Cayman’s last chance saloon

| 26/07/2023 | 82 Comments

Theresa Green writes: As we all melt into Cayman’s ever-advancing concrete this summer, gasp at the soaring mercury around the world, watch opened-mouthed at the wildfires burning out of control and the floods wreaking havoc, only the most stupid or stubborn among us doubt that humans are in a whole lot of trouble. But it is also clear now that those with the power to fix it have no intentions of doing so.

As reported on CNS last week, the climate clock ticked below the six-year mark this past Saturday. That means the human race and those with the power and money to decide all of our fates have the smallest window of opportunity yet to reverse the accelerating warming of the planet by drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

But it’s pretty obvious that is not going to happen. 

At the weekend, the G20 wrapped up a four-day summit in India without reaching a deal to phase down the use of fossil fuels or commit to increased investments in solar, wind and other renewable energy sources. The countries that account for over three-quarters of global emissions also failed to agree on increasing investment in clean energy.

With no one coming to the rescue, including the United Kingdom, the people of Cayman must now demand that those in power and those who hold the purse strings here, in both the private and public sectors, take dramatic action to help these islands adapt to and mitigate the effect that climate change is having and will have on all our lives.

Adaptation is Cayman’s last chance saloon.

We can do nothing to change the global catastrophe that is coming, but we must begin to focus on what we can do here to survive it. We can prepare for the impact of rising seas, more ferocious storms, drier, hotter weather and clean up our own air. In line with the original catchphrase of the green movement, it is time to “think global but act local” and prepare our own yard for what is already upon us.

While we are going to need to do an awful lot, the priority has to be a massive programme of rewilding our lost natural habitat, especially protecting and, where possible, replanting mangroves. Wednesday was International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Wetlands. Month after month, we continue to see the loss of this natural habitat as we destroy wetlands to make way for development, usually luxury accommodation rather than affordable homes, to feed the real estate market and the demands of billionaires.

This means that the long-awaited development plan that government wants to roll out, which will no doubt pave the way for more development, needs to be scrapped. Cayman is crying out for a plan that draws a literal line in the sand for the concrete and re-imagines how we need to live. 

Development needs to stop.

And before our resident millionaires and billionaires and those aspiring to join that club begin clutching their costly pearls at the very idea, a moratorium on concrete luxury development will leave plenty of room for a new kind of money-making venture. The redevelopment of existing property and already man-modified land provides plenty of entrepreneurial opportunity for those with the intelligence to generate wealth.

For the majority of the one-percenters who have acquired their wealth by inheriting it or through ruthless or dishonest practices, polluting the world with chemical-based products, the new Cayman will no doubt prove challenging. But as they like to remind the poor working classes whose jobs get pushed out by development and modernisation: adapt or die.

Wealth can no longer be generated as it has been to date by the exploitation of the planet’s natural resources. The new wealth needs to come from reshaping the damage that has been caused here in Cayman as well as around the world. For genuine entrepreneurial money-makers, the new world of redevelopment and green technologies could be their oyster (albeit the only one they are likely to get).   

There will be plenty of work for the innovative and the imaginative, the salvage operators, scrap dealers, up-cyclers and re-users, as everything we tear down in this metamorphosis will need to be reconstructed as something else.

The redevelopment can start here with all of the hard structures that have been built too close to the ocean, from swimming pools to seawalls, and work its way through the concrete with which we have destroyed this paradise.

Coastal concrete erected over the last fifty years or so could be part of a massive managed retreat that will see those familiar sites that have caused beach erosion pulled back and rebuilt in new and innovative ways on much smaller footprints.

The acres and acres of concrete parking, which has become a comic absurdity as it is one of the few things that offends the sensitivities of the Central Planning Authority, leading to the refusal of an application, has to be addressed. Several years ago, during a public meeting to discuss the redevelopment of George Town — a long-running project that has barely gotten off the ground — officials revealed that there were almost 15,000 parking spaces in George Town at that time. Most of them are there as a result of the planning law requirements for each building in the capital.

But many stand empty day after day, reserved for that ‘just in case visitor’, unavailable to those that might need to park and do business elsewhere in the capital, while simply warming in the sun to the point where they make a convenient hot-plate for the growing number of homeless people now living here.

The stupidity of this is breathtaking.

Yet month after month, the CPA requires every planning applicant to tear down trees and other greenery to provide even more of this parking at a time when it is clear people need to get out of their cars. Our approach to development is not only insane, ad-hoc, misjudged and completely inappropriate for the modern world, it is adding to our future demise.

