What You Need to Know About Climate Change
The National Climate Change Office was on the south side of the city today for the soft launch of a climate change awareness campaign. Belize participated in the Japan-Caribbean Climate Change Partnership which led to a study to find out the community’s knowledge, attitudes and practices around climate change. The data gathered showed that residents were generally unaware of the impact of the natural phenomenon. Partnering with the United National Development Programme and the Belize City Council, the Climate Change Office kicked off a campaign in the Yabra Community. News Five spoke with National Coordinator, Ann Gordon.
Ann Gordon
Ann Gordon, National Coordinator for Climate Change, National Climate Change Office
“What we shared was that the impacts that we are already seeing is that it is becoming warmer. The temperature for Belize has risen about one degree Celsius; the night time, temperatures even getting warmer than the day time temperatures. So, we believe that we need to raise awareness on the impacts of climate change , their vulnerabilities to climate change, as well as their risk to climate change and how or what actions they can do to address those risks and vulnerabilities. And so what we want to do is to empower the community to take action. We also want them to bring climate change into their decision making and what better way to do it is to start a campaign and bring information to them.”
Andrea Polanco
“When you look at families; students – young people – what would you say are some of the little things that they can do right in their own communities; their homes to combat some of the effects that we are seeing?”
Ann Gordon
“Okay. We can combat climate change in two aspects; mitigation where you reduce your greenhouse gas emission so that you could protect the climate as well as adapting to the changes that you’re seeing. And so one of the things they can do is – you know – we burn electricity and that comes from fossil fuel. So, what we can do is to conserve; just switch off the lights when you are not using it; turn off your equipment when you are not using it. Even with your water – we pollute our water ways; our rivers. One of the things we can do is to stop throw garbage in our oceans or our rivers. So, some of the things that we are practicing is causing more damage to the environment but once we can address some of those concerns, I think we can build a more resilient community.”
