Climate pressures increasing

| 06/08/2019 | 29 Comments
Cayman News Service, Rising seas, climate change

(CNS): More headlines this week point to the increasing pressures of climate change, but the Cayman Islands Government has still not completed its Climate Change Policy, which has been in the works for eight years. The latest cause for alarm is that scientists have found the rate of global sea level rise began accelerating 30 years earlier than previously thought. Meanwhile, on Tuesday a group of Pacific islands declared an official crisis as they face the loss of their islands as soon as 2030 due to sea level rise.

The Nadi Bay Declaration was signed by the leaders of Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Timor-Leste and Tonga on the second of the two-day Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF) Leaders’ Summit hosted by Fiji. As countries on the front-line of climate change, they are demanding a stop to all new coal mining, an end to fossil fuel subsidies, and for states to meet their obligations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

But the threat of rising sea levels is not confined to the Pacific. The Cayman Islands are also vulnerable and, like all island states, at the mercy of what the world’s leading economies do to reverse carbon emissions. Local activists are therefore saying we must do more to protect ourselves from future effects of climate change.

Critical actions necessary include conserving mangroves and coral reefs. But instead, coastal development continues unabated, while the government plans to destroy multiple acres of coral in the George Town Harbour to accommodate the cruise berthing project and continues to work on gutting the National Conservation Law.

A new study published in Nature shows that the acceleration of world sea levels began in the 1960’s and not the 1990’s. This jump in the rate of sea level rise was caused by expansion from warming oceans. Lead researcher Sonke Dangendorf from the University of Siegen in Germany explained that the acceleration has continued but it is now combined with and dominated by ice melt.

See the Climate Change Policy in the CNS Library


CNS continues to draw attention to environmental issues. Please consider supporting independent journalism in the Cayman Islands.


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Category: Science & Nature

Comments (29)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Doesn’t the Bible say, the world will be destroyed this time round by fire? You know the fire of the sun. Our disregard for nature, cutting down trees and bush, the ozone, our sins, our money, our greed … oh yeah, the world burning indeed. But in a slow and painful way. The heat is going to get worse if we don’t act.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Ignorance is certainly bliss and it is obviously very much alive in the hearts and souls of many of youse nothing to do blabbers on this post. Climate change is real the artic ice is melting, unprecedented heat waves, rising tides and sea temperatures etc.

      What we really have here is a government which is only focused on the spend $’s economic theory of the more you spend the more you gain. The truth is the people living here all a we na gaining nothing, a dump that can be seen miles away, now a port that has no real estate surrounding it go amply accomodate cruise guests, trees being mowed down every where, ever increasing car importation and little boys attempts to fix the traffic with roundabouts and stop lights, rampant construction to satisfy the $ investment yet no evident planned real infrastructure upgrades man I’m running out lf breath here.

      What we also have Kosa bunch of bways playing government who don’t yet know how to clean themselves properly , yet continue to eat from the fruit of the table that others led the way in preparing and these these ( you all find the words) persist in destroying for self and locket aggrandiosement.

      Indeed we have a failure to communicate and we the people are to blame because we have given them the power to destroy us day by day.

  2. Stop being frogs climate change is real says:

    Just because the danger isn’t blatantly obvious doesn’t mean the evidence for climate change can be swept under a rug. You know what they say about frogs, put one in boiling water right away it will jump out but, put the frog in warm water brought to a boil slowly, it will not perceive any danger and will be cooked to death.

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  3. Anonymous says:

    Hello why you think Dart wants 50 storey towers built on top of tunnels built over roads, he raised it 20+ feet over sea level, so that buys them a few more years. Atlantis anyone lol

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    • Anonymous says:

      Dart has been noting what has been going on in Miami where flooding is now a monthly occurrence along the beachside areas with hotels and high rise condos.

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  4. Anonymous says:

    The Cayman Islands will be floating Barges if the world doesnt get its shit together.

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    • Anonymous says:

      I hate to break it to you but the world isn’t going to get it’s act together. 4bn+ people want our standard of living.

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      • Anonymous says:

        We would rather die than give up our shiny things is what you would call not getting it together.

      • Anonymous says:

        Sorry to tell you 3:28, but our standard of living simply is not sustainable on Grand Cayman as we aim for over a 100,000 people and then a million people.

