Clayton R. Norman in the Tico Times (Costa Rica): For climate scientists, Central America’s future will bring higher temperatures, dangerous changes in rainfall patterns, stronger and more frequent hurricanes, and stress on hydrologic resources.“This is a critical moment in the history of humanity,” said Julie Lennox, of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, speaking at a recent seminar on corporate social responsibility and climate change organized by the British Embassy in San José.
“The benefits of taking quick, firm action [to prepare for the effects of climate change] right now will outweigh the long-term costs involved, but will we be wise enough to manage risk and instability?” Lennox asked.
Lennox presented a report, “The Economics of Climate Change in Central America,” generated by the finance and environment ministries of Central American countries and nongovernmental organizations. The report, as Lennox explained it, sought to quantify the economic costs of climate change in Central America through the year 2100.
The projections in the report are startling, but can be boiled down to key points: Temperatures in Central America will rise, rainfall patterns will change in problematic ways – inundating some areas while others wither and dry – and major economic disruptions will happen, especially toward the end of the century....
Flooding in Guatemala from Tropical Storm Agatha in 2010, photo by the US Embassy
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