Endless new development remains our fundamental problem as we need to be doing the exact opposite. What remains of our natural world — in particular the wetlands and coastal lagoons, as well as primary dry forest habitat — we must plant many, many, many more trees.

Turning our attention to a new kind of greener redevelopment programme where we reuse and repurpose what we have already built by reducing the concrete footprint we can preserve and regrow the mangroves we continue to destroy. We can protect the coastlines, promote the return of bio-diversity, protect our dwindling marine diversity and encourage people to live differently. We can grow more food, have simpler lives, stop catching up with the ‘Ebanks’ and live in harmony with our environment, taking only want we need, not everything we desire.

There will be no room in the future for obscene opulence based purely on taking, destroying and consuming. To survive what is coming will require a new way of living and thinking.

In a small place like Cayman, we can do it. It is still possible for us to change and take a new approach. But we must begin now as it is almost too late, and the first job for all of us is to persuade the small percentage of people in our community that hold most of the power and the money that things need to be very different.

The rich can wait until we eat them, or they can help support new ways to feed us all before the last chance saloon closes.


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Category: Climate Change, Science & Nature, Viewpoint

Comments (82)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    If CO2 is the culprit that’s causing this climate change then everybody plant a tree each year? Why not paint all buildings including roof tops white? Let’s stop talking about rich people or developers. Let’s talk about what YOU are bringing to the table. Everyone needs to put in their efforts.
    One of the most egregious lies I ever heard was that swampland was going to stop storm surge. What we need to remember is history. Hurricanes destroy 90 percent of WOODEN HOUSES AND TREES. Not concrete. Concrete is still standing all around the world and is NOT impacted by surges or Hurricanes, Tornadoes or trees. Besides isn’t that what we should stop doing? No more cutting down trees for houses????
    We now hear that there is coral bleaching, surprise, surprise. Tim Austin said in a YouTube video that the George Town reefs are dying YEARS ago. No surprise if leftist Liberals will stop lying. Face the truth, you don’t want cruise tourism but the crowd leaves by 4:00 pm. Everybody has less cars and people after they’re gone. Nobody on the beach. What about after the pandemic? What happen ? Did you close your eyes and ears when real estate doubled? Would that have happened if we built cruise ship ports? NO, now what do you have, you can’t afford to buy a house. Smart real smart. Most of the people in business with cruise lines are OLD, they’re going to leave this world to be with the Father. You’re young you could step into their shoes.
    Cruise ship tourism started in 1937 and you all want to get rid of a major business that has grown overtime to create a good life for many families who are Caymanians? Nobody can own a taxi/tour business without a Caymanian passport. Facts!! I have a lot of ideas that could generate significant increases in money for enterprising young people. But how do the rest of the old people benefit? You all want us to stop our industry and work as what security officers? Seriously? Think again and come with a better solution. I VOTE BUILD THE DOCK, The coral reef is bleaching you can’t stop it. PLAN A Both Governments understand it needs to do it.

  2. Anonymous says:

    To everyone beating the drum of ‘Climate Change’:

    Are you sincerely ready and willing to absolutely surrender the very clothes off your backs and your privately acquired financial assets to fix this tattered crumbling world?

    Are you indeed sincerely ready and generous enough to truly surrender the very roof over your head to benefit the will of others?

    Make sure that you are ready!

    As the wheels are churning fast for a future of a global totalitarian regime that you never dreamed that is coming!

    By 2030: YOU will own NOTHING and be happy! Fixate on that promise, as by FORCE you shall without choice, give up everything!

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  3. Anonymous says:

    Climate Change has the possibility of claiming more lives than the previous World Wars.
    This is not a time to pussyfoot around.
    We need to minimize pollution and perhaps build dykes like they do in Holland.

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  4. Anonymous says:

    Do you really think Theresa that 2 billion people living in poverty and another 2 billion that live week to week really care about the human species and sustainability? They are already just trying to survive daily and weekly… but your’re worried about surviving in 20, 30, 40 years time. Western liberals like you Theresa really don’t get it.

    CNS: I’m trying to work out what your argument is here. Climate change will inevitably impact the poorest people of the world the most, and when disaster happens, such as floods, hurricanes, fires, famine, drought, etc, their governments will be the least able to help them. So you’re saying we should all just sit back and let that happen and watch future generations of poor people starve or die some other horrible climate-related death. Yes? That’s weird and extremely callous.

