Red Cross says climate change affecting Jane Usher Boulevard
Lily Bowman
The Jane Usher Boulevard area is usually in the headlines for negative reasons, but tonight there is some positive news coming out of that community. The Belize Red Cross has been working with residents of Jane Usher Boulevard to build awareness on the threats posed by climate change, particularly since it is a flood prone area. The program started in October with the distribution of posters on climate change in the schools and the work continued until Tuesday, when it culminated with an open day to advocate for relevant government agencies to assist the community. Lily Bowman, the Director General of the Belize Red Cross, spoke to News Five about how climate change can affect neighborhoods like Jane Usher Boulevard.
Lily Bowman, Director General, Belize Red Cross
“The project was focused on the importance of climate change and how it affects urban communities. We wanted to do public awareness, make the general public aware of the importance of taking climate change very seriously. In very densely populated communities in urban settings, especially where they are already factors of poverty and other vulnerabilities, it is very, very important and key to keep climate change and the further impacts it could have on a community like Jane Usher Boulevard in mind and in the center of discussions all the time.”
Delahnie Bain
“So what are some of those effects?”
Lily Bowman
“For instance, the Jane Usher Boulevard Community, we found out through our assessments during the response to the effects of hurricane Richard in 2010, we found out that the houses back there, almost ninety-five percent are prone to flooding and are always flooded just from a normal day of rain. So could you imagine during the effects of climate change; increased rainfall, what would happen? We’re not talking about just the floods that they’re used to when it rains, but we’re talking also about increase vector breeding grounds, increase in soil erosion, in destruction probably of the buildings’ foundation; there’s a lot. We’re talking also about effects of climate change during extreme heat. There will be an increase in demand for more electric cooling; can they even afford more electric cooling? That will mean higher demands on the government to provide that electricity supply and then of course, water supply.”
What the “F” Red Cross know about climate Change? I do not understand?
Climate change has to do with the changes taking place in the athmospher in terms of the rising of heat. The iceburgs are melting, becasue of the rise in the heat level, so what is this person talking about. I agree with Joe, what is she saying. Belize always has had foolding in certain areas, what is she taling about. She is convinced that she has some great information she is sharing. She needs to check her facts and get a writer to put her report together for her so that it makes sense.
Noah had to handle climate change. The Sahara Desert was once covered with water. We’ve had an Ice Age in the not-so-distant past. So, yes, the climate does change. But I’m doubtful that man’s activities are responsible for much of it. The Earth will alternate between hot and cold until the end of time. We just need to adapt to changes caused by forces greater than Man.
The sky is NOT falling!
Climate change activists need to be viewed with some caution.
I remember in the 1960’s the first wave of the “environmental” movement began with a book called “Silent Spring,” in which Rachel Carson wrote about birth defects in frogs that lived in a stream where pesticides were found. Next thing you knew, the cause of “protecting the environment” got many important insect poisons outlawed, like DDT.
So what has happened? Without pesticides to control them, mosquitoes run rampant around most of the world, malaria soars, and studies say that over A MILLION PEOPLE A YEAR die because the most effective pesticides are outlawed. So weigh things carefully — birth defects in frogs, or millions of dead humans?
The same applies to climate change extremists.