tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/university-of-the-west-indies-mona-campus-2817/articlesThe University of the West Indies, Mona Campus2023-11-28T17:03:43Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2179992023-11-28T17:03:43Z2023-11-28T17:03:43ZHow a small Caribbean island is trying to become hurricane-proof<p>When Hurricane Maria struck the eastern Caribbean island of Dominica in 2017, it caused the kind of devastation which is unthinkable to larger countries. The Category 5 hurricane damaged <a href="https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/IB25092017.pdf">98% of building roofs</a> and caused US$1.2 billion (£950 million) in damage. Dominica effectively <a href="https://www.gfdrr.org/en/dominica-hurricane-maria-post-disaster-assessment-and-support-recovery-planning">lost 226% of its GDP</a> overnight.</p>
<p>Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events in the Caribbean and for small islands such as Dominica (not to be confused with the much larger Dominican Republic) it is an existential threat. </p>
<p>Unlike larger islands like Cuba or Jamaica, a single storm hitting Dominica can damage the entire country – with its mountainous terrain and steep slopes everywhere, most of the country is prone to either landslides or flooding. The topography and small size of the island imposes hard limits on its ability to adapt. </p>
<p>That’s why Dominica ranked 11th most at risk out of 150 countries in the <a href="https://www.germanwatch.org/en/19777">2021 Global Climate Risk Index</a>, based on an analysis of extreme weather between 2000 and 2019.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561560/original/file-20231124-24-q59k3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Street with damaged buildings and rubble" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561560/original/file-20231124-24-q59k3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561560/original/file-20231124-24-q59k3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561560/original/file-20231124-24-q59k3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561560/original/file-20231124-24-q59k3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561560/original/file-20231124-24-q59k3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561560/original/file-20231124-24-q59k3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561560/original/file-20231124-24-q59k3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Maria destroyed much of Dominica’s rainforests, left most of its residents without water, and damaged almost every building on the island.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hurricane-maria-on-island-dominica-force-723858046">Jean-Francois Manuel / shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Reeling from Hurricane Maria, the island’s prime minister Roosevelt Skerrit set the bold ambition of <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2023/09/26/dominica-s-journey-to-become-the-world-s-first-climate-resilient-country#:%7E:text=On%20September%2023%2C%202017%2C%20when,world's%20first%20climate%20resilient%20nation.">becoming the first climate-resilient nation</a>. In Dominica’s case, this means being able to handle more intense hurricanes and more frequent flooding. </p>
<p>There was no “climate blueprint” to pick up and follow – it had to be created from scratch. Dominica developed a clear set of targets and a roadmap, combining everything from building design to nature-based power sources and climate resilient crop systems.</p>
<p>I am a climate resilience researcher with particular expertise in small island developing states. Over the years I have worked with <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-a-chain-of-tiny-pacific-islands-wants-an-international-court-opinion-on-responsibility-for-the-climate-crisis-193595">Pacific islands threatened by rising seas</a> and Caribbean countries devastated by hurricanes. </p>
<p>In 2019, I was brought in to serve as an adviser to Dominica’s newly established <a href="https://www.creadominica.org/">climate resilience agency</a>. I helped draft the country’s <a href="https://dominica.gov.dm/images/documents/CRRP-Final-042020.pdf">climate resilience plan</a> and in early 2023 went back to film a documentary <a href="https://climate-blueprint.info/">Climate Blueprint: Dominica</a>. </p>
<p>In the film, some of the architects of the country’s climate resilience strategy explain how Dominica is building back better and stronger in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. They reveal four critical principles.</p>
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<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/852524346" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<h2>Buy-in from everyone</h2>
<p>Government must work across silos and no single agency or department can be responsible for building resilience. It is about agriculture, housing, roads and critically – because Dominica has more than 300 rivers – bridges. </p>
<p>It’s thinking about how and where infrastructure is built in relation to slopes, rivers and the sea. It’s also about education and buy in, to ensure island residents can effectively play their part.</p>
<p>The country has 20 targets for resilience by 2030, including an aim for all communities to be self-sufficient for 14 days following a disaster. The aim is for 90% of all housing to be built or retrofitted to comply with resilient building codes.</p>
<h2>Natural resources are key</h2>
<p>About two thirds of Dominica is covered in natural vegetation and forest. These plants, and the coral reefs surrounding the island, provide a critical buffer against winds and waves and so need to be protected. </p>
<p>This is part of the resilience plan, which increases protected forest areas and maintains healthy coral reefs around the island through monitoring, restoration, sustainable fishing and by reducing runoff of pesticides from agriculture into the sea.</p>
<p>Dominica’s natural assets can also fuel its growth – literally. Dominica aims to become carbon neutral through 100% domestic renewable energy production, which includes investment in a geothermal plant that will produce enough energy to export to neighbouring Guadeloupe and Martinique. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561554/original/file-20231124-26-6d4mm0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Steamy lake with forest in background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561554/original/file-20231124-26-6d4mm0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561554/original/file-20231124-26-6d4mm0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561554/original/file-20231124-26-6d4mm0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561554/original/file-20231124-26-6d4mm0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561554/original/file-20231124-26-6d4mm0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561554/original/file-20231124-26-6d4mm0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561554/original/file-20231124-26-6d4mm0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Dominica is a volcanic hotspot and has the world’s second largest hot spring.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/titaniumthedog/2497495311/in/photolist-6AdiJY-qKA2ec-dG2dRk-dG2cht-MFqFY-METNo-4NGjkZ-qb64Zs-4NLyrf-qdnnb6-pgo5g1-7H1LnF-h6Bxt-7H1v3D-7Gfgdp-7Gffiz-7GfeeZ-7Gj92o-4bVbdr-6AdjPS-7Gjg49-7GjcWu-7Gje3N-7GfoXa-7GfaQK-FwQ28j-dHVhgn-dJ1JAW-dHVd38-dJ1ENU-dHVh4Z-dHVff2-tvXdqc-h6DCo-7GjiWA-7GjmXL-7GfbYr-7Gfn1Z-7GjoZ7-7Gjf3m-4bVbdn-7GfmdD-dHVegg-dJ1FHE-dHVdYK-dHVfCT-4bVbdv-dJ1Hhu-Ygycbw-Xjp6FP">Titanium Hedgehog / flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<h2>Learn from history and indigenous practices</h2>
<p>The plantation economy imposed on Dominica under British rule – which focused on one crop after another (sugar, cocoa, limes, then bananas) – was not well suited to the country’s difficult <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13753-019-0215-z">terrain and frequency of economic and environmental shocks</a>. Each crop failed, wiped out by hurricanes, disease and global food price rises. </p>
<p>Yet Dominica also has the Caribbean’s largest remaining indigenous community, and the Kalinago people have farming practices that combine crop diversification with planting methods that help stabilise slopes. </p>
<p>Applying <a href="https://unfoundation.org/blog/post/the-caribbeans-last-indigenous-community-is-living-proof-that-sustainability-is-survival/">lessons from history and indigenous practices</a> is key to building resilience in Dominica and a priority for environment minister Cozier Frederick, himself of Kalinago descent.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561556/original/file-20231124-27-ql43t7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Girl in pink dress with hair band" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561556/original/file-20231124-27-ql43t7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561556/original/file-20231124-27-ql43t7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561556/original/file-20231124-27-ql43t7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561556/original/file-20231124-27-ql43t7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561556/original/file-20231124-27-ql43t7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561556/original/file-20231124-27-ql43t7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561556/original/file-20231124-27-ql43t7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Kalinago people make up about 3,000 of Dominica’s 74,000 population.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/29574156@N04/14252390145/">Bart / flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
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<h2>A collective voice with other islands</h2>
<p>Dominica’s climate blueprint should be seen as an opportunity for donors and development partners to support a vision that already exists. But there is geopolitics at play here as well.</p>
<p>Rich nations have yet to fulfil the goal of US$100 billion in climate finance for poorer nations. Analysis colleagues and I carried out for the <a href="https://odi.org/en/publications/a-fair-share-of-resilience-finance/">think tank ODI</a> found that small island developing nations received four times less finance for climate resilience than least developed countries, as a percentage of GDP. Nations like Dominica have found it a huge challenge to navigate bureaucracies to access this vital finance.</p>
<p>That’s why Caribbean heads of state are increasingly finding their voice on the <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/11/11/cop27-un-climate-barbados-mottley-climate-finance-imf/">wider global financial system</a>, with Barbados prime minister Mia Mottley spearheading the Bridgetown Initiative, a set of financial reforms which would benefit highly indebted and climate-vulnerable Caribbean states and other developing countries.</p>
<p>Barbados’s leadership on finance and Dominica’s resilience story together show how small islands can have an outsized impact by taking leadership on the climate crisis. </p>
