General Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-42
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Integrated Model ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
General Introduction ◽  
The Past ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
Agricultural Diversification ◽  
The Caribbean

There are myriad issues facing traditional farming in the Caribbean region. Despite various policy interventions and implementation of concepts over the past five decades for agricultural diversification in the region to increase local food production, the region is still grappling with finding an appropriate model to solve major issues. The issues are now exacerbated by the impacts of climate change, and major shifts in the approach to solving the issues have not yet proved fruitful. Against the setback of issues, controversies, and problems of farming in the Caribbean and the St. Kitts-Nevis example of a small island developing state (SID), the justification will be made for a diversified-integrated model that can account for the setbacks by optimizing farm and non-farm waste to build productivity, competitiveness, flexibility, and sustainability which are categorically the factors of successful farming.

Developing future sea level services for Small Island Developing States

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svetlana Jevrejeva ◽  
Judith Wolf ◽  
Andy Matthews ◽  
Joanne Williams ◽  
David Byrne ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Water Level ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
Caribbean Islands ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
And Sea Level

<p>The Caribbean islands encompass some of the most vulnerable coastlines in terms of sea level rise, exposure to tropical cyclones, changes in waves and storm surges. Climate in the Caribbean is already changing and sea level rise impacts are already being felt. Considerable local and regional variations in the rate, magnitude, and direction of sea-level change can be expected as a result of thermal expansion, tectonic movements, and changes in ocean circulation. Governments in the Caribbean recognise that climate change and sea level rise are serious threats to the sustainable development and economic growth of the Caribbean islands and urgent actions are required to increase the resilience and make decisions about how to adapt to future climate change (Caribbean Marine Climate Change Report Card 2017; IPCC 2014).</p><p>As part of the UK Commonwealth Marine Economies (CME) Programme and through collaboration with local stakeholders in St Vincent, we have identified particular areas at risk from changing water level and wave conditions. The Caribbean Sea, particularly the Lesser Antilles, suffers from limited observational data due to a lack of coastal monitoring, making numerical models even more important to fill this gap. The current projects brings together improved access to tide gauge observations, as well as global, regional and local water level and wave modelling to provide useful tools for coastal planners.</p><p>We present our initial design of a coastal data hub with sea level information for stakeholder access in St. Vincent and Grenadines, Grenada and St Lucia, with potential development of the hub for the Caribbean region. The work presented here is a contribution to the wide range of ongoing activities under the Commonwealth Marine Economies (CME) Programme in the Caribbean, falling within the work package “Development of a coastal data hub for stakeholder access in the Caribbean region”, under the NOC led projects “Climate Change Impact Assessment: Ocean Modelling and Monitoring for the Caribbean CME states”.</p>

scholarly journals Building resilience to mosquito-borne diseases in the Caribbean

PLoS Biology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. e3000791
Author(s):  
Rachel Lowe ◽  
Sadie J. Ryan ◽  
Roché Mahon ◽  
Cedric J. Van Meerbeeck ◽  
Adrian R. Trotman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Biological Research ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
Climate Services ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Health And Well Being

Small island developing states in the Caribbean are among the most vulnerable countries on the planet to climate variability and climate change. In the last 3 decades, the Caribbean region has undergone frequent and intense heat waves, storms, floods, and droughts. This has had a detrimental impact on population health and well-being, including an increase in infectious disease outbreaks. Recent advances in climate science have enhanced our ability to anticipate hydrometeorological hazards and associated public health challenges. Here, we discuss progress towards bridging the gap between climate science and public health decision-making in the Caribbean to build health system resilience to extreme climatic events. We focus on the development of climate services to help manage mosquito-transmitted disease epidemics. There are numerous areas of ongoing biological research aimed at better understanding the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on the transmission of mosquito-borne diseases. Here, we emphasise additional factors that affect our ability to operationalise this biological understanding. We highlight a lack of financial resources, technical expertise, data sharing, and formalised partnerships between climate and health communities as major limiting factors to developing sustainable climate services for health. Recommendations include investing in integrated climate, health and mosquito surveillance systems, building regional and local human resource capacities, and designing national and regional cross-sectoral policies and national action plans. This will contribute towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and maximising regional development partnerships and co-benefits for improved health and well-being in the Caribbean.

Ticks and tick-borne pathogens in the Caribbean region in the context of climate change.

