From the desert to the sea: Bahamas,
From the desert to the sea. The two countries could not be more far removed from each other. One is a semi-arid, landlocked country covered 70% by desert, while the other is an expansive nation of 3,000 islands in the Atlantic Ocean.
And yet both countries are amongst the nations most vulnerable to the intensifying effects of climate change, an existential crisis for both.
Each year, leaders from Botswana attend the global climate talks formally known as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). There, nations most responsible for the
He specifically refuses to call it hypocrisy, but Bahamas Prime Minister, Philip Davis, says the world’s developed nations most responsible for carbon emissions are saying one thing and doing another. The Bahamas, like Botswana, sits on the frontlines of climate change. He spoke exclusively to Staff Writer, MBONGENI MGUNI
world’s climate threats, make commitments to reduce pollution and increase funding for the globe’s most vulnerable countries.
And each year, both countries return to base to endure the harsh reality that the world is moving far too slowly, too reluctantly to stave off the worst effects of changing climate. Batswana this season have endured heatwaves since summer began in October, decimating crops while also killing livestock and wildlife. Botswana is geographically disadvantaged because it sits roughly in the middle of a landmass surrounded by large water bodies, the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. Local Met
Services department officials have said the oceans have more (heat) memory than land and take a long time to release heat.
Their 50 to 100-year projections show sharply increasing temperatures and lower rainfall.
Bahamas Prime Minister, Philip Davis, says the island nation’s crisis is even more treacherous.
“I’m an ocean state with several hundred islands spread over 400,000 square miles of water,” he said in an exclusive interview during his recent state visit.
“My landmass, just the sand, is less than three metres above sea level and the make-up of my landmass is limestone, so I’m not only concerned about rising seas.
“If nothing happens, my people will very soon be climate refugees.”
A perusal of The Bahamas government’s official digital channels shows that rising seas and the threat of islands disappearing are not the only manifestations of climate change for the country. The digital channels including social media, dedicate a lot of time to warning citizens about incoming hurricanes and similar harmful weather patterns.
While Botswana spends hundreds of millions of pula on subsidies for farmers and drought relief annually, Davis explains how climate change hits The Bahamas’ fiscus.
“Small countries like mine are vulnerable and I can tell you that the last hurricane we had cost my country $3.4 billion in losses when my annual budget revenue is under $3 billion,” he said.
“That one hurricane took my island for three days and the loss and damage was over $3 billion.
“You see the challenges we have.”
The crisis caused by climate change for both countries