<p>As Skerrit, the Dominica prime minister, said in a <a href="https://resilientcaribbean.caricom.org/dominica-prime-minister-roosevelt-skerrit-addresses-the-un-general-assembly/">2017 address to the UN</a>: “We as a country and as a region did not start this war against nature. We did not provoke it. The war has come to us. […] We are in shock, but we will rise, because Dominican people are strong. Because Caribbean people are resilient.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217999/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>ODI receives funding from the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and from UKRI.</span></em></p>After Dominica was devastated by Hurricane Maria, it wanted a climate-resilient future.Emily Wilkinson, Director, Resilient and Sustainable Islands Initiative at the ODI, and Co-director, Caribbean Resilience and Recovery Knowledge Network, University of the West Indies, Mona CampusLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1935952022-11-04T10:56:35Z2022-11-04T10:56:35ZWhy a chain of tiny Pacific islands wants an international court opinion on responsibility for the climate crisis<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493016/original/file-20221102-14-xmat9f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mark and Anna Photography / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Small island states are losing their patience with big polluting nations as they suffer the devastating impacts of climate change. Without significant movement at the forthcoming COP27 climate talks in Egypt, a pivotal vote at the next UN general assembly meeting, brought by the tiny Pacific islands of Vanuatu, could open the floodgates to international climate litigation.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.vanuatuicj.com/statement-icj-core-group">core group of 16 states</a> led by Vanuatu, will table a draft resolution at the general assembly in December requesting that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) gives an “<a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/en/advisory-jurisdiction">advisory opinion</a>” to clarify the rights and obligations of states under international law in relation to the adverse effects of climate change. </p>
<p>Vanuatu needs only a simple majority of members present and voting (50% plus one), and support is growing. If successful, the baton passes to the ICJ to bring legal clarity to this complex issue.</p>
<p>The advisory opinion would be non-binding. Nonetheless, such an opinion draws enormous moral power and legal authority. Although the vote takes place after COP27, Vanuatu’s initiative could have an influence on negotiations in Egypt.</p>
<h2>Responsibility and compensation for loss and damage</h2>
<p>Low-income island states like Vanuatu have contributed the least to climate change, but as a group are <a href="https://cdn.odi.org/media/documents/SIDS_sustained_development_WP_jr.pdf">the most directly affected by it</a>. For low-lying atolls in particular, sea-level rise poses an existential threat – some Pacific nations will be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/dec/04/in-30-years-maybe-kiribati-will-disappear-climate-change">entirely underwater</a> by the end of the century. So it’s not surprising to see states seeking clarity from the ICJ. Vanuatu has taken the lead in going to international courts, but others could follow suit.</p>
<p>As far back as 1991, the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) first called for a mechanism to compensate countries affected by sea level rise. These days, there are calls for “<a href="https://theconversation.com/cop26-deal-how-rich-countries-failed-to-meet-their-obligations-to-the-rest-of-the-world-171804">loss and damage</a>” payments to address impacts associated with climate change that cannot be adapted to. </p>
<p>But repeated attempts to raise the profile of loss and damage within the negotiations have been met with hostility from rich countries. At COP26 in Glasgow last year, AOSIS, supported by a coalition of 134 developing countries and China, called for a new facility to finance loss and damage, but this was firmly <a href="https://study.soas.ac.uk/loss-damage-climate-change/">blocked by the US and EU</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493017/original/file-20221102-49447-tdv3og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map of Pacific islands" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493017/original/file-20221102-49447-tdv3og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493017/original/file-20221102-49447-tdv3og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493017/original/file-20221102-49447-tdv3og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493017/original/file-20221102-49447-tdv3og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493017/original/file-20221102-49447-tdv3og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493017/original/file-20221102-49447-tdv3og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493017/original/file-20221102-49447-tdv3og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Vanuatu is one of many small island states in the Pacific threatened by rising seas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Hermes Furian / shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>The costs of responding to climate disasters in developing countries <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/06/1094762">could be in the trillions of dollars</a> by 2050, and rich countries will want to avoid any legally binding commitment to meet these costs with public resources. But an ICJ advisory opinion could help unstick negotiations, as the threat of expansive litigation in the future may encourage the rich countries to capitulate.</p>
<h2>Diverging interests</h2>
<p>All of this plays into the increasingly contentious geopolitics between developing island states and larger, richer nations. A simple divide between rich and poor, north and south, or in the lingo of climate policy <a href="https://unfccc.int/parties-observers">“Annex I” and “non-Annex I”</a> countries does not tell the whole story.</p>
<p>For instance <a href="https://www.economicsobservatory.com/the-brics-countries-where-next-and-what-impact-on-the-global-economy">many middle income “emerging” countries</a> are rapidly industrialising. Their fast-growing emissions are causing their <a href="https://research.fit.edu/media/site-specific/researchfitedu/coast-climate-adaptation-library/latin-america-and-caribbean/regional---caribbean/Bishop--Payne.--2012.--CC--the-Future-of-Caribbean-Development..pdf">interests to diverge</a> from those of small island states, and it is unclear whether the large group of developing countries will remain united in loss and damage negotiations.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493012/original/file-20221102-49280-m0jwjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Aerial view of Mexico City" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493012/original/file-20221102-49280-m0jwjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493012/original/file-20221102-49280-m0jwjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493012/original/file-20221102-49280-m0jwjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493012/original/file-20221102-49280-m0jwjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493012/original/file-20221102-49280-m0jwjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493012/original/file-20221102-49280-m0jwjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493012/original/file-20221102-49280-m0jwjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Middle-income countries are not necessarily on the same side as low-income islands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">WitR / shutterstock</span></span>
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<h2>Recognising the power of small states</h2>
<p>Vanuatu’s initiative acknowledges the failures of the climate change negotiations but exemplifies the unique ways that small island developing states can exercise power.</p>
<p>First, the recognition <a href="https://climatechangenews.com/2022/09/23/vanuatu-calls-fossil-fuel-non-proliferation-treaty-un-general-assembly/">by the country’s president</a> that the ICJ is “the only principal organ of the UN system that has not yet been given an opportunity to help address the climate crisis” is extremely insightful. This seemingly banal observation about a process with no legal force, actually carries huge political significance because, if given the opportunity, the ICJ could make a judgement that powerful polluting countries would rather not have to hear.</p>
<p>Second, Vanuatu’s initiative is triggered by the low level of ambition under current <a href="https://unfccc.int/ndc-information/nationally-determined-contributions-ndcs">nationally determined contributions</a> (the amount each country pledges to cut its emissions by). International law requires states to prevent harm to the environment and protect human rights. At best, these obligations are not being met; at worst, they are actively being undermined by the lack of transformative climate action being demanded by vulnerable states.</p>
<p>Third, this initiative is being spearheaded by a country of just 300,000 people across 83 islands and atolls, many of which are literally going under water. This is a remarkable example of the kind of leverage that can be exercised by small and vulnerable states. In the absence of conventional sources of power (size and military might) island states have been able to build multilateral coalitions and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9256.2010.01377.x">leverage institutional forms of influence</a> (such as their UN membership, international law, and moral persuasion) to redress the imbalance.</p>
<p>Powerful nations should stand up and take notice. Vanuatu and its partners are pursuing a ground-breaking diplomatic strategy and others will likely follow. </p>
<p>But regardless of the ICJ initiative outcome, any acknowledged responsibility for loss and damage caused by climate change will only have meaningful effects when countries redress them. For the sake of the smallest, most vulnerable nations on earth, it’s high time that they did.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193595/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Thanks to Vanuatu, a vote at the next UN General Assembly could open the floodgates to international climate litigation.Emily Wilkinson, Co-director, Caribbean Resilience and Recovery Knowledge Network, University of the West Indies, Mona CampusMatt Bishop, Senior Lecturer in International Politics, University of SheffieldNadia Sánchez Castillo-Winckels, Visiting Research Fellow, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1054782019-03-15T10:42:43Z2019-03-15T10:42:43ZJamaica leads in Richard Branson-backed plan for a Caribbean climate revolution<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263750/original/file-20190313-123554-xyvvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Turbines in Manchester Parish, Jamaica, the English-speaking Caribbean's first wind farm.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/alternative-energy-electric-power-production-saving-1209753904">Debbie Ann Powell</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After hurricanes Irma and Maria <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/7/3/17530814/puerto-rico-power-blackout-over-hurricane-maria">tore through the Caribbean</a> in 2017, devastating <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/dominica/dominica-impact-hurricane-maria-disaster-profile-january-2018">dozens of islands</a> – including billionaire Richard Branson’s private isle, Necker Island – Branson called for a “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/09/11/richard-branson-decimated-caribbean-islands-need-a-marshall-plan-after-irma/">Caribbean Marshall Plan</a>.” </p>