    The fight against climate change is global, and the challenge is to get the governments of the world, especially the rich ones, to change course. No one is trying to persuade a housewife in Burundi to use LED lights.

    Regardless of these facts, the thrust of Theresa’s argument – and that of the local activists – is to urge the Cayman Islands Government to prepare these islands for what is to come rather than to react after the fact. Is that really too much to ask?

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    • Anonymous says:

      Hat tip to CNS for the reply!

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    • Anonymous says:

      Climate change hurts poor people most of all. Ignoring/denying it is cruel. Your argument is ridiculous.

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    • Anonymous says:

      We all make the mistake of expecting “our leaders” to change things. While we wait for solar power and wind generated energy let’s realise that Fighting global warming is also in the hands of every Man and woman as individuals.
      So…Don’t drive to work, cycle.
      Don’t fly anywhere.
      Don’t go by sea unless it’s under sail…
      Nothing will change unless we change it….and not just talk about how it should be changed.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Is that you Jordan Peterson?

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  5. Anonymous says:

    The same people preaching death and gloom no matter what we do are the same people saying we will all be underwater, so why bother. Let us just vacate Cayman, there is no saving it.

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  6. Anonymous says:

    That’s what happens when you get all your information from YouTube and television news.
    I had to laugh at the “people are easily misled, usually by fear” bit, considering the anti-climate change contingent is so closely allied with right-wing politics that is mainly driven by creating fear in people!

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  7. Anonymous says:

    You have a relatively young society who are just fascinated by the shiny shiny and the money. Greed is the primary impulse just now and it’ll be too late before they realise it’s gone. Buy on the Bluff!

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    • Anonymous says:

      Bye on the Bluff

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      • Anonymous says:

        Now is the time to secure your parcel on the bluff..
        Even govt. are building there, new school etc.

        • Anonymous says:

          if govt. will do the right thing they will build the new police station on the bluff across from the Aston Rutty center. From there they will have entrance/exit both from the South and north sides main roads. stop paying rent at Stake Bay.

  8. Anonymous says:

    Development approvals from CPA, sea plastic pollution, single use plastic bans, glass crushing and recycling sorting, and climate change, are all different categories and sub-categories of societal and planet-wide malaise. Pick one. They are not all linked, interchangeable, or even of the same equivalence. Life on this planet has grave survival issues already underway now, long before sea level rise becomes newsworthy. Our future selves 2100 will be dealing with C02 levels 2x current levels. They’ll be focused on the simpler priorities: breathing filtered air, water, shelter, food, cool/heat and avoiding the acid rain, fires, and dust storms. At least they will understand that we needed to eat meat…or will they?

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  9. Anonymous says:

    well written ViewPoint…unfortunately practically nobody takes this seriously and nothing will change. Human nature is to wait until, as we say, “a rooster pecks your butt”.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Including the people that write these scaremongering diatribes. No doubt they are still driving ther gas guzzling SUVs back and forth. It’s mostly just talk and no action.

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  10. Anonymous says:

    Do people really think that the billionaires and millionaires are investing all this money in Cayman real estate without doing any research on climate change and sea levels? C’mon Man!

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    • Anonymous says:

      Bro they destroying our country and taking the money and run. Cayman is the strip club for the outside world. When it’s done it’s done.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Hey buddy. I think you’ll find the biggest developers wrecking the island are Caymanian. They ain’t running anywhere other than to the bank.

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        • Anonymous says:

          i bet if you ask them where their 3rd, 4th and vacation homes are it wouldn’t be in Cayman.

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    • Anonymous says:

      🤣🙉

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    • Anonymous says:

      Money laundering through real estate integrates illicit funds into the legitimate financial system while also providing the criminal with a relatively “safe” property investment. This can include the purchase of houses, apartments, office space, factories, hotels, vineyards, etc.

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    • Anonymous says:

      These are short term investments for most of them, they will cash out and haul ass long before it all goes to hell.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Their insurance will pay out when the condo falls in to the ocean…

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  11. Anonymous says:

    Earth from Space documentary,
    48:08 “The climate we live in is a result of ocean circulation patterns…and it all takes root in Antarctica…”
    “…Antarctica helps protect Earth’s climate from wild swings in temperature the constant dependable circulation of the oceans around the globe and the relatively stable temperatures it produces have made Earth a hospitable planet, long term stability provided time for life to flourish and complex animals and plants to evolve”
    watch this documentary, it is available for free in the internet.

    If we are able and actually do intervene in the above process of the oceans circulations, then help us God.

