AS WE endure the effects of tropical storm Wilma, we are forced to contemplate the possible causes for this very active hurricane season. Wilma has tied a record set in 1933 by being the 21st tropical storm of the season.
We naturally have no control over the storms that afflict our region and over their size, frequency and strength. However, we are being forced to conclude that man is contributing to these 'natural' disasters, and that some of the changes in climatic phenomena are being aided by misguided policies.
Scientists have agreed that global warming appears to be contributing to the frequency and ferocity of storms. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, for example, found that the destructive power of North Atlantic storms had doubled over the past 30 years, during which the sea surface temperature rose by only 0.5°C. Scientists say that current emission levels of carbon dioxide and other gases trap heat in the atmosphere, leading to rising global temperatures.
Governments have a chance to control this. The Kyoto Treaty requires industrialised nations to cut emissions of these 'greenhouse gases' below their 1990 levels. The agreement needs to be ratified by countries that were responsible for at least 55 per cent of the world's carbon emissions in 1990.
The treaty has been ratified by 157 countries, but there are some omissions and aberrations. The biggest polluters are the world's two fastest-growing economies - China and India - and the United States. Because of their 'developing' status, China and India are not required to take such severe measures to cut pollutants, as are demanded of industrialised countries.
The United States will not sign the treaty, says President Bush, because it would wreck the country's economy.
In light of the threats from storms that the Caribbean faces for a half of every year, we suggest that the region's governments cooperate to force a global rethink on attitudes towards the Kyoto Treaty. They should demand that levels of pollution rather than levels of development be the benchmarks for action by major polluters.
Wilma is a postscript to letters already sent to world leaders by phenomena such as Katrina and Rita. The governments of China, India and the United States must be made to see that they must be a part of what the Kyoto Treaty attempts to correct.
President Bush, for example, may then be forced to consider whether the perceived 'wreckage' of the U.S. economy would be worse than the real wreckage done by Katrina and Rita - hundreds dead, damage conservatively estimated at $45 billion, half a million jobs lost, energy prices increased and a historic city destroyed.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
