Dear Editor,
A recent study published on March 8th in the journal Nature Geoscience found that if the planet’s temperature rose beyond the targets set by the Paris Agreement that life in the Tropics for humans may become beyond human tolerability. This was primarily due to the resulting heat and humidity that would prevent the cooling of the body due to the temperature differential between our internal and ambient temperature (heat and humidity considered). In other words the temperatures would surpass the “survival limit” as noted in this month’s Phys.Org article: Global warming could make survival in the Tropics impossible written by Amy Norton.
This begs the question as to why is our energy strategy aiding in the detrimental course of increasing the planet’s temperature? All of the money and investment gained from our oil & gas exploits will be useless if the planet’s temperature reaches the point where the survival of human life in the Tropics is threatened. Fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas are cited as key contributors to such a disastrous outcome.
A course correction in our energy strategy is urgently needed. Guyana and the other members of the Guiana Shield need to aggressively lead and support efforts to limit the planet’s temperature increase. The global push to use Hydrogen as a key energy resource and the options of Wind, Solar and Wave energy should be the focus of our energy strategy. Without such a course correction Guyana as we know it may no longer be habitable for humans in the future in the way it is today. World leaders are setting the example by making such a shift in their energy strategy and even Saudi Arabia is making a mega investment in fossil fuel alternatives with the city of Neom.
If we as a country do not set the correct example and show our commitment to ensuring that Guyana is safely preventing climate change, others who are in safer zones of the planet will not be as concerned about the future plight of the Guyanese people. Who would have thought that our beautiful country’s future would hinge on 1.5 degrees Celsius? This is crucial to prevent us from reaching the current limit of human adaptation to heat.
With concern,
Jamil Changlee
Chairman
The Cooperative
Republicans of Guyana