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    • Anonymous says:

      🌊Speaking of the Oceans circulations…..

      According to a new study, the Atlantic Meridional Circulation, which includes the Gulf Stream, could collapse due to global warming between 2025 and 2095, with the most likely peak being 2050.

      It is unlikely that the Gulf Stream will completely stop or disappear. It will rather begin to transfer most of its waters towards Portugal, that is, the southern branch will intensify, and the northern branch, which is called the North Atlantic Current may weaken.

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      • Anonymous says:

        one more reason to watch this documentary to understand the oceans circulations and Earth’s climate…

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  12. Anonymous says:

    Wow talk about over reacting to El Niño!

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  13. Anonymous says:

    The rich are preparing their little spaceships and space stations to live out the disaster and anhilation of the bottom-feeding “consumer class” which the rich feel are the actual problem and real contributors to global warming because of the population of said consumer class versus the population of the ultra-wealthy.

    In other words, the weekly private jet trips would not be a pollution issue without the frequent commercial flights and the $5k pair of heels would not create the environmental chaos of producing 5 million pairs of $5 flip-flops.

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  14. Anonymous says:

    All the name calling doesn’t convince. The hysteria is far out of control.

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    • Anonymous says:

      These islands need to prepare for future climate threats though. Look at the Maldives, they say by 2050, it will be uninhabitable due to rising sea levels and already the citizens there are moving elsewhere. Cayman is right on the sea level and we’ve literally seen 7MB (now 5.5 mile beach) erode away due to this.

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      • Anonymous says:

        The hysteria out of control poster has a vested interest in more development. An enemy of the environment.

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        • Anonymous says:

          No, but I do live on the beach.

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          • Anonymous says:

            Ask a dive company owner or employee if coral bleaching is hysteria

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          • Anonymous says:

            Exactly where on Cayman has the sea risen to critical levels without man made erosion? Where are all the devastating hurricanes forecast following Ivan? And who thinks driving owning a Tesla on an island powered by diesel is a good idea!

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    • Anonymous says:

      Wrong. The minimizing is out of control.

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  15. Anonymous says:

    Last week, the Central Planning Authority (CPA) boastfully approved over CI$500 million worth of new development -including this 10-storey Westin project!! Incessant concrete and adjoining asphalt!!

    They don’t care! They blindly follow moronic Government “policies” or directives without any question or counsel!

    This Government is hell bent on swelling our population to 130,000 (that’s the directive to pertinent SAGC Boards) and, of course, providing concrete to match!

    Meanwhile, July 2023 is the hottest month on record locally and globally!

    Per Cayman Island Government, there is ABSOLUTELY NO connection between less greenery, more concrete and more pavement and hotter local temps!!

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    • Chris says:

      I imagine that you live, work and shop in structures that incorporate concrete and get to & from them every day by driving on asphalt, but that’s OK because it’s you, right?

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  16. Anonymous says:

    I won’t call anyone “stupid or stubborn” to get my point across, this is not how we should debate, certainly not by calling names.

    I do agree with “humans are in a whole lot of trouble…. those with the power to fix it have no intentions of doing so.”

    The main question in global warming discussions remains unanswered: Are we seeing, able to see, the Elephant in the room? Nobody agrees, neither among scientists, nor among general population on what is going on, who or what is to blame.

    It’s easy to adopt the mainstream ideas, wich are being pushed down our throats 24×7 that fossil fuels, livestock farming, meat eating are at fault, while completely closing our eyes and ears to the facts that electrical cars, horticulture, “green” sources of energy have if not equal, but close enough carbon footprint.

    In my opinion, the number one catastrophe the Planet earth facing is plastic pollution, for it affects the homeostasis of the oceans.

    Humans might have a chance if the Oceans are still able to maintain homeostasis; remember that life originated in the ocean, and that is where it will end first, dragging the rest of the living things on planet Earth along.

    I’m not a scientist, but it is a common sense that microplastic on the surface of the oceans affects our climate regulation and generation of the oxygen we breathe.

    We are conducting one Frankenstein’s experiment in the oceans, by allowing it to be covered by plastic in various degradation stages AND are proposing the craziest of all experiments: solar geoengineering.

    We can do something about the catastrophic plastic pollution of the oceans, but won’t be ever able to reverse solar geoengineering and mitigate its consequences. The Planet Earth would turn into a dead planet for good.

    So please stop parroting what you hear on the news, use your common sense when looking into the causes and solutions. You don’t know what you don’t know.

