Friday, April 13, 2012

In Antigua, climate change amplifies human destruction

Desmond Brown in IPS: ...Eli Fuller, a marine environmentalist who runs an eco-tour business here [in St. John's, Antigua], has been observing the erosion of several beaches as he traverses the island. He insists the situation is a result of climate change.

But what is more troubling, Fuller said, is that many people here, including the government, are blaming climate change for many problems more clearly caused by development and bad environmental and fisheries management.

One such example is beach erosion. "It's very easy to blame terrible erosion on Dickenson Bay on climate change, but the reality is there are many other factors caused by people here in Antigua that have caused the erosion," he said.

"If you take a beach that has had poor developmental management and then throw in a barrier reef that has had bad fisheries management, then you can see climate change effects also in a more noticeable way. It's all quite complex and in a way, easy to be simplified by blaming all the problems on climate change."

...A country report on Antigua and Barbuda titled "Planning for Adaptation to Climate Change" pointed out that climate change affects beaches primarily through two processes: sea level rise and increased frequency of high impact weather events, such as hurricanes and tropical storms....

A natural stone bridge in Antigua, shot by Z_dead, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

No comments: