We are just two weeks away from the official start of the 2022 Hurricane Season (June 1). I have noted a few news items this month (which is Hurricane Preparedness Month in the U.S., but regrettably not in Jamaica) – as follows: The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), the primary Government agency … More Disaster preparedness in Jamaica: Are we becoming complacent?
Earth Day 2022 just slipped past me, while my back was turned – which is most unfortunate. However, I did contribute to a really nice pictorial article produced by Global Voices’ Caribbean team (headed by my ever-encouraging editor, Janine, in Trinidad). We shared our personal memories and thoughts reflected in the photographs we chose. You … More Earth Day 2022 postscript: Two priorities for Jamaica and the Planet
There are three woman writers, from The Bahamas and Jamaica, vying for the Regional Prize for the Caribbean in the 2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. The shortlist, announced on April 25, includes two previous winners, Jamaican Diana McCaulay (2012) – who has just completed her sixth novel, stay tuned! – and the Bahamas’ Alexia Tolas … More Three Caribbean writers shortlisted for 2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize
We often use the words “justice” and “environment/climate change” (depending on the situation) together – not opposing each other, but closely linked. In my last blog post, I shared Professor Carolyn Cooper’s thoughts on the closure of a very popular beach near Kingston for the past two years. This is an environmental injustice. The quality … More Dust upon dust: Jamaican rural dwellers continue to suffer from highway construction
To me, it is quite terrifying to imagine that in just over a year’s time, deep sea mining may be given the go-ahead. Greenpeace USA was at the meeting in Kingston, Jamaica of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) and has been sounding alarm bells since it began. The meeting ended last Friday, April 1, 2022. … More The threat of deep sea mining hangs over our ocean as negotiations in Jamaica close
This quote is from Greenpeace USA’s Arlo Hemphill, whom I spoke with recently in Kingston. The frightening thing about the push – the rush – towards deep sea mining is that the consequences are impossible to predict in their entirety, because we simply don’t know enough about the vast deep sea, the largest habitat in … More “We don’t even know the life down there”: Greenpeace sounds the alarm on destructive deep sea mining
Representatives of Greenpeace International are currently in Kingston. Why? They want to express their anxiety in the strongest way they can about the looming possibility of deep seabed mining, and along with the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, are calling for a moratorium on such activities. Greenpeace is one of the 32 non-governmental organizations who are … More Greenpeace expresses major concerns over deep seabed mining at International Seabed Authority
On March 17, during the Budget Debate in Parliament, Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced that the Cockpit Country Protected Area has now been officially designated and gazetted. Is that the end of this long story, with its many twists and turns? Well, not quite. You can find the Environmental Impact Assessments on the National Environment … More JET acknowledges the declaration of the Cockpit Country Protected Area, but..
Parts of the city of Kingston – the once-leafy suburbs in particular – are undergoing a wave of “development.” I put this word in quotation marks because, nine times out of ten, “development” (or “investment”) is basically about making money. Nothing wrong with that, you might say – but it cannot be unchecked and unregulated; … More Citizens’ Rights to the City: Community representatives request a meeting with Kingston’s Mayor
There comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness . . . that time is now. Wangari Maathai Last week (March 3) was World Wildlife Day with the theme “Recovering Key Species for Ecosystem Restoration.” In Kenya, it was also Africa Environment Day and Wangari Maathai Day – … More On World Wildlife Day, the Animal Kingdom is not thriving
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