Baker

Two recently reported comments provide significant insight into the nature and scale of the challenge faced by those seeking to effect positive policy and behavioural change in matters environmental in Jamaica.

In one instance a senior member of the Government, when receiving the report which Jamaica prepared for its participation in the international conference on climate change currently taking place in Copenhagen, commented that the threats to coastal communities and the hotel sector was an "insurance problem". So much for the recommendations presented in the report to mitigate this threat.

In the second instance, a newspaper feature on the continuing problem of violence in schools reports a clinical psychologist as dismissing the arguments about the value of the provision of green space in addressing this problem. I wonder if he is the one advising the Ministry of Education on its safety policy which is apparently encouraging the removal of anything which could be used as a weapon, including tree branches (and therefore trees), from the school compound? It seems that the lunatics have indeed taken over the asylum.

commending Jamaican media

The Little Bay cove in Westmoreland is lined by the south coast's most beautiful remaining white-sand beaches. - File

By and large, the Jamaican media are to be commended for its coverage of the United Nations Climate Change Summit. But how meaningful is this coverage for the average Jamaican? To what extent do the negotiations about whether the targeted reduction in greenhouse gas emissions should be 2 or 1.5°C mean anything? Why should we at least pause to celebrate the fact the government of Tuvalu struck a blow for the survival of small island states and brought the conference (at least temporarily) to a halt on Wednesday when it demanded the 1.5 °C target?

Tuvalu is a Pacific island chain where the impact of climate change cannot be disputed. One-tenth the size of the parish of Kingston (not Kingston & St Andrew) with a total population of about 12,000, Tuvalu is the smallest island nation in the world. It is facing a future (not a threat) of complete disappearance beneath the sea, unless the large developed and developing countries (like China and India) agree to reduce drastically the way they are using Earth's resources. They are already losing their people who are migrating to places like New Zealand in increasing numbers rather than waiting on inundation of their homes, villages and farms by the waters of the Pacific.

Tuvalu's demand for enforceable targets and for resources to help small developing countries reduce the impact of climate change is in fact what is needed. It will not be met. But it might help to strengthen the resolve of those countries that are most at risk and unify them against pressures both from the large industrial countries like the United States and from the large industrialising countries like China and India to eke out an agreement that may buy them a little more time.

limited benefits without change

However, the efforts of countries like Tuvalu, along with the work of community-based, national and international environmental groups will produce limited benefits, if change does not happen at the political level within individual countries as well. This is where statements like those made by our clinical psychologist come into sharp focus. We already have to deal with the short-sightedness and self-serving character of some of our political leaders. We know that the pressure of surviving the next round at the polls makes many of them do things which are not even in their own much less the people's interest. We should be able to hope, however, that trained professionals would at least pause to take into consideration the overwhelming evidence before giving voice to nonsense.

A study of pre-school children in Stockholm that has just been published in the Journal of Health and Place found that children whose playgrounds had more exposure to trees and the sky were more attentive and less disruptive in their classes. Another study in the Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association found that children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) became more focused just by walking in a "green environment". Similar results have been produced in studies involving older children, college students and adults. While not always being the sole cause, opportunities for exposure to natural environments improved mental health and strengthened coping skills.

However, two studies produced findings which I think help to make the point (for which I make no claim to ownership) that initiating and sustaining positive environmental change is not just about changing individual behaviour, but also requires political action. Susan Strife at the University of Colorado identified that fact that the urban children in her study were becoming what she called "ecophobic". That is, confronted by the scale of the environmental challenge, their own sense of powerlessness at being able to produce lasting change was making them pessimistic and avoidant of environmental issues.

environmental advocacy

Another University of Colorado study which looked at several environmental education programmes found that students who lacked a belief in their ability to effect change, and who had limited experience of or ability to work collectively to achieve a common goal, were less likely to convert their environmental awareness into environmental advocacy.

There is a large and comprehensive body of research about the threats to the Jamaican environment conducted by the University of the West Indies (UWI) and other agencies. The most recent studies about the hazards facing our coastal communities are a case in point. The Department of Marine Geology at UWI has extensive data on what is happening to our beaches and coastlines. For example, the shoreline of the village of St Margaret's Bay in Portland has been eroded by some 10 metres (33 feet) in just two years. At the other end of the island in Westmoreland, for the fishing village located at Homer's Cove and Little Bay, the threat is from boulders bigger than the average human thrown up by waves from the sea.

Residents of villages all across this island, whether in places like Little Bay in the West, Farquhar's Beach in southern Clarendon, or Galina in St Mary in the north are all able to assist the UWI scientists to track the changes that are happening to their coastal communities. Unfortunately, none of these community interests have the resources to purchase insurance, even if they could find an insurance company willing to do business with them. They do have other ideas, however, about what could be done to mitigate the impact of the hazards they face.

The UWI scientists similarly make perfectly reasonable recommendations about our need to reduce our dependence on tourism, and thereby reduce the continued expansion of tourism properties on the shoreline. They point to the need to revise planning standards to ensure that this reduction takes place. (Fat chance this recommendation will have of being implemented given all the policy statements about 'fast-tracking' 'development' applications.)

'Get organised''

So how can we bring ourselves back from the folly of the path upon which we have embarked? This is where the advice UWI scientists gave to the people attending the community awareness meeting in Galina comes in. "Get organised". No one is going to pay you and your ideas any mind if you do not engage in organised action. And this is the hard part. This is the part that needs to engage not just the environmental lobby, but also school teachers, church workers, all of us who relate to citizens young or old.

We need to regain the belief in our capacity to make a difference. The problem is not so much that we are not aware of what needs to be done. The problem is that too many of us have given up, have in fact handed over our capacity to make things happen to the same persons we criticise for making a mess of things.

We need to follow the example of Tuvalu. Faced with extinction, they are refusing to allow the waves to simply inundate them. Instead, they raised their small voice and succeed in stopping the great and the mighty, even for a short time.

Peta-Anne Baker is the coordinator of the Social Work Programme at the University of the West Indies, Mona. She may be contacted at pab.ja2009@gmail.com,or send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com