Tony Deyal
FIRST OF all, our solidarity, sympathy and support for the people of Grenada, Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines (Northern St. Vincent and Bequia in particular), and the Cayman Islands. We are with you in spirit and while we cannot know exactly the trauma you experienced, we know enough to empathise. I flew over Grenada exactly four years after 9/11, and the sight was as depressing and disheartening. We must do what we can to help and to ensure that we are prepared for the inevitability of the next one and the one after that.
Even as we try to rebound, repair, restore and recuperate, we must have an eye to the future. Whatever we do now must be consistent with the reality that extreme events more and more intense hurricanes, sea-level rise, droughts, floods, landslides will become the norm. Since we can do little to change them, we must adapt. The roofs we fix, the houses we build, the industries, must all be consistent with the new and frightening realities of climate change.
This is where we in Mainstreaming Adaptation to Climate Change and the Climate Change Centre, and our focal points in each country, can help. We are the critical resource that will try to ensure that we are prepared for the future. If the same people do the same things the same way, we are doomed to more hurricane damage, more loss of lives, more crises and traumas. We stand ready to assist, if only as an advisory service. Please do not hesitate to involve us in planning. In fact, colleagues, pass the word along to your planning people that they must incorporate the reality of climate change in the planning process. If there is somebody in your country we can talk/write to, tell us.
CLIMATE CHANGE
This is one Caribbean. Security of the region and its peoples. I have attached something from the BBC that is heartening. Tony Blair is prepared to learn from experience re climate change. We must get our other leaders to follow. Again, we are here to help.
From Dr. Ken Leslie, Dr. Neville Trotz, Leslie Walling and me, we will do whatever we can to help you to help yourselves, your countries and one another to adapt and to be prepared. There are many more where Ivan came from and we must be ready.
Tony Blair has said time is running out for tackling climate change. The Prime Minister, speaking ahead of a major speech on the issue, said he had been shocked by scientists' warnings about the growth of the problem. He told BBC Radio 1: "We will start to notice within reasonably short periods of time real difficulties."
AVIATION POLLUTION
Environmental campaigners fear Mr. Blair's speech on Tuesday evening will contain no firm policies to combat global warming. But media reports say he may call for measures to control aviation pollution. The Prime Minister will set out his vision to the Prince of Wales' Business and the Environment charity on Tuesday evening in London.
On Monday, Tory leader Michael Howard accused Mr. Blair of squandering the chance to lead efforts against climate change. The Prime Minister is expected to respond by saying he wants to use Britain's presidency of the G8 next year to push the major industrialised nations towards environmentally sound policies. He will warn of forecasts that sea levels could rise by another 88cm by the end of the 21st century, threatening 100 million people around the planet. Unchecked climate change has the potential to be catastrophic in both human and economic terms.