Between Monday and today, at least one million residents of coastal areas in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina in the United States would have evacuated their homes, provided they followed the orders they were given in the face of Hurricane Florence, which is set to hit these areas by tomorrow. The evacuations were deemed necessary as it was likely that the fury of Florence could cause damage, injury and possibly loss of life.
Those were the immediate concerns. However, if the hurricane does make landfall where and, in the strength, expected between tonight and tomorrow, the ramifications extend way beyond those mentioned. For instance, coastal Virginia depends heavily on tourism as do parts of the Carolinas, while other areas focus on agriculture. Hurricane force winds and seawater off the Atlantic could seriously hurt both industries. And while damaged tourist attractions are one thing, saltwater on farmland is quite another.
Although they would never have experienced hurricanes, coastal Guyanese farmers are familiar with the damage saltwater can wreak on crops as the coastline is below sea level and the breakers, seawall and mangroves do not always manage to keep the sea out.
In fact, considering the current evidence, keeping the sea out is likely to become increasingly difficult. The evidence exists in the signs of climate change that are all around us. And those who continue to bury their heads in the sand could very well drown as a result. Or they just may starve.
In its 2018 edition of ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World’, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations said quite definitively that climate change was among the major reasons global hunger had risen for the third year in a row. But this did not suddenly occur. The FAO noted that extreme climate-related disasters had been steadily increasing, pointing out that there had been 213 of them, including extreme heat, droughts, storms and floods every year between 1990 and 2016. While this encompasses every region in the world, it is not difficult to realise that given variances in times for sowing and reaping and dealing with other farming troubles like crop and animal diseases, that extreme weather year after year must result in a decline in agricultural productivity. And there are places in the world where there is no sort of buffer and even the slightest shortfall in food availability could prove disastrous.
The FAO expressed concern that “the absolute number of undernourished people, i.e. those facing chronic food deprivation, has increased to nearly 821 million in 2017, from around 804 million in 2016.” It added that “in 2017, almost 124 million people across 51 countries and territories faced ‘crisis’ levels of acute food insecurity or worse, requiring immediate emergency action to safeguard their lives and preserve their livelihoods. This represents an increase compared to 2015 and 2016, when 80 and 108 million people, respectively, faced crisis levels.”
These statistics may seem abstract, after all they are global, but they are extremely pertinent. Aside from there being a known danger in not addressing an issue until it affects us directly, we must be honest and admit that Guyana has long lost its ‘food basket of the Caribbean’ status. And there has been much talk and not enough action targeted at regaining that status. Our markets and supermarkets are bulging with food items – there are no shortages. However, even a cursory look will confirm that the imports which adorn the shelves have been steadily growing. More than that, even imported produce – fruits and vegetables – has been on the increase.
While there is no dedicated data available, the population census might reveal how much agricultural land formerly under cultivation with rice and other crops now lies vacant. It will also indicate by how much the urban youth population has risen as against the decline in the rural youth population. One can join the dots and interpret that there is a likelihood that it will mean fewer farmers.
And while Guyana tends to be sheltered from hurricanes, it is affected by other extreme weather conditions. As climate change worsens it will see the intensification of flooding, drought and spring tides leading to the degradation of farmland and loss of livestock. And when hurricanes cause the same damage in other places, the resulting food shortage will be felt far beyond the directly affected area. The demand for food, for example, will rise and there will be a resulting price increase, or a shortage or both. Either way, regions not directly affected by the storms will be impacted as long as they are importing the same food items.
Another case in point, though dissimilar, is the calamity currently swamping Venezuela. It can be argued that the chaos is mostly political and definitely was not expected with Venezuela being oil-rich. Nevertheless, the shortage of food and other essential items ultimately led to Venezuelans becoming refugees. The neighbouring states to which Venezuelans are migrating, Guyana included, are constrained to provide food, housing, medical attention and education for children on humanitarian grounds whether they can actually afford to or not. The tentacles of problems affecting humanity have a way of being far-reaching, which only points to how linked we all are to each other and to the earth.
We can turn around the hunger statistics and address climate change. However, we all have to want to do these things as it would surely take all hands on deck.