2021 ◽  
pp. 449-454
Author(s):  
Dasiel Obregón Alvarez ◽  
Roxanne Albertha Charles ◽  
Agustín Estrada-Peña
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Expert Opinion ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
The Caribbean

Abstract This expert opinion refers to the most important ticks and tick-borne pathogens in the Caribbean and how global warming and climate change may influence their distribution in the next decades.

scholarly journals Co-developing climate services for public health: stakeholder needs and perceptions for the prevention and control ofAedes-transmitted diseases in the Caribbean

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna M. Stewart-Ibarra ◽  
Moory Romero ◽  
Avery Q. J. Hinds ◽  
Rachel Lowe ◽  
Roché Mahon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Early Warning Systems ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
Climate Services ◽  
Changing Climate ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Climate And Health ◽  
The Caribbean

AbstractBackgroundSmall island developing states (SIDS) in the Caribbean region are challenged with managing the health outcomes of a changing climate. Health and climate sectors have partnered to co-develop climate services to improve the management of these diseases, for example, through the development of climate-driven early warning systems. The objective of this study was to identify health and climate stakeholder perceptions and needs in the Caribbean, with respect to the development of climate services for arboviruses (e.g. dengue, chikungunya, and Zika).MethodsStakeholders included public decision makers and practitioners from the climate and health sectors at the regional (Caribbean) level and from the countries of Dominica and Barbados. From April to June 2017, we conducted interviews (n=41), surveys (n=32), and national workshops with stakeholders. Survey responses were tabulated and audio recordings were transcribed and analyzed using qualitative coding to identify responses by research topic, country/region, and sector.ResultsHealth practitioners indicated that their jurisdiction is currently experiencing an increased risk of diseases transmitted byAe. aegyptidue to climate variability, and most anticipated that this risk will increase in the future. National health sectors reported financial limitations and a lack of technical expertise in geographic information systems (GIS), statistics, and modeling, which constrained their ability to implement climate services for arboviruses. National climate sectors were constrained by a lack of personnel. Stakeholders highlighted the need to strengthen partnerships with the private sector, academia, and civil society. They identified a gap in local research on climate-arbovirus linkages, which constrained the ability of the health sector to make informed decisions. Strategies to strengthen the climate-health partnership included a top-down approach by engaging senior leadership, multi-lateral collaboration agreements, national committees on climate and health, and shared spaces of dialogue. Mechanisms for mainstreaming climate services for health operations to control arboviruses included climate-health bulletins and an online GIS platform that would allow for regional data sharing and the generation of spatiotemporal epidemic forecasts.ConclusionsThese findings support the creation of interdisciplinary and intersectoral communities of practices and the co-design of climate services for the Caribbean public health sector. By fostering the effective use of climate information within health policy, research and practice, nations will have greater capacity to adapt to a changing climate.

scholarly journals DH 2018 keynote address: Digital experimentation, courageous citizenship, and Caribbean futurism

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Schuyler Esprit
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Digital Humanities ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
Sustainable Living ◽  
Plantation Slavery ◽  
Digital Environments ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Physical Spaces

Abstract The violence and trauma of climate change have arrived. The Caribbean region is the unfortunate recipient of the impacts of climate change and, much like its inheritance of plantation slavery and colonialism, it is left with the infrastructural, social, and cultural pillage of imperial and neocolonial imposition. This article considers whether and how the humanities and digital humanities, in particular, can produce the ideal intersection between planetary responsibility, community accountability, and sustainable living. In this article, I discuss Create Caribbean Research Institute’s digital humanities praxis through the example of the environmental sustainability project, Carisealand. Through the exploration and discussion of theories, tools, methodologies, and praxis of digital humanities applied to the project, I position Caribbean Afrofuturism in the context of contemporary Caribbean digital environments and the lived experience of Caribbean people in the aftermath of climate change. I apply discourses of Afrofuturism to imagine an alternate Caribbean future represented in the redesign, digital imagination, and representation of selected Caribbean communities. By offering models for rethinking, visualizing, and rebuilding physical spaces, I hope to raise questions and offer insights about the power of digital humanities for social and environmental justice in the contemporary and future Caribbean. The goal is to also offer the model as a template for developing other mapping projects that can propose an alternate future for the Global South.

Climate change effects in El Yunque National Forest, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean region

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Nicole Jennings ◽  
Jamison Douglas ◽  
Emrys Treasure ◽  
Grizelle González
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
National Forest ◽  
Climate Change Effects ◽  
The Caribbean

Protected Agriculture

2014 ◽  
pp. 196-220
Author(s):  
Janet Lawrence ◽  
Leslie Simpson ◽  
Adanna Piggott
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Adaptation Strategy ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
Successful Development ◽  
Nutrition Security ◽  
Climate Change And Variability ◽  
Agriculture Industry ◽  
Food And Nutrition ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

This chapter provides an overview of the changing environment and the increased pest pressure that are projected to occur due to climate change and variability. Protected agriculture is introduced as an adaptation strategy to address these conditions and assist with food and nutrition security targets. The scope of the technology and the benefits of producing crops using protected systems as well as the use of protected systems in SIDS, with some emphasis on the Caribbean region, are outlined. The chapter outlines: (1) the specific features of the technology that assist with reducing the impacts of climate change and (2) some possible considerations for the successful development of a sustainable protected agriculture industry under climate change and variability.

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