University of Guyana forum on climate change

This forum was the tenth in the Turkeyen & Tain Talks by the University of Guyana and was held on November 30, 2017.

The event started with remarks by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ivelaw L. Griffith. In introducing the subject he made particular reference to a talk by Professor Mandle in 2016. There will be a follow-up post on the talk by Professor Mandle soon.

The chairman and moderator was Dr Paulette Bynoe, Dean of the Faculty of Earth and Envirnomental Sciences.

This was followed by brief remarks by Reuben Robertson of FAO.

Presidential Advisor Gary Best gave an overview of the issues from a Guyana perspective.

Ms Gomin Camacho spoke on agriculture and youth networking.

Ms Martina Duncan addressed aspects of managing climate change.

Mr Amir Dillawar spoke about climate change, youth and energy.

Dr Devon Gardner talked about Caribbean and energy issues relating to climate change.

The talks by Presidential Advisor Gary Best and Dr Devon Gardner were covered in more detail, especially in relation to oil, in a report by Demerara Waves.

Guyana - more storms?

Recently there seems to have been an increase in the incidence of damage from storms here in Guyana. Not having any other data I did a search in the Guyana Chronicle archives using the keyword "storm" and found relevant stories, excluding duplicates, as follows:

2010  2

2011  1

2012  2

2013  3

2014  3

2015  3

2016  2 

2017  6

Thus the first 4 years total 8 and the second 4 years total 14. 

Of course this is not proof but is highly suggestive that we are experiencing more damaging storms. Why should this be? Well climate change does predict stronger storms since the atmosphere contains more energy and more water.

It would be interesting to see if GPL or GTT are experiencing more poles damaged by storms.

Are we ready for future storms? What needs doing? What do house builders need to know?