        Our quality of life is deteriorating every day here. Just wait till we have 50 storey buildings. Wake up Bobo.

  5. Anonymous says:

    Based in the seal level rise of approximately 20 centimeters since 1900 claimed by the religion of Global Warmist, and factoring the acceleration curve they claim stared in the 20’s and through the industrial revolution, that puts sea level rises in the vicinity of roughly 4-5 inches of sea-level rise from 1970 to now.

    Anyone that has lived on the ocean most of their lives can tell you with 100% certainty, that’s a load of complete bullshit. The sea has not risen by 4-5 inches since 1970 unless you’re hallucinating from the cult kool-aid, or, magically the seas only rises in certain parts of the world, and if that sort of idiocy is the case, it means we don’t need to worry about the seas rising in Cayman.

    Critical thinking people, don’t swallow the leftist kool-aid.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Science is about reality. When you politicize it you make yourself not only dim but vulnerable to manipulation by others. Scientific facts don’t care about your religion, who you vote for, or how many hours per day you watch Fox News. The reality remains.

      #lame

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      • Anonymous says:

        It’s hilarious to see all the disciples of the Doomsday Cult, always talk about FACTS (but can’t recite a single one other than the earth is warming because of man) and throwing around ad-hominem attacks, yet always evade any actual questions and continue to hide behind their 97% deity.

        I’m not the religious one, I just don’t accept yours hook line and sinker pigeons eating crumbs with zero thought process.. Have you bought your raft yet pigeon?

        #pigeons

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        • Anonymous says:

          It must be hard to be humble when you walk around every day under the delusion that you know more about global climate science than thousands of professional global climate scientists. Just curious, why do you think you trust Fox News morons and idiot right-wing politicians over actual scientists on this issue? Look within. Why? Just tribal conservatism? Is it that simple? If so, that’s sad. You do know that in some countries it’s okay to be a conservative and also accept climate change, right? The crazy American model is not the only way. This is your planet, too. You belong to humanity, too. Grow up. Move on from the oil company talking points and elevate your thinking. You can do it.

          #lame

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        • Anonymous says:

          Stop just saying shit

    • Anonymous says:

      you are the only one drinking the youtube conspiracy kool-aid.
      in science we trust.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Yes, the seas will have New York under 50 fee of water by 2100! …. And how much of the 2006 and 2009 of your god Al Gore predictions came true?

        ZERO! not even close!

        You call me a kool-aid drinking conspiracy theorist?!!? Keep drinking the kool aid and pay those carbon taxes!

        HAHAHAHAHAHA! Hilarious

        #Pigeons

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    • Anonymous says:

      Poster seems to be an un-educated troll.

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    • Anonymous says:

      11:56, Well I guess the people who run the City of Miami have all swallowed the so called leftist kool aid. Look at the City of Miami website and all their initiatives to prevent flooding on their waterfront. It is a real problem and people there will not say it’s a load of complete bullshit.

      Suggest you go to Miami, stay on the waterfront and see for yourself. Sorry to say but it is you who swallowed the kool aid and are delusional.

      You can be saved though, just open your eyes and open your brain to facts about rising seas and global warming which are abundant in Miami.

  6. C Braggs says:

    You realise in 2050 we wont be around to prove them wrong so you’re being lied to! Plus the planet will only be around for the next 10 yrs which makes this prediction
    already obsolete ……what a pile of crock!!!

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    • Anonymous says:

      What??? “The planet will only be around for the next 10 yrs”? Please tell us where you got this information! You haven’t been talking with God, have you?

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      • Boris says:

        That was predicted a few weeks ago, by none other than, the future King of England, The Prince of Wales. The prince gives us 10 years and it will all be over. Thats why he is living it up, even taking a staring roll in the next James Bond movie. Bravo Charles

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  7. Anonymous says:

    climate change is beyond the grasp of the average caymanian.
    when was the last time you heard an mla discuss rising sea levels???

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    • Johnny Rotten says:

      Shushhhh, you’ll upset the real estate industry.
      Let the bag heads keep kidding themselves. Besides that wall of ignorance is still strong, getting higher and will Cayman from hypothetical sea level rise.

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  8. Anonymous says:

    See the 2050 sea level sign on the beach? That’s a scientific sign put there by one of the 97%

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