<p>He wanted world powers and global financial institutions to unite to protect the Caribbean against the effects of climate change.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263751/original/file-20190313-123545-1aml1kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263751/original/file-20190313-123545-1aml1kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263751/original/file-20190313-123545-1aml1kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263751/original/file-20190313-123545-1aml1kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263751/original/file-20190313-123545-1aml1kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263751/original/file-20190313-123545-1aml1kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263751/original/file-20190313-123545-1aml1kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263751/original/file-20190313-123545-1aml1kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Branson at a Climate-Smart Accelerator event.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.caribbeanaccelerator.org/watch-the-launch">Adrian Creary/Studiocraft</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That hasn’t happened. So Branson and his government partners from <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/08/09/caribbean-aims-become-world-first-climate-smart-zone">27 Caribbean countries</a> hope that his celebrity, connections and billions will prod local politicians and the financial community to act.</p>
<p>In August 2018, at a <a href="https://cleantechnica.com/2018/08/14/caribbean-nations-partner-with-global-superstars-corporate-giants-for-1-billion-climate-accelerator/">star-studded event</a> at the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica, Branson helped to launch the <a href="https://www.virgin.com/virgin-unite/launching-caribbean-climate-smart-accelerator">Caribbean Climate-Smart Accelerator</a>, a US$1 billion effort to kickstart a green energy revolution in the region.</p>
<p>Its aims include convincing global financial institutions to fund ambitious climate mitigation efforts in the Caribbean, upgrading critical infrastructure across <a href="https://grist.org/article/caribbean-leaders-beg-trump-to-act-on-climate-change/">this vulnerable region</a>. </p>
<p>Well before Branson’s arrival, however, some Caribbean countries were already working to break their dependence on fossil fuels.</p>
<h2>Jamaica’s modern energy grid</h2>
<p>Even prior to the debilitating 2017 hurricane season, polling showed that a strong majority of people in the Caribbean see climate change as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/caribbean-residents-see-climate-change-as-a-severe-threat-but-most-in-us-dont-heres-why-91049">very serious threat</a>.</p>
<p>The region – where we study <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Masao_Ashtine">renewable energy</a> and <a href="https://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/fst/cmp/staff/physics/thomas-rogers.aspx">climate change</a> – is home to <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/conferences/bpoa1994">16 of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries</a>. </p>
<p>That’s because the stronger and more frequent storms, extreme droughts and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH1SwOLFH_w">coastal flooding</a> that result from <a href="https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/ocean-warming">rising global temperatures</a> hit <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics/sids/list">rural island nations</a> hard. </p>
<p>Before Branson took up the cause, several Caribbean nations were <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-may-scuttle-caribbeans-post-hurricane-plans-for-a-renewable-energy-boom-94235">upgrading their electric grids</a> to improve energy independence and better prepare islands for the impacts of storms that knock out power. </p>
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<p><a href="http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/idb-commends-jamaica-on-climate-change-activities_155966?profile=1373">Jamaica</a> opened the <a href="http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/wigton-ipo-gives-energy-sector-new-wind_131527?profile=1373">largest wind farm</a> in the English-speaking Caribbean in 2004. The Wigton Wind Farm now helps power over 55,000 surrounding homes, households that would formerly have used some 60,000 barrels of oil annually.</p>
<p>As part of its national goal to generate 50 percent of all its power using renewable sources, Jamaica now hopes to build <a href="http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/business/20171015/pcj-exploring-offshore-wind-farm">offshore wind farms</a>. </p>
<p>It has also enhanced the stability of its grid with a hybrid energy storage system that uses a <a href="https://www.pv-magazine.com/2018/03/05/construction-begins-on-hybrid-storage-facility-in-jamaica/">flywheel and a battery</a> to store solar and wind energy for use as needed, including after storms.</p>
<h2>From 0 to 100</h2>
<p>Dominica is another Caribbean pioneer in climate mitigation. </p>
<p>This tiny island already generates <a href="https://www.cepal.org/en/news/dominica-caricom-forerunner-renewable-energy-use-latest-eclac-report-reveals">28 percent of its electricity from wind, hydropower and other renewable sources</a>. In contrast, 0.3 percent of electricity in Trinidad and Tobago, the Caribbean’s main oil exporter, is renewable.</p>
<p>In an effort to diversify its energy sources away from diesel, Dominica’s government has secured <a href="https://www.climateinvestmentfunds.org/country/dominica">$30 million from the international Climate Investment Fund</a> and <a href="https://wicnews.com/caribbean/uk-commits-funding-climate-resilient-dominica-185410254/">$90 million from the United Kingdom</a> to invest in <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190125005378/en/Dominica-Provide-Entire-Population-Clean-Geothermal-Energy">geothermal energy</a>.</p>
<p>The country is on track to reach 100 percent renewable energy by the end of this year. If it succeeds, it will join <a href="https://www.clickenergy.com.au/news-blog/12-countries-leading-the-way-in-renewable-energy/">Iceland</a> in entirely forgoing dirty oil, coal and gas energy.</p>
<p>Dominica may soon have some more local competition. </p>
<p>Barbados, in the eastern Caribbean, hopes to use <a href="https://barbadostoday.bb/2018/07/17/govt-to-establish-new-renewable-energy-regime/">100 percent renewable energy sources by 2030</a> using a mix of wind, solar and biofuels derived from <a href="https://www.agro-chemistry.com/news/biogas-and-biomethane-to-solve-barbados-waste-problem/">food waste</a> and <a href="http://www.bstabarbados.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/GROWING-ENERGY-Richard-Armstrong.pdf">grass</a>, which could benefit the island’s ailing agricultural sector.</p>
<h2>Caribbean academics take the lead</h2>
<p>Such policies are what Branson and others call “<a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/08/09/caribbean-aims-become-world-first-climate-smart-zone">climate-smart</a>.” While preparing countries for extreme weather, they create jobs and boost key industries. The result is an economy custom-built for the future.</p>
<p>This is already happening, albeit slowly, in many countries worldwide. </p>
<p>In the U.S., wind and solar are already <a href="https://theconversation.com/market-forces-are-driving-a-clean-energy-revolution-in-the-us-95204">financially competitive</a> with traditional coal power in many places, particularly for new power generators. So, over time, as older facilities age out across the globe, these technologies are being replaced with modern energy systems. </p>
<p>As in other places, the process of moving more Caribbean countries off fossil fuels requires mustering the political will and financial means needed to transform a nation’s entire grid.</p>
<p>For over a century, governments have created regulatory systems and policies designed around imported fossil fuels. Replacing the archaic tax incentives and regulations that <a href="https://brea.bb/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Aidan-J-Rogers-Renewable-Energy-and-Regional-Austerity-A-Legislative-and-Regulatory-Perspective.pdf">discourage renewable energy development</a> takes time, effort and money.</p>
<p>Doing so requires a detailed analysis of a country’s relationship with energy. How are homes, businesses, tourism, farms and transportation networks powered? Which energy alternative is best suited for each use? What resources are available? </p>
<p>In our observation, local academics played a strong role in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/26/climate-change-is-real-we-must-not-offer-credibility-to-those-who-deny-it">getting policymakers in Jamaica</a>, Barbados and Dominica to undertake these kinds of assessments.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/06/climate-change-in-the-caribbean-learning-lessons-from-irma-and-maria">University of the West Indies professor Michael Taylor</a> founded the Climate Studies Group to help the region adapt to life with climate change. </p>
<p>Failure to prepare for future storms would mean “the destruction of ‘island life’ as we know it,” Taylor said.</p>
<p>It was an academic, too, who in 2014 first pushed Barbados to commit to shifting entirely over to <a href="https://brea.bb/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/100-percent-Renewables-for-Barbados-plan.pdf">clean energy</a>. </p>
<p>Professor Olav Hohmeyer of Germany’s Flensburg University – who was then teaching at the University of the West Indies – told the recently formed <a href="https://brea.bb/">Barbados Renewable Energy Association</a> that the island had <a href="http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/59153/usd18-billion-energy-proposal">the natural resources necessary to become 100 percent renewable</a> within 10 years. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263753/original/file-20190313-123554-5z51m9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263753/original/file-20190313-123554-5z51m9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263753/original/file-20190313-123554-5z51m9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263753/original/file-20190313-123554-5z51m9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263753/original/file-20190313-123554-5z51m9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263753/original/file-20190313-123554-5z51m9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263753/original/file-20190313-123554-5z51m9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Barbados wants to reduce the carbon footprint of its tourism sector by enabling cruise ships to plug in at its Bridgetown port.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/AP-I-BRB-CRI-TRV-FILE-TRAVEL-TRIP-CARIBBEAN-CRICKET/d75c06b0ce144b2aae12cdecd7990c38/1/0">AP Photo/Chris Brandis</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>The university and the energy association worked to convince Barbados’ electric utility, central bank, farmers and local policymakers that <a href="http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/67541/barbados-lead-renewable-energy">an island-wide energy transition was feasible</a> – and strategic. </p>
<p>They also engaged the International Development Bank, which in 2016 published <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=2ahUKEwjuxafOiP3gAhWLZd8KHZSVDL4QFjACegQIBxAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublications.iadb.org%2Fbitstream%2Fhandle%2F11319%2F7909%2FAchieving-Sustainable-Energy-in-Barbados-Energy-Dossier.pdf%3Fsequence%3D1&usg=AOvVaw0ZRuwaELcqvllJr0N7elXu">a detailed and generally positive assessment</a> on renewable energy development in Barbados. </p>
<h2>Barbados’ clean revolution</h2>
<p>Politicians in Barbados were slower to come around, weighing the cost of green energy against other national development priorities. </p>
<p>Then came the 2017 hurricane season. </p>