    P.S.
    #1 Billions of pounds of plastic can be found in swirling convergences that make up about 40 percent of the world’s ocean surfaces. At current rates plastic is expected to outweigh all the fish in the sea by 2050.
    #2 check The Ocean Cleanup site to see the scale of devastation. May be offer your expertise, volunteer, donate, or just educate others. But the most important acton everyone must take is to demand a ban on disposable plastic.

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    • Anonymous says:

      I bet some young and so young Caymanians would want to volunteer for The Ocean Cleanup project.
      What they’d learn, skills they’d get, would greatly benefit the future of the Cayman Islands environment protection.
      https://theoceancleanup.com/help-clean/

      CIG or private companies could sponsor Cayman youth whohttps://theoceancleanup.com/careers/jobs/volunteers/

      “To succeed in our mission, we hire dedicated, fully focused, and out-of-the-box thinking employees.
      If you are a master problem solver and are willing to do whatever it takes to rid the world’s oceans of plastic, we want you at The Ocean Cleanup.”

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  17. Anonymous says:

    your argument will be better supported if you stick to facts and refrain from bland generalities, cliches and somewhat offensive stereotypes.

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  18. Anonymous says:

    you mean well but your argument is lost when you say ‘development needs to stop.’
    this is a nonsensical soundbite which means nothing and is impractical. developments is eesential to our existence but of course should be done in the most sustainable way possible.

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    • Anonymous says:

      “Development is essential to our existence” – good grief man, development and developers did not reach here until the 80s.

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      • Anonymous says:

        oh wow…so people lived in trees with no roads, buildings…etc????
        zzzzzzzzzzzzz
        most obsurd comment ever.

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        • Anonymous says:

          Most did

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        • Anonymous says:

          Well known fact that the development boom took off in the 80s when the population was a little over 15,000 and ramped up expotentially with Dart investment and the increase of foreign investment and tourism.
          Are you foreigner, developer or realtor, say say!

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          • Anonymous says:

            You got your facts wrong. Development started before that and Dart didn’t start developing until after 2000. Look it up.

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            • Anonymous says:

              Dart arrived here in the 90’s and started buying land, but the development was much later (Camana Bay was delayed and not started until this century).

      • Anonymous says:

        Hotels were here from the 50’s. Mid-70s is when the big development boom started.

  19. Anonymous says:

    Excellent article but still the elephant in the Cayman room goes unmentioned and unquestioned. The CUC monopoly and their commitment to fossil fuel. CUC and successive Governments have spent 20 years actively avoiding alternate solutions with CUC investing heavily in fossil fuel reliance. Real progress can only begin when the monopoly is removed.

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  20. Anonymous says:

    I’m perplexed as to how the certainty of your viewpoint came into being. It’s as if history never happens. And whatever the news cycle screams loudest and most relentlessly must be correct. And yet we have to listen to it time and again as people are simply unable to see past the noise.

    We are 1 degree above the coldest its been in the last 10,000 years on average and 2 degrees cooler than its been. But dont let history tell you anything.

    The recent high temperatures are nowhere near global records. Most countries are actually having cooler summers this year. Climate changes all the time. It used to be called Global warming, but the globe isn’t actually warming in any way beyond what it normally does very few thousand years. And nowhere near every few million years.

    we were told the ozone was collapsing in 10 years time…30 years ago. Acid rain would destroy all crops in 10years, that was in 1980. Ice caps all gone in 10 years. that was in 2000. its all nonsense. As are electric vehicles when looked at as ‘green’ – go look at the lithium mines. And don’t get me started on wind farms. My gosh, how corrupt money makes people and how easily misled the masses of us are. Simply because we’re incapable of framing anything beyond our immediacy. And those who stand to make a lot of money cannot believer we’re falling for the latest trick.

    Humans are not affecting the warmth of the oceans or the level of mercury in your thermometer. But that doesn’t the narrative you’re being bludgeoned with daily.

    Oceans will rise and then will fall. It will happen over the coming 00’s of 000’s of years whether you use a plastic fork or not. The UK used to be in a tropical climate. It also used to be covered in ice.

    People are so easily misled, usually by fear. Similar happened with Covid. People don’t even realize they’re scared, and that their ability to rationalize is impaired.

    CO2 makes up 0.04% of the atmosphere. Humans dont even contribute 0.4% of that 0.04%! This is fact. The world was on fire millions of years ago and yet we hadn’t driven a car then.

    The world will burn long after humans leave. And it will also freeze. Just as it did before.

