguarding Our Story
Mobilizing through our University and its local and international collaborators, we can put teams of researchers in all our islands. Their task will be to build textual, oral, visual, and audiovisual archives that are comprehensive and definitive. Yes such an undertaking will take time. That means that we need to start now. Yes it will take resources. That means that we need to look for them. Yes there is a foundation from which to work. Our historians and archaeologists have written articles and books, and our Department of Archives, our Antiquities, Monuments and Museums Corporation, our Bahamas Historical Society, and other institutions have long been engaged in preservation work. Yes we continue to build on that foundation. University of The Bahamas’ Ramble Bahamas digital platform, which tells of places of historical value and marks their geographical locations, is one example of such work, as is a documentary arts survey of our islands that is being undertaken by Ms. Tamika Galanis. But these forward steps are few and piecemeal when compared with the scope of the challenge. They need coordination. They need radical expansion. They need radical acceleration. They need a national effort.
Looking Ahead
Beyond our story, what is it that we cherish and want to protect? Is it our limestone caverns and our forests? Is it our lakes and blue holes? Is it our social order? Is it our spiritual life?
Is it our ability to choose our future? Is it all of these and more? Several of our University colleagues have answered the call to share their views on things of value to our community and what we can do to protect them. Over the coming months, listen for their voices. Niambi Hall Campbell-Dean awakens us to the value of our uniquely Bahamian vision of the world and the opportunity that having a land of our own gives us to explore and celebrate that vision. Looking at our built environment as a valued patrimony, Valaria Pintard-Flax suggests what it is that we might build going forward and how, where, and why, and also invites us to think afresh about how we design our communities. Marcella Elliott-Ferguson and Antona Curry point to our urban infrastructure as being valuable and outline how we might go about making decisions in ways that are informed, rational, and systematic as climate change places this infrastructure at risk. Surveying our economy as a whole, Olivia Saunders urges us to jettison values, assumptions, and priorities already embedded in the structure of our economy that harm us even in the best of times and leave us perilously vulnerable in an era of climate change. All these voices are satisfied that yes, like mangroves, we can answer the climate change challenge that faces us. All of them are satisfied that yes, for the sake of the sacrifices of our ancestors and for the sake of the future of our children, answering the challenge is worthy of our commitment.