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''' ''THE -CLIMATE
JUSTICE- TAP '' '''
ON THE WORLD STUDENTS SOCIETY - the exclusive ownership of every student in the world - and where the students of America lead, endless discussions on the burden of wealthy states emissions continue to grow ever more.
ACCORDING TO SOME ECONOMISTS - LOSSES AND DAMAGES from climate change are set to amount from $290 billion to $580 billion a year by 2030. And currently there is no finance stream to meet those costs.
''That means that money that should have gone to education, health care, and infrastructure is now being diverted to emergency response and rehabilitation and reconstruction, which puts developing countries into a vicious cycle of poverty and debt,'' said Harjeet Singh a senior adviser at Climate Action Network International.
''Finance is something that really rich countries, particularly the U.S., have made sure that there is no progress and not even discussion on.''
HURRICANES ARE SEEN AS THE EARTH'S MECHANISM for ferrying excess heat from the Equator towards the poles. With the surface temperature of the planet's oceans having increased nearly one degree Celsius, or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, since the pre-industrial era-
There is now more heat in the tropics, and so the planet's transfer of that heat has become more powerful; the storms qucker to intensify and lives of those in their paths more precarious.
Even small increases in hurricane strength can have catastrophic effects. According to the U.S. National Weather Service, doubling wind speed from 75 to 150 miles per hour can mean 256 times as much damage potential.
While the strongest hurricanes in the Bahamas' history once topped out at 160-miles-per- hour sustained wind speeds, Dorian's was 185 - a difference that on the same scale, means more than three times the damage power. For Bahamians, only a handful miles-per hour seem to span the differences tearing down power lines and tearing up concrete.
The consequences are immense. The damage Dorian inflicted on the Bahamas was estimated at $3.4 billion - about one-fourth of the country's 2019 gross domestic product. Historically, hurricanes kill very few people in the Bahamas, but Dorian officially killed nearly 100, and hundreds more remain missing.
MOST OF THESE GASES HAVE COME FROM the United States, China, European Union, Russia and other countries. Compared with them, the Bahamas' own emissions are tiny.
And yet it is the Bahamas, along with other small islands worldwide - like Antigua and Barbuda, the Maldives, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands - that are on the front lines of the climate crises.
Given the long known imbalances between those most culpable for climate change and those set to suffer most from it, the question who should be held accountable for losses and damages is not a new one. It has been asked for three decades and is even addressed in the Paris Agreement. The Accord is thought to have three pillars.
The first, ''Mitigation,'' mandates that countries commit to doing what they can to keep the rise in global average temperatures well below two degrees Celsius. The second, ''Adaptation'' concerns the preparation of infrastructure and communities to survive changes in the climate.
''Loss and Damage'' is third. It seeks to build support for joint financing, commensurate with different economies' contributions to climate change, to address all the destruction of resources, homes, ecosystems and livelihoods that Mitigation and Adaptation cannot prevent.
As the world's No.1 greenhouse gas emitter, the United States has extensively contributed to making hurricanes more powerful. Yet since the Paris Agreement, as the effects of climate change have worsened, the U.S. stance on Loss and Damage has remained the same.
''Loss and Damage is an existential issue for us,'' said a representative of the Alliance of Small Island States, the Belizean environment minister Omar Figueroa, at the most recent climate change conference in 2019.
''We need clear and predictable finance that we can access to really compensate for the loss and damage that so many of ours sister nations are feeling.''
U.S. representatives, however, operating under the Trump administration, continued to refuse discussions of finance, and privately underscored that doing otherwise would ''push the button of a certain man in the Oval Office.''
Grand Bahama and the Abacos were once covered in dark green foliage that complemented the emerald waters; now long stretches had faded to brown, even gray. Two-story waves had blown apart wide sections of shoreline.
Once-gorgeous mangrove swamps - habitat for algae and crabs and bonefish, and the land's defense against a storm's surge - where overwhelmed by Doarian's salt water, and large swaths of them lay dead, their brittle shells shimmering in the heat.
The same fate befell the abundant Caribbean pine trees, which takes decades to grow to their towering heights of over 100 feet, or 30 meters. They need fresh water to survive, so when the ocean stretched upon the land and sat there for days, it killed acres of them.
THE STAKES OF GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE remain incredibly high. Because this year's conference, in November in Glasgow, will be Biden administration's first, it has an excellent chance to raise its ambitions and finally allow a discussion about accountability to developing nations and small island states.
There's no other way to achieve climate justice, and no other way our countries can survive. So, the question of who should be held accountable for losses and damages is not a new one. It has been asked for three decades.
The Honor and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on Climate Change and The Wealthiest Nations contributions and solutions, continues.
The World Students Society thanks author Bernard Ferguson, a Bahamian poet and essayist, currently working on a book about climate change and small island states.
With respectful dedication to the Leaders, Students, Professors and Teachers of the World. See Ya all prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :
Good Night and God Bless
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