    I’m not sure about how much (if any) CO2 or other harmful pollutants a giant volcano spews into the atmosphere, but i think its more than my Honda Civic.

    Climate change (new brand for global warming), it has nothing to do with human activity. But don’t let history get in the way of your fearful inability to logically rationalize.

    if you’re able to look beyond yesterday, last year, last decade and properly review millions and millions of years you will indeed see that the world is warming…but that it’s going to warm anyhow. HUman intervention is zero. Nothing. None of what we do matters. The world will warm again before it cools again.

    Sea levels fluctuate about 300-400 meters over time. Worrying about the latest 10 storey tower on SMB isn’t going to stop that happening again. But dont worry, you wont be around to witness it. Neither will any of us. But it wont have anything to do with me not owning a Tesla.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Man, that’s a whole lot of writing just to say you don’t believe in climate change.

      People like you would be standing on the stern of the Titanic telling everyone to calm down, the ships not sinking, after all your feet are still dry.

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    • XRebellion says:

      A scientist I wager not but we have plenty crabs here in Cayman (but they too are dwindling of course).

      SO this is where PEOPLE POWER has to take center stage. We cannot allow the billionaire class and their paid for representatives to destroy our ecosystems for record profits without a fight. We must act like we have three years to save ourselves, because potentially we do. Regardless of the date of collapse of the AMOC (do look that one up), our children deserve better. Their parents and grandparents have failed them. Their teachers have failed them. Their politicians have failed them. We must ask ourselves “If not now, then when? if not us, then who?”

      So let’s agree with the author as the alternative is not working.🤔

      🟢Protect our environment
      🟠Halt overexpansion
      🔴Stop duplicity

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    • Anonymous says:

      What an absolute load of complete rubbish. I feel dumber having read this drivel…

      for one, CO2 sits higher up in the atmosphere than other greenhouse gasses and trap more heat. It’s concentration has doubled since the industrial revolution and while .04% doesn’t sound like much, as it continues to increase its going to cause major problems.

      For two, your “300 to 400” meter fluctuation of ocean levels claim. you neglect to mention this change is over eons.

      For three, human intervention in the form of raising carbon in the atmosphere is causing the planet problems. It just is and the scientific consensus on this problem is quite set in stone.

      This counter culture attitude sickens me. It’s stupid people thinking they know better than the best scientists in the world. Ridiculous…

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    • Anonymous says:

      @ 7:40 am

      You must be a Republican! A member of the most dangerous”gang” on the planet.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Thank you for a refreshing logical opinion. Man does not have the power to change the temperature of planets. That is reserved for greater beings.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Conservative nuts will be our doom. There are so many factual errors and stupid comments in that post above. It’s 2023. This stuff isn’t new anymore. Everyone should understand global warming by now. But you can’t educate people like this. Their brains have been so thoroughly rotted by YouTube videos and conservative propaganda that they are lost causes. What can we do? There’s so many of them.

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  21. Anonymous says:

    Excellent article and well-written

    THIS is the way forward !

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  22. Anonymous says:

    6 reasons to blame plastic pollution for climate change
    https://blogs.worldbank.org/endpovertyinsouthasia/6-reasons-blame-plastic-pollution-climate-change

    Researchers from the University of Hawaii, Manoa have discovered startling new evidence that the breakdown of plastics on land and in the ocean is producing an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/yes-everyday-plastics-are-emitting-greenhouse-gases/
    “Our research shows that as the plastic breaks down in the ocean the greenhouse emissions increase dramatically — up to 488 times MORE than in pellet form.”

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  23. Anonymous says:

    Are we barking up the wrong tree? It is really fossil fuels and cows?

    The fundamental links between climate change and marine plastic pollution. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969721054693

    Some of the greatest dangers of plastic lie precisely in the harmful effects related to the toxicity of its degradation.

    One of the MOST MISUNDERSTOOD facts about marine plastic pollution is that it DIRECTLY contributes, through its slow degradation, to the increase of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere and plays a CATALYTIC role in global warming.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Ocean plastic is a serious pollution and toxicity issue for sure. But it’s not the lead driver of climate change. The high consensus findings from thousands of contributing experts to the UN intergovernmental panel on climate change are contained in the (mostly unread) assessment reports here: http://www.IPCC.ch

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  24. Anonymous says:

    Class warfare. Blah blah blah blah. Rich evil.

    Do try to make a cogent argument based on facts and not your emotions.

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  25. Anonymous says:

    Avoid the rush.
    Mutate now.

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    11

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