<p>In May 2018, Mia Mottley of the leftist Labour Party was <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2018/05/31/the-opposition-wins-every-seat-in-the-barbados-parliament">elected prime minister of Barbados</a> with a bold sustainability pledge. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263752/original/file-20190313-123554-1qukq7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263752/original/file-20190313-123554-1qukq7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263752/original/file-20190313-123554-1qukq7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263752/original/file-20190313-123554-1qukq7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263752/original/file-20190313-123554-1qukq7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263752/original/file-20190313-123554-1qukq7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263752/original/file-20190313-123554-1qukq7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley at the 2018 United Nations General Assembly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/UN-General-Assembly-Barbados/83b2289c0dfd4b2ca96ad7e089414d72/4/0">AP Photo/Frank Franklin II</a></span>
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<p>At the <a href="https://gadebate.un.org/en/73/barbados">United Nations General Assembly</a> later that year, Mottley declared that her country would be 100 percent renewable by 2030. And she insisted that the world must help Barbados and other island nations in their climate change fight. </p>
<p>Her Labour Party even envisages electrifying <a href="http://www.vdg.no/getfile.php/345/2....Emera%20Clean%20Energy%20Investment%20Plan%20%28V%29%20-%20March%202015.pdf">Barbados’ busy Bridgetown port</a>, allowing the 500 cruise ships that dock each year to plug into battery-run power sources rather than operating on-board generators.</p>
<p>Three Caribbean countries are well on their way to becoming “climate smart.” With international support, the other 23 may get there, too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105478/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Even before the British billionaire invested US$1 billion in making the region ‘climate-smart,’ Jamaica, Barbados and Dominica were pioneering a renewable energy boom in the Caribbean.Masaō Ashtine, Lecturer in Alternative Energy, University of the West Indies, Mona CampusTom Rogers, Senior lecturer, Coventry UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/942352018-04-20T10:38:07Z2018-04-20T10:38:07ZClimate change may scuttle Caribbean’s post-hurricane plans for a renewable energy boom<p>Puerto Rico <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/18/us/puerto-rico-mass-power-outage/index.html">lost electricity again</a> on April 18, seven months after Hurricane Maria first knocked out the island’s power grid. For people in some remote rural areas, the blackout was <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/16/us/puerto-rico-blackout-second-largest-globally-trnd/index.html">more of the same</a>. Their power had yet to be restored.</p>
<p>The dangerous fragility of Puerto Rico’s energy systems has put other Caribbean <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/06/climate-change-in-the-caribbean-learning-lessons-from-irma-and-maria">countries on high alert</a>. Across the region, electric grids <a href="http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20160208/energy-expert-urges-region-revamp-infrastructure-better-future">are dated, ailing</a> and overburdened – making it easy work for a powerful passing storm. </p>
<p>Caribbean nations also rely heavily on <a href="https://www.caribbean-council.org/new-opportunities-address-energy-security-caribbean/">oil and diesel imports</a> to fuel their power plants – a dirty and <a href="http://wp.caribbeannewsnow.com/2017/10/02/rising-oil-prices-wider-current-account-fiscal-deficits-predicted-eccu-economies/">expensive</a> way to produce energy. So even before the 2017 hurricane season, Caribbean governments were trying to integrate renewable energy sources like <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2015/01/27/renewables-caribbean">wind and solar into their existing grids</a>.</p>
<p>Now that task seems far more urgent. To <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/aug/06/caribbean-paradise-for-renewable-energy">move beyond fossil fuels</a>, Caribbean countries must transform their energy systems by building in new, greener sources of power. That will also make electric grids <a href="http://www.powermag.com/reliability-resiliency-key-to-caribbean-rebuild/">more resilient to weather extremes</a> because they will be decentralized – pulling from a diverse array of power sources.</p>
<h2>Climate change in the Caribbean</h2>
<p>As <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/masa%C5%8D-ashtine-phd-cantab-22489550/">an environmental scientist working in Jamaica</a>, I recognize many reasons why the Caribbean region must upgrade its outmoded energy systems. Mitigating global climate change, of course, is a big one. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, I believe that climate change will also complicate the region’s transition toward renewable energy. The Caribbean is comprised of island nations, which are the world’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-we-save-low-lying-island-nations-from-rising-seas-80232">most vulnerable places</a> when it comes to rising seas, changing weather patterns and other effects of global warming. </p>
<p>The Caribbean is already seeing more weather extremes. <a href="https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/joc.3889">Research</a> suggests, for example, that northern Caribbean countries like Cuba, Jamaica and the Bahamas have gotten rainier over the past three decades, though historical data is limited.</p>
<p>Meteorologists also believe that <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/was-the-extreme-2017-hurricane-season-driven-by-climate-change/">climate change is making hurricanes</a> more <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-weather-hurricanes-forecasts/hurricane-forecasters-see-above-average-2018-u-s-storm-season-idUSKCN1HC2CB">frequent and powerful over the Atlantic Ocean</a>. </p>
<p>The uptick in severe weather is costly. According to the United Nations, the 2017 hurricane season cost Caribbean countries and the United States <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/hurricane-harvey-irma-maria-insurance-cost-natural-catastrophes-record-high-2017-a8297696.html">US$92 billion</a>.</p>
<h2>Why traditional energy sources need to adapt</h2>
<p>As the eastern United States and Caribbean brace for a <a href="https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/2018-04-04-hurricane-season-forecast-atlantic-colorado-state">potentially brutal 2018 hurricane season</a>, policymakers are looking for fast ways to strengthen their power grids. </p>
<p>Installing more wind, solar and hydropower – the world’s <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324485004578424624254723536">most reliable and common renewable energy options</a> – would seem to be a more obvious step in the right direction. Between 2015 and 2016, the global capacity of these green power sources rose <a href="http://www.ren21.net/status-of-renewables/global-status-report/">9 percent</a> – nearly half of which comes from the widespread adoption of solar panels. </p>
<p>After Maria, <a href="https://theconversation.com/rebuilding-the-caribbean-will-be-pricey-but-some-are-vying-to-finance-its-recovery-87482">technology companies like Tesla saw an opportunity</a> to spotlight their products in wind, solar and geothermal power in the Caribbean. </p>
<p>Tesla installed Powerwall solar-powered batteries across Puerto Rico. This technology <a href="https://electrek.co/2018/04/18/tesla-powerwall-powerpack-puerto-rico-blackout-elon-musk/">has kept the lights on during blackouts at over 660 locations</a>, though <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-solar-microgrids-are-not-a-cure-all-for-puerto-ricos-power-woes-86437">experts caution</a> that such solar “microgrids” cannot serve the energy needs of an entire country. </p>
<h2>The problem with climate change</h2>
<p>But, in a Caribbean of increasing weather extremes, these green energy systems are themselves vulnerable. </p>
<p>Modern wind turbines, for example, were first engineered in Europe – a region that rarely <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/offshore-wind-turbines-cant-handle-toughest-hurricanes">experiences Category 5 hurricanes</a>. Wind speeds above 165 mph <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2017GL073537">would tear the turbines apart</a>. </p>
<p>Changing precipitation and temperature patterns in the Caribbean <a href="https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/joc.2200">also affect</a> hydro and solar power. More rain in the region’s north means fewer sunny days than anticipated. Higher temperatures in other countries suggests increased likelihood of drought, leading rivers to run dry. </p>
<p>Climate change is a <a href="http://environnement.ens.fr/IMG/file/DavidPDF/Roe-Baker2007.pdf">profoundly unpredictable process</a>, though. That makes it harder for weather models to correctly identify which renewable energy infrastructure should be built where. </p>
<p>Computer models are inherently imperfect planners. As <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/543546/why-climate-models-arent-better/">researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently affirmed</a>, plugging in short-term weather data to make long-term atmospheric projections adds “irreducible elements of chaos.” </p>
<p>Climate change, which affects <a href="https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/climate-impacts/international-climate-impacts_.html">various parts of the world differently</a>, makes it even harder to accurately predict future weather scenarios. Comprehensive modeling systems that use <a href="http://renews.biz/109212/met-mast-days-are-numbered/">LIDAR and other remote-sensing technologies</a> do better, but they are <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/caribbean/overview">too expensive for widespread adoption in the Caribbean</a>. </p>
<h2>The future is now</h2>
<p>The Caribbean is making progress in planning for a future of more renewable energy, though. </p>
<p>Jamaica <a href="http://jis.gov.jm/installation-real-time-automatic-weather-stations-begins-across-island/">aims to install new automated weather stations</a> that will collect real-time weather data nationwide. This initiative will help meteorologists across the entire Caribbean better predict future weather, which in turn supports the development of renewable energy systems.</p>
<p>So will a new climate model developed by my colleagues at the University of the West Indies. The system, called <a href="http://www.gcca.eu/sites/default/files/7_smash_gcca_5cs_conference_presentation_ab.pdf">SMASH</a>, can aid planners in siting wind farms and predicting the path and severity of the hurricanes that could mangle turbines.</p>
<p>A new <a href="https://phys.org/news/2017-07-climate-scientists-caribbean-drought-atlas.html">Caribbean drought atlas</a> from Cornell University has compiled climate data going back to 1950. The tool won’t just help sustain food production during dry times; I believe it will also provide engineers precipitation data that’s critical to planning hydropower enterprises.</p>
<p>Cutting-edge hydropower plants that run on <a href="http://www.turbulent.be/">urban wastewater</a> may one day <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148117303889">also address the current limitations of hydropower</a> in the Caribbean. Many small islands lack the big rushing rivers that allow water to be a meaningful power generator.</p>
