St Vincent, Grenadines. Photo source: © SAF — Coastal Care
Excerpts;
A World Bank report released yesterday has put the economic value of the Caribbean Sea to the region — to include all its services, from fishing, transport, trade, tourism, mining, waste disposal, energy, carbon sequestration and drug development — at US$407 billion per year. It is projected to nearly double by 2050.
In tandem with that increase in economic activity and earning is a projected rise in the number of threats to the ocean from the very activities which it supports.
“In the Caribbean Sea, 70 per cent of beaches are eroded due to destroyed reefs, sea level rise, [and] excessive coastal development. Eighty per cent of living coral is now dead and lost, 85 per cent of wastewater is untreated and dumped into the sea. By 2030, plastics will surpass the weight of fish in the sea,” said World Bank senior economist and co-author of the report, Pawan Patil…
Read Full Article, Jamaica Observer (09-14-2016)
Beijing highway: $600m road just the start of China’s investments in Caribbean; Guardian UK (12-26-2015)
Stretching some 67 km north to south across Jamaica, the $600m four-lane nicknamed the “Beijing highway, is the single biggest investment by the Chinese in the Caribbean. This project is also prelude of the building of a $1.5bn deep water container port on islands off the south coast ,using dredging and land reclamation to accommodate mega ships coming through the expanded Panama Canal…
“We in the Caribbean Are Living Climate Change”; IPS News (12-10-2013)
While for some, in the international community, climate change is an academic discussion or some sort of esoteric concept, for the Caribbean people, climate change has become a reality…
Stinking Mats of Seaweed Piling up on Caribbean Beaches; ABC News (08-18-2015)
