Hotter Days, More Intense Storms, Floods; It’s Your Fault
Hot days, dry weather and even floods – these extreme changes in the weather that are being experienced and affecting all sectors are caused by you. You heard right. An intergovernmental climate change 2021 report is sharing evidence which says that human activities are causing changes in the climate. As News Five’s Duane Moody finds out, if something is not done at all levels of society, Belize can very well lose coastal communities within the next twenty to thirty years.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Hotter days, more intense storms, longer droughts, floods and erosion – those are among the many impacts of climate change in the region over the years. And a recent release from the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change provides data to support the climate trends being experienced on the ground today.
Shanea Young
Shanea Young, Senior Climatologist, National Meteorological Services
“In Belize and the Caribbean region, the major extremes that have been affecting us and will continue to affect us are hot extremes – like you said it is getting hotter. And also heavy precipitation and flooding, drought. In the last report, there is high confidence that agricultural and ecological drought as well as meteorological and hydrological drought are increasing and will continue to increase with our current path and even future scenarios. There is expected to be a further increase in the most intense tropical cyclones, category three and above, with this new report.”
The I.P.C.C. Sixth Assessment Report addresses the most up-to-date physical understanding of the climate system and climate change. This science-based information, which is supported by data provided from the National Meteorological Service, helps to influence climate change policy in Belize. One of the primary findings is that climate change is a result of human activity.
Shanea Young
“Climate change is human caused. So that is one of the resounding findings in this particular report and it also highlighted what was previously found in past IPCC assessment reports such as the special report on one point five; it just basically reiterated what was already found and also new information has been gathered. There has been global warming; the earth and the climate system is getting warmer and currently we are one point one degrees of warming.”
Limiting global warming to one point five degrees by 2050 is part of the foundation for the Paris Agreement for which governments and policymakers signed on to back in 2016. If the world does not reduce its carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions, that goal may be surpassed.
Shanea Young
“Even with the lowest possible emission scenarios, it is possible, but achieving and attaining one point five degrees of global warming is still within reach. So if we do what is right, reduce our carbon emissions, then we don’t necessarily have to surpass one point five and even reach two or any of the higher degrees of warming based on the other scenarios of climate change.”
Even more frightening is that coastal communities have been washing away literally due to sea level rising. As it currently stands, sea level is up by twenty centimetres across the region; if mitigating efforts are not enforced, it can be by as much as three meters by 2050.
Shanea Young
“It’s already affecting Belize in particular and by 2050, on the low emission pathway scenario, it could be at zero point five meter. Globally, the sea level rise has been about twenty centimetres. But with these future projections and the different scenarios, if we reduce our carbon footprint, look at an increase in sea level rise with about between one meter and three meters. Twenty centimetres is already causing significant damage especially for small islands and other coastal communities. So imagine what it will be if we reach to even one meter or three meters and more based on the higher emission scenarios.”
Three meters – that’s almost ten feet high – and with Belize City already below sea level, this is not good news. And so our leaders have joined forces with other Small Island Developing States to hold larger countries accountable for their GHG emissions and reduce the impacts of global warming.
Shanea Young
“It all depends on our carbon footprint and what we do in the near term which is between the years 2021 to 2040. So what we do within the next twenty years will be critically important for us.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