<p>Wind farms, too, are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/gallery/2017/may/08/renewables-wind-energy-turbines-tech-kites-drones-in-pictures">adapting</a> to the instability of this changing climate. Once firmly pegged to the ground, turbines can now <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/a-beginners-guide-to-the-airborne-wind-turbine-market#gs.FWL2tKM">float thousands of feet above the land</a>, spooled out <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/kite-power-station-scotland-wind-turbine-plant-electricity-a7348576.html">like kites</a> to capture winds where they blow hardest. Floating turbines will also fare better during hurricanes.</p>
<p>All of these technologies may eventually help Caribbean countries navigate their way through climate change toward a real renewable energy boom. But the climate change conundrum won’t be solved before the 2018 hurricane season hits.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94235/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Masaō Ashtine does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The 2017 hurricane season showed that Caribbean nations urgently need more resilient power grids. But the effects of climate change – including more severe storms – complicate the shift to renewables.Masaō Ashtine, Lecturer in Alternative Energy, University of the West Indies, Mona CampusLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/918912018-03-02T11:42:41Z2018-03-02T11:42:41ZHow people talk now holds clues about human migration centuries ago<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208303/original/file-20180228-36680-1gzt1zc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=349%2C349%2C4132%2C2645&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What can a modern-day Creole language tell us about its first speakers in the 1600s?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paramaribo,_Suriname_(11987836025).jpg">M M</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Often, you can tell where someone grew up by the way they speak.</p>
<p>For example, if someone in the United States doesn’t pronounce the final “r” at the end of “car,” you might think they are from the Boston area, based on sometimes exaggerated stereotypes about American accents and dialects, such as “Pahk the cahr in Hahvahd Yahd.”</p>
<p>Linguists go deeper than the stereotypes, though. They’ve used <a href="http://www.tekstlab.uio.no/cambridge_survey/">large-scale surveys</a> to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/dialect-quiz-map.html">map out many features of dialects</a>. The more you know about how a person pronounces certain words, the more likely you’ll be able to pinpoint where they are from. For instance, linguists know that dropping the “r” sounds at the end of words is actually common in many English dialects; they can map in space and time how r-dropping is widespread in the London area and has become increasingly common in England over the years. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0055">In a recent study</a>, we applied this concept to a different question: the formation of Creole languages. <a href="https://mona-uwi.academia.edu/ASherriah">As a linguist</a> and a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vwQdgAYAAAAJ&hl=en">biologist who studies cultural evolution</a>, we wanted to see how much information we could glean from a snapshot of how a language exists at one moment in time. Working with linguist <a href="https://www.mona.uwi.edu/dllp/jlu/staff/devonish.htm">Hubert Devonish</a> and psychologist <a href="https://profiles.stanford.edu/ewart-thomas">Ewart Thomas</a>, could we figure out the language “ingredients” that went into a Creole language, and where these “ingredients” originally came from?</p>
<h2>Mixing languages to make a Creole</h2>
<p>When a <a href="https://benjamins.com/#catalog/books/cll.25/main">Creole language forms</a>, it’s generally because <a href="http://www.ello.uos.de/field.php/Sociolinguistics/Theoriesofgenesis">two or more populations come together</a> without a common language to speak. Across history, this was often in the context of colonialism, indentured servitude and slavery. For example, in the U.S., <a href="http://www.afropedea.org/louisiana-creoles-people">Louisiana Creole</a> was formed by speakers of French and several African languages in the French slave colony of Louisiana. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/000000008792525228">As people mix</a>, a new language forms, and often the origins of individual words can be traced back to one of the source languages.</p>
<p>Our idea was that, if specific dialects were common among the migrants, the way they pronounce words might influence the pronunciations in the new Creole language. In other words, if English-derived words in a Creole exhibit r-dropping, we might hypothesize that the English speakers present when the Creole formed also dropped their r’s.</p>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-244" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/244/d0929212fe8463b2bd63c88f0474e341fd78aee8/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Following this logic, we examined the pronunciation of Sranan, an English-based Creole still spoken in Suriname. We wanted to see if we could use language clues to identify where in England the original settlers came from. Sranan developed around the mid-17th century, due to contact between speakers of English dialects from England, migrants from elsewhere in Europe (such as Portugal and the Netherlands) and enslaved Africans who spoke a variety of West African languages.</p>
<p>As is the case with most English-based Creoles, the majority of the lexicon is English. Unlike most English Creoles, though, Sranan represents a linguistic fossil of the early colonial English that went into its development. In 1667, soon after Sranan was formed, the English ceded Suriname to the Dutch, and most English speakers moved elsewhere. So the indentured servants and other migrants from England had a brief but strong influence on Sranan.</p>
<h2>Using historical records to check our work</h2>
<p>We asked whether we could use features of Sranan to hypothesize where the English settlers originated and then corroborate these hypotheses via historical records.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208295/original/file-20180228-36700-182it7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208295/original/file-20180228-36700-182it7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208295/original/file-20180228-36700-182it7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=703&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208295/original/file-20180228-36700-182it7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=703&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208295/original/file-20180228-36700-182it7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=703&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208295/original/file-20180228-36700-182it7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=883&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208295/original/file-20180228-36700-182it7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=883&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208295/original/file-20180228-36700-182it7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=883&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The similarity of each English dialect to Sranan. The most similar dialect, Blagdon, is indicated by a red arrow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0055">source</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>First, we compared a set of linguistic features of modern-day Sranan with those of English as spoken in 313 localities across England. We focused on things like the production of “r” sounds after vowels and “h” sounds at the start of words. Since some aspects of English dialects have changed over the last few centuries, we also consulted historical accounts of both English and Sranan.</p>
<p>It turned out that 80 percent of the English features in Sranan could be traced back to regional dialectal features from two distinct locations within England: a cluster of locations near the port of Bristol and a cluster near Essex, in eastern England. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208294/original/file-20180228-36696-1505m3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208294/original/file-20180228-36696-1505m3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208294/original/file-20180228-36696-1505m3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=822&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208294/original/file-20180228-36696-1505m3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=822&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208294/original/file-20180228-36696-1505m3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=822&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208294/original/file-20180228-36696-1505m3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1033&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208294/original/file-20180228-36696-1505m3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1033&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208294/original/file-20180228-36696-1505m3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1033&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Circles represent the origin locations listed in ship records. The area of the circle is proportional to the number of individuals from that location. Bristol is marked by a yellow star, London by a blue star.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0055">source</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Then, we examined archival records such as the <a href="http://www.virtualjamestown.org/indentures/search_indentures.html">Bristol Register of Servants to Foreign Plantations</a> to see if the language clues we’d identified were backed up by historical evidence of migration. Indeed, these boat records indicate that indentured servants departing for English colonies were predominantly from the regions identified by our language analysis.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0055">Our research was proof of concept</a> that we could use modern information to learn more about the linguistic features that went into the formation of a Creole language. We can gain confidence in our conclusions because the historical record backed them up. Language can be a solid clue about the origins and history of human migrations. </p>
<p>We hope to use a similar approach to examine the African languages that have influenced Creole languages, since much less is known about the origins of enslaved people than the European indentured servants. Analyses like these might help us retrace aspects of forced migrations via the slave trade and paint a more complete linguistic picture of Creole formations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91891/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Creanza has received funding from the Ruth Landes Memorial Research Fund, the John Templeton Foundation, and the Stanford Center for Computational, Evolutionary, and Human Genomics. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>André Ché Sherriah does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New research suggests that hints left in Creole languages can identify where the original speakers came from – even hundreds of years after they migrated and mixed together.Nicole Creanza, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt UniversityAndré Ché Sherriah, Postdoctoral Associate in Linguistics, University of the West Indies, Mona CampusLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/874822017-11-22T01:46:20Z2017-11-22T01:46:20ZRebuilding the Caribbean will be pricey, but some are vying to finance its recovery<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195759/original/file-20171121-6072-at6kae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">If Caribbean governments can't afford to rebuild their islands, maybe big tech firms can?</span> </figcaption></figure><p>November 20 marked the end of the Atlantic hurricane season, but for the Caribbean, it’s only the beginning of a painful recovery process. </p>
<p>In early September, Hurricane Irma largely destroyed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/07/irma-destruction-island-by-island-hurricane">Barbuda and several neighboring Lesser Antilles islands</a>. Two weeks later, Maria took a final fatal stab at <a href="https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/barbuda-one-month-after-hurricane-irma-idUSRTS1FSDD">Barbuda</a> and entirely <a href="https://theconversation.com/puerto-rico-two-months-after-maria-5-essential-reads-87409">knocked out Puerto Rico</a>. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.economist.com/news/americas/21729007-region-must-adapt-climate-change-not-simply-rebuild-how-hurricane-irma-will-change">The Economist</a>, damage from Irma alone tallies up to US$13 billion. Totals for the entire 2017 hurricane season <a href="https://qz.com/1088762/puerto-rico-hurricane-marias-devastating-economic-cost/">remain unclear</a>, but Puerto Rico Gov. Roberto Rosello’s recent request for <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-puertorico-assistance/puerto-rico-requests-94-4-billion-from-u-s-congress-for-rebuilding-idUSKBN1DD2G8">$94.4 billion in aid</a> gives some sense of Maria’s toll. </p>
<p>No matter the final price tag, recovery is sure to be unpayable in a region where <a href="http://www.gsdrc.org/document-library/the-challenges-of-poverty-and-social-welfare-in-the-caribbean/">30 percent of people live in poverty</a> and the per capita <a href="http://ivanstat.com/en/gdp/caribbean.html">gross domestic product averages under $9,000 a year</a>, versus <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD">$57,000 in the United States</a>.</p>
<p>And while France, Holland and the United Kingdom have come to the <a href="https://epthinktank.eu/2017/09/21/eu-response-to-the-caribbean-hurricanes/">assistance of their territories</a> in the region, independent Caribbean nations like <a href="http://www.france24.com/en/20170929-dominica-rebuild-hurricane-maria-devastation-aid">Dominica</a>, Antigua and Barbuda, and Cuba have no such obvious sponsors. Their economies shattered by storms – and, in some cases, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/irma-imf-barduda-debt-repayments-moratorium-hurricane-caribbean-island-a7941176.html">shackled by debt</a> – some Caribbean nations fear they may never recover. </p>
<p>But behind the scenes, numerous international players are actually racing to rebuild the Caribbean, from tech companies and wealthy individuals to far-flung countries.</p>
<h2>‘Send Tesla’</h2>
<p>Big corporations see an opportunity in the Caribbean’s recovery. Tesla, in particular, seems to have a <a href="https://electrek.co/2017/10/05/elon-musk-tesla-rebuild-puerto-ricos-power-grid-batteries-solar/">vision</a> for how the region could rebuild in a more renewable and resilient way. </p>
<p>As an energy and environment researcher, I’m certain that renewables would make Caribbean islands better able to withstand future storm impacts. Whether Tesla can achieve that is another question. </p>
<p>The California-based electric-car company has committed to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-28/tesla-is-sending-battery-packs-to-storm-ravaged-puerto-rico">sending to the island hundreds of its Powerwall battery systems</a>, which could be paired with solar panels to get the electric grid up and running again. </p>
<p>For the millions of Puerto Ricans <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/26/us/puerto-rico-power-outage/index.html">whose power has been out for over two months</a>, this may come as welcome news. And though some experts have questioned <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-solar-microgrids-are-not-a-cure-all-for-puerto-ricos-power-woes-86437">how much it would really help</a>, Tesla did manage to <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/25/560045944/tesla-turns-power-back-on-at-childrens-hospital-in-puerto-rico">turn the lights on</a> at the San Juan Children’s Hospital back in October.</p>
<p>Puerto Rico isn’t the only Caribbean country with an inadequate energy grid. Across the region, outmoded system designs that rely on a few plants for power production make complete blackouts much higher than grid systems that have an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/09/28/storm-driven-power-failures-in-the-caribbean-spur-new-interest-in-renewable-energy/?utm_term=.4ec6f8dd569a">even distribution of power generation</a>. </p>
<p>So even before Irma, Tesla had long seen the Caribbean as a nexus for its energy revolution, with <a href="http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/business/20160708/jamaica-public-service-seeking-forge-deal-tesla-electric-cars">talk</a> of using electric-vehicle batteries to store renewable energy. The idea is that vehicles can charge during the day when the sun is high and winds are stronger, and then owners can sell excess electricity back to the grid when demand is high but supplies are much lower.</p>
<p>Tesla’s desire to power the Caribbean reflects a global energy race as tech companies – among them <a href="http://www.samsungrenewableenergy.ca/">Samsung</a> and <a href="http://www.lg.com/global/business/solar">LG</a> – expand their international reach.</p>
<h2>The benevolent among us</h2>
<p>The British business magnate Sir Richard Branson, who owns a 30-hectare private island in the British Virgin Islands, has also long advocated that the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2014/02/25/richard-branson-launches-a-green-energy-plan-for-the-caribbean/">Caribbean should shift to clean energy</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"909874717770862594"}"></div></p>
<p>The 2017 hurricane season catalyzed this ambition. After Irma, Branson suggested that rich countries fund a “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-climatechange-branson/exclusive-richard-branson-setting-up-green-energy-fund-to-rebuild-caribbean-idUSKCN1BU2I9">Caribbean Marshall Plan</a>” to help islands move beyond fossil fuels toward low-carbon renewable energy sources like solar and wind. </p>
<p>Hurricane Irma left the solar-powered system on his Necker Island, located roughly nine miles from the ravaged Tortola, relatively intact. </p>
<p>Branson isn’t the only international celebrity with a personal stake in rebuilding the Caribbean region. The actor <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/hurricane-irma-latest-today-robert-de-niro-barbuda-international-aid-rebuilding-caribbean-un-general-a7955501.html">Robert De Niro</a> has also sought to pitch in. </p>
<p>In September, he said he was “saddened to learn of the devastation in Barbuda,” and called on financial institutions and governments to band together and rebuild the demolished island, where De Niro had hoped to build a <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/15/news/robert-de-niro-barbuda/index.html">$200 million resort</a>. </p>
<p>Two months later, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/nov/20/the-night-barbuda-died-how-hurricane-irma-created-a-caribbean-ghost-town">Barbuda remains uninhabitable</a>, with nearly its entire population having <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/weather/hurricane/article172111522.html">evacuated</a> to neighboring Antigua and elsewhere. Locals wonder whether Barbuda will ever be home to anyone again, much less the paradise tourist destination De Niro once envisioned. </p>
<h2>The ‘soft’ grip of China</h2>
<p>For China, the crisis in the Caribbean is an opportunity to expand its influence in an area where it already has deep historic and <a href="https://www.aei.org/china-global-investment-tracker/">economic</a> ties. </p>
<p>China’s influence in the Caribbean dates back to Cuba’s <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-10-2128-2_6">1959 revolution</a>, when communism bound the two nations. Back then, China ignored the U.S. economic embargo <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-10-2128-2_6">to help Cuba</a> after a 1963 hurricane.</p>
<p>This economic superpower also came to the assistance of Grenada in 2004, after more than 90 percent of the island was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan. The <a href="https://www.caribjournal.com/2013/04/17/china-providing-1-3-million-to-complete-grenada-housing-project/">351 housing units China promised to build for those left homeless by the storm</a> opened in late 2012. </p>
<p>Today, China is reported to have <a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-09/23/c_136630837.htm">offered aid to Cuba after Hurricane Irma</a>. It has also committed <a href="http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/news-centre/announcements/2017/China-supports-Caribbean-countries-to-build-back-better.html">$5 million</a> for the United Nations Development Program to assist the Caribbean’s storm recovery. </p>
<p>China’s interest in the Caribbean goes beyond disaster aid. During his 2013 visit to Trinidad and Tobago, President Xi Jinping reportedly promised Caribbean nations a total of <a href="https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/Research/Staff%20Report_China-Caribbean%20Relations.pdf">$3 billion</a> in loans.</p>
<p>His country has also financed infrastructure and industrial projects across the region. In Jamaica, Chinese state money built the $600 million, 42-mile “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/24/beijing-highway-600m-road-just-the-start-of-chinas-investments-in-caribbean">Beijing Highway</a>” connecting Kingston to the tourist hub of Ocho Rios. China has also invested $3 billion in Jamaican <a href="http://www.bnamericas.com/en/news/infrastructure/chinese-firm-plans-us3bn-expansion-at-jamaica-alumina-plant2/">alumina plants</a>.</p>
<p>This brand of economic diplomacy, which Beijing has also deployed in <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/0f534aa4-4549-11e7-8519-9f94ee97d996">Africa</a> and Pakistan, for instance, powerfully strengthens China’s international influence. The U.S. knows that, and <a href="https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/Research/Staff%20Report_China-Caribbean%20Relations.pdf">is keeping a close eye</a> on Chinese incursions into its maritime backyard.</p>
<h2>Weighing the costs</h2>
<p>Caribbean governments must now weigh the pros and cons of these different offers. On the one hand, these countries are so devastated that they simply cannot recover without help. </p>
<p>On the other, I’d suggest it’s risky to cede control over your territory by allowing foreign agents to finance rebuilding. China’s project funding in African has been dubbed “<a href="https://thediplomat.com/2017/06/why-chinese-infrastructural-loans-in-africa-represent-a-brand-new-type-of-neocolonialism/">neocolonialism</a>,” because while the country studiously avoids political meddling, its money shapes national development to reflect Chinese interests. </p>
<p>Inaction, however, is not an option. A <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/21/caribbean-islands-hurricane-irma-maria-puerto-rico">dozen Caribbean countries</a> were hit hard by hurricanes this year, and climate change <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/climate/islands-climate-change-un-bonn.html?_r=0">promises to keep bringing rising seas and stronger, more frequent storms</a>. </p>
<p>Rebuilding smarter is thus a priority for Caribbean nations, all of which signed the <a href="http://unfccc.int/paris_agreement/items/9444.php">Paris Agreement</a>. That 2015 accord pushes <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/climate/islands-climate-change-un-bonn.html?_r=0">wealthier industrialized nations to commit more money to building resilience</a>, but Europe has shown little willingness to comply with that provision and the U.S <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-paris-agreement-us-climate-change-donald-trump-world-country-accord-a8041996.html">is abandoning the entire deal</a>. </p>
<p>Are China, Tesla and Robert De Niro the answer? If the Caribbean can’t save itself, who will?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87482/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Masaō Ashtine does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Tesla, China and Richard Branson are among those offering to help Caribbean nations rebuild – and do so in a greener, more resilient way – after the devastating 2017 hurricane season.Masaō Ashtine, Lecturer in Alternative Energy, University of the West Indies, Mona CampusLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/759462017-06-27T18:13:16Z2017-06-27T18:13:16ZImpacts du glyphosate sur la santé et l’environnement, ce que dit la science<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175597/original/file-20170626-12696-1f57hnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Traitement d’un champ au glyphosate au Royaume-Uni en 2014. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/chafermachinery/15415567073/in/photolist-pudP2c-9TJyjM-9TJzoe-ozjfAB-9E6mXS-og4F7L-ptZnEC-oCwybJ-pUoY5Y-9TJyJa-9E3sHP-qaVBo1-oeLF5h-orTMhE-pudZUV-9EiaBp-9TJy5V-thFr2S-9E3fys-domMbu-5osr4e-nixaHL-ptZxbG-k7GU4K-ptZoGC-oCmqDS-q9yAGP-q9yDMr-b7cGjD-b7cFjz-ogNykZ-q9q8Us-qoGDF3-ogwfK6-b7beTr-pudSix-b7bd5a-ptZvcS-pudUoV-nZj1MW-ogwaqD-nZj3qf-b7bffB-oiyUaH-cKkZBo-ogKTD1-ogBY5o-b7bfzp-b7bkHc-b7bnaP">Chafer Machinery/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On connaît le glyphosate depuis le début des années 1970 lorsqu’il fut introduit par Monsanto avec la commercialisation du Roundup. Depuis, d’autres glyphosates sont apparus, portant différents noms et répondant à diverses formules chimiques en fonction des adjuvants utilisés pour les élaborer.</p>
<p>Ces herbicides figurent parmi les <a href="https://enveurope.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12302-016-0070-0">plus utilisés en agriculture</a>. Les raisons en sont multiples : simplicité d’utilisation, coût modique, action sur certaines voies métaboliques de la croissance des végétaux qui n’existent pas chez les animaux.</p>
<p>Quoique la toxicité des glyphosates <a href="http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/glyphogen.html">ne fait pas doute</a>, de nombreuses controverses existent quant au degré de cette toxicité sur les différents organismes vivants et sur l’environnement.</p>
<p>Cette toxicité dépend non seulement du type de la formulation du glyphosate, mais aussi des facteurs environnementaux tels que la température, le pH, la nature et la structure du sol, ainsi que les sédiments en suspension et la concentration en algues alimentaires dans le cas des milieux aquatiques.</p>
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<h2>Quels impacts sur la flore ?</h2>
<p>Le mode d’action des glyphosates consiste à inhiber une voie métabolique spécifique de la croissance des plantes, voie metabolique qui n’existe pas chez les autres organismes vivants, comme les animaux ou les insectes.</p>
<p>Mais ces substances n’affectent pas uniquement les mauvaises herbes contre lesquelles on les utilise. Et l’avis selon lequel les glyphosates sont facilement dégradés et absorbés dans les sols – donc sans effet néfaste sur l’agriculture – <a href="http://www.mdpi.com/2305-6304/3/4/462/htm">est erroné</a>. Des études ont ainsi montré que les glyphosates se trouvent facilement acheminés <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jxb/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/jxb/eru269">des tiges vers les racines</a> ; ils peuvent de cette façon être stabilisés et affecter négativement les plantes non ciblées par le traitement.</p>
<p>Parmi ces effets négatifs, on note une réduction de l’absorption des éléments nutritifs du sol, comme le manganèse, le zinc, le fer et le bore, éléments connus pour leurs rôles dans les mécanismes de résistance des plantes aux maladies. Par conséquent, en réduisant l’absorption de ces éléments nutritifs, les glyphosates affectent indirectement la résistance des plantes aux maladies, ce qui induit en retour une utilisation plus intense de pesticides.</p>
<h2>Quels impacts sur la faune ?</h2>
<p>Les effets toxiques sur la faune s’avèrent plus importants que sur les plantes.</p>
<p>Des études de toxicité menées sur les rats ont démontré que si le glyphosate-Roundup (le plus connu des glyphosates) n’a pas induit d’effets toxiques visibles sur les femelles en gestation, il a eu un effet négatif <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00204-006-0170-5;http://www.i-sis.org.uk/glyphosate_kills_rat_testis_cells.php">sur la fertilité</a> des mâles, notamment des anomalies au niveau des spermatozoïdes et une baisse de la fertilité.</p>
<p><a href="https://www3.epa.gov/pesticides/endanger/litstatus/effects/redleg-frog/glyphosate/determination.pdf">D’autres expérimentations</a>, conduites notamment sur des grenouilles, ont démontré que les adjuvants – c’est-à-dire les composants autres que le principe actif entrant dans la composition du Roundup – avaient des effets négatifs, notamment sur les hormones thyroïdiennes de grenouilles.</p>
<p>On a d’autre part noté un impact plus important des glyphosates <a href="https://people.csail.mit.edu/seneff/Hoy_wildlife_2015.pdf">sur les oiseaux sauvages</a> que sur les oiseaux domestiques. Chez ces derniers, le facteur de son accumulation dans l’organisme est relativement faible car ils sont moins directement exposés à ces substances.</p>
<p>Du côté des organismes marins, même s’ils sont moins concernés que les espèces terrestres, de nombreuses études ont rapporté que le glyphosate avait provoqué des lésions du foie et des reins, comme chez le <a href="http://www.academicjournals.org/article/article1380968357_Ayoola.pdf">tilapia du Nil</a> ; après 96 heures d’exposition à des doses relativement élevées, une mortalité accrue a été observée. <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09712119.2015.1031776">D’autres études</a> ont révélé que les glyphosates provoquaient une diminution de certaines fonctions du foie et du métabolisme général.</p>
<h2>Quels impacts sur les sols ?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18161065">Des études</a> ont montré que le glyphosate possède un potentiel perturbateur affectant les microbes du sol. Il faut toutefois souligner que l’absorption, la dégradation et la lixiviation (c’est-à-dire la perte des éléments minéraux par lessivage) des sols causées par les glyphosates varient selon les types de sols ; beaucoup reste encore à comprendre dans ce domaine.</p>
<p>Cette variabilité et cette incertitude rendent très difficile l’établissement d’un tableau clair du devenir des glyphosates dans les sols. Certaines études ont cependant montré que ce dernier varie, certains complexes minéraux du sol retenant davantage les glyphosates que d’autres.</p>
<p>Il faut ici souligner que la matière organique – un des éléments les plus actifs du sol – ne semble pas avoir de capacité à absorber et retenir les glyphosates ; mais elle pourrait jouer un rôle dans ce processus. Même chose pour les éléments nutritifs des sols qui semblent également jouer un rôle réel dans l’<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18161065">absorption des glyphosates</a>.</p>
<p>L’hypothèse de l’implication du phosphate dans ce processus a été avancée, même si certaines contradictions ont été soulignées. Dans certains sols, la désorption du phosphate <a href="http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-90162003000100026">favoriserait la dégradation</a> des glyphosates ; dans d’autres, on note un <a href="https://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs-wm/13139.pdf">effet contraire, sinon aucun effet</a>.</p>
<p>Ces observations ont amené à classer les sols en deux catégories : ceux qui sont sujets à une compétition entre les glyphosates et le phosphate, avec une préférence pour ce dernier ; ceux possédant des sites spécifiques d’adsorption, en faveur soit des glyphosates ou du phosphate. Par conséquent, un sol riche en phosphate pourrait retenir moins de glyphosates, induisant une plus grande contamination des couches inférieures du sol et des nappes phréatiques ; à l’inverse, la pauvreté des sols en phosphates constituerait un facteur favorisant l’accumulation des glyphosates dans les couches supérieures des sols et donc une plus grande accumulation par les plantes.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.soilassociation.org/media/7202/glyphosate-and-soil-health-full-report.pdf">D’autres études</a> ont montré que les glyphosates utilisés aux doses recommandées en agriculture n’avaient aucun effet négatif sur les populations microbiennes – la flore microbienne représentant l’un des principaux facteurs de dégradation des glyphosates dans les sols – et peu d’effets sur les populations fongiques ; des effets stimulants ont même été observés sur certaines espèces microbiennes.</p>
<h2>Quels impacts pour l’homme ?</h2>
<p>Comme toutes les études de toxicité des produits chimiques, la toxicité des glyphosates sur l’homme a fait l’objet de peu d’études, comparativement à celles menées sur les animaux ; ceci est principalement imputable aux difficultés techniques et éthiques, sans compter bien sûr les contraintes d’ordre financier et commercial.</p>
<p>Même si de nombreuses études ont souvent démontré que les adjuvants utilisés – notamment le polyoxyethyleneamine ou POEA – sont beaucoup plus nocifs que le principe actif des glyphosates, il n’en demeure pas moins que cette catégorie de pesticides <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15862083">représente un danger</a> pour l’environnement et la santé humaine.</p>
<p>Tous les pesticides contiennent des adjuvants ; la toxicité de ces composés ne fait que s’ajouter à <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3955666/">celle du principe actif</a>.</p>
<p>Aujourd’hui, si les organismes de régulations considèrent les glyphosates comme non toxiques aux doses recommandées, la communauté scientifique est elle convaincue que ces substances sont toxiques et même cancérogènes, à l’image de nombreux pesticides.</p>
<p>À titre d’exemple, l’Agence internationale pour la recherche sur le cancer (IARC) a <a href="https://www.iarc.fr/fr/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/MonographVolume112.pdf">publié en mars 2015</a> un rapport classant le glyphosate comme « cause probable de cancer chez l’homme », alors que l’Agence européenne de la sécurité alimentaire (EFSA) avait pour sa part <a href="https://www.efsa.europa.eu/fr/press/news/151112">indiqué en novembre</a> de la même année qu’il était peu probable que le Roundup représente un risque cancérogène pour l’homme.</p>
<p>Cette controverse a été attisée en mars 2017 par la décision de l’Agence européenne des produits chimiques (ECHA) de ne pas classer le glyphosate comme produit cancérogène ; à cela s’ajoute le revirement de l’Organisation mondiale de la santé qui en <a href="http://www.who.int/foodsafety/jmprsummary2016.pdf">mai 2016</a> a déclaré le Roundup comme non potentiellement cancérogène alors qu’elle avait dit le contraire quelques mois plus tôt.</p>
<p>Récemment, un groupe de scientifiques <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(15)70134-8/abstract">a publié un commentaire</a> à propos de cette polémique autour du caractère cancérogène ou non du glyphosate. Ces derniers considèrent qu’il est plus approprié et plus rigoureux scientifiquement de considérer ce produit comme cancérogène au vu des évaluations et des données scientifiques portant sur des cas de cancers rapportés chez l’homme et certains animaux en laboratoire.</p>
<p>En se basant sur cette conclusion et en absence de toute preuve du contraire, il apparaît donc raisonnable de conclure que les glyphosates, sous toutes leurs formulations chimiques, doivent être considérés comme potentiellement cancérogènes. </p>
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<p>Il est donc urgent de mener des études beaucoup plus approfondies visant à obtenir des données fiables quant aux effets directs et indirects de ces produits sur les organismes vivants, l’environnement et l’homme. Une urgence dictée par l’utilisation massive de ces substances en agriculture… Il serait malheureux de revivre le <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dichlorodiph%C3%A9nyltrichloro%C3%A9thane">drame du DDT</a>, cet insecticide reconnu comme dangereux et interdit dans les années 1970.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75946/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pour ses recherches, Noureddine Benkeblia a reçu des financements de AMEXCID (Mexico). </span></em></p>Que nous disent les travaux scientifiques sur les effets de cet herbicide mondialement utilisé sur la flore, la faune, les sols et la santé humaine ?Noureddine Benkeblia, Professor of Crop Science, Department of Life Sciences, University of the West Indies, Mona CampusLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/730752017-02-21T20:09:22Z2017-02-21T20:09:22ZIn tribute to Peter Abrahams: a champion of pan Africanism and anti-colonialism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157486/original/image-20170220-15931-4pqoql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Peter Abrahams.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">South African History Online</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South African literary icon and Pan-Africanist, <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/peter-henry-abrahams">Peter Henry Abrahams</a>, died in his adopted home of Jamaica on January 18 2017. He was 97. The author of some 12 novels, Abrahams was also a stalwart in the anti-colonial struggles dating back to the 1940s. Until the end he remained an acerbic and incisive commentator on global and Pan-African affairs.</p>
<p>He was born to an Ethiopian father and a mixed race South African mother in Vrededorp, a suburb in Johannesburg, South Africa. As a 20-year-old, Abrahams left his birthplace in 1939 after running into trouble with racist police and authorities in his deprived settlement. After an eventful journey by ship, troubled by hostilities during World War 2, he eventually arrived and settled in London, England. There he began a career of activism as a left wing journalist and Pan-Africanist in the 1940s.</p>
<p>Peter, with a natural storytelling talent, had learned writing skills from his mother and from religious mentors who rescued him from further trouble as a militant youth in Vrededorp. These skills and talents were to serve him well during his exile in London and later in Jamaica, where he settled in 1956 with his second wife Daphne.</p>
<h2>First novel</h2>
<p>While in London during his early literary pursuits his first novel, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40238962?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">“Dark Testament”</a>, was published in 1942. His second book <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3819636?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">“Song of the City”</a>, published three years later, confirmed him as being among the first successful black South African writers being published in Europe and the West. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157482/original/image-20170220-15882-1skaguk.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157482/original/image-20170220-15882-1skaguk.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157482/original/image-20170220-15882-1skaguk.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157482/original/image-20170220-15882-1skaguk.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157482/original/image-20170220-15882-1skaguk.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1154&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157482/original/image-20170220-15882-1skaguk.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1154&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157482/original/image-20170220-15882-1skaguk.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1154&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cover of ‘Mine Boy’.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>His already prolific writing career next saw the publication of the semi-autobiographical and seminal book <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20109544?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">“Mine Boy”</a> in 1946. It charted the travails of a country youth seeking to survive in the frightening and oppressive environs of big city Johannesburg.</p>
<p>With “Mine Boy” Abrahams became the first author to bring the horrific reality of South Africa’s apartheid system of racial discrimination to international attention. Published two years before Alan Paton’s acclaimed <a href="http://paton.ukzn.ac.za/Collections/Crythebelovedcountry.aspx">“Cry, The Beloved Country”</a>, which also exposed the tragedy of apartheid, “Mine Boy” was also significant because it made Abrahams one of the first black South African authors to become financially successful. With over a dozen books and countless newspaper and magazine articles published, Abrahams has since become established as an authority on the problems of race not only in South Africa, but in the world.</p>
<p>Several other novels were to follow in London, even as Abrahams became more and more engaged in the anti-colonial struggles of the time. He interacted with other political activists such as <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/jomo-kenyatta">Jomo Kenyatta</a>, <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/president-seretse-khama">Seretse Khama</a>, <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/dr-kenneth-kaunda-former-president-zambia-born">Kenneth Kaunda</a>, <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/former-tanzanian-president-julius-nyerere-dies">Julius Nyerere</a> and <a href="http://www.blackhistoryheroes.com/2010/09/kwame-nkrumah.html">Kwame Nkrumah</a>. Those names now resonate as leaders of the legendary generation of anti-colonial, Pan-African activists who led their respective African countries to political independence. </p>
<p>At this time, his South African compatriots under the leadership of <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/nelson-rolihlahla-mandela">Nelson Mandela</a>, <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/oliver-reginald-kaizana-tambo">Oliver Tambo</a>, <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/walter-ulyate-sisulu">Walter Sisulu</a> and others persevered politically (and in some cases militarily) in the struggle against apartheid. For his part, Abrahams waged a war by wielding a mighty pen. He brought the unfolding racist atrocities in South Africa to the attention of the wider world. This he did through an ever-expanding body of compelling political and literary works, as well as through his intellectual activism.</p>
<p>He played an important role, alongside journalist and Pan Africanist <a href="http://silvertorch.com/about-padmore.html">George Padmore</a> of Trinidad and Tobago, American intellectual and activist <a href="https://donate.naacp.org/pages/naacp-history-w.e.b.-dubois">WEB Du Bois</a> and others, in <a href="http://www.marxistsfr.org/archive/padmore/1947/pan-african-congress/index.htm">organising</a> the <a href="http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/30/058.html">Fifth Pan-African Congress</a>. Held in Manchester, England in October 1945, the congress was regarded as a unifying event in the multifaceted, disparate, colonial struggle of the time. Abrahams was among the representatives of the African National Congress (ANC). He was elected as chairperson of the movement’s publicity committee, alongside a young Nkrumah.</p>
<h2>Jamaican independence</h2>
<p>By 1956, he accepted an invitation from <a href="http://jis.gov.jm/heroes/norman-washington-manley/">Norman Manley</a>, Premier of Jamaica and leader of the Jamaican independence movement, to provide advice and editorial services in Jamaica and the Caribbean. He soon acquired a hilltop property overlooking the city of Kingston, a home he called Coyaba.</p>
<p>Abrahams became prominent as journalist and radio commentator in Jamaica. He also continued his career as a novelist. Acclaimed books penned in Jamaica were released globally. These included such widely respected works as <a href="http://caribbean-beat.com/issue-61/view-coyaba">“The View from Coyaba”</a> (1985) and his <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/994599.The_Coyaba_Chronicles">memoir</a> “The Coyaba Chronicles: Reflections on the Black Experience in the 20th Century” (2000).</p>
<p>Abrahams was to serve Manley’s younger son, Prime Minister <a href="http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Michael-Manley---the-visionary-who-will-never-be">Michael Manley</a>, in the historic social restructuring of the 1970s. This included the engagement of Abrahams as the principal advisor in the government takeover and reform of Jamaica’s leading radio network, Radio Jamaica, from the British Rediffusion Group.</p>
<p>Responding to question I posed to Abrahams in a July 2004 <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02560046.2011.639959">interview</a>, he defended a new model of media ownership he had developed. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>He (Michael Manley) wasn’t quite sure what the model was but he knew it had to be ‘people-based’. So he called me and we had a long session. What the Re-diffusion was saying to him was, ‘all right, you take it over but give us a management contract and so much per annum’. So they would be getting their money anyway. I said to him I don’t think you need to give them a management contract. I am convinced that there are enough Jamaicans who can run this thing without a management contract.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>His model succeeded and is among the seminal achievements in Jamaica of this 5ft 6in (1.52m) <a href="https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-278276715/an-interview-with-peter-abrahams-custodian-and-conscience">giant</a> of an intellectual, activist and author. </p>
<p>His passing cannot erase the phenomenal contributions he made to the anti-colonial struggles in Africa and the Caribbean, his scholarly eminence and his seminal leadership of media reform and commentary in Jamaica.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73075/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hopeton Dunn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>South African-Jamaican intellectual, activist and author Peter Abrahams died in January 2017. He will be revered for his contributions to the anti-colonial struggles in Africa and the Caribbean.Hopeton Dunn, Professor of Communications Policy and Digital Media, University of the West Indies, Mona CampusLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.