Social Impact with Emma » drought : A Jamaica Gleaner Blog

Jamaica’s Ability to Respond to Natural Disasters Is Almost Non-Existent

January 11th, 2018

On Tuesday night, while many of us were tucked up in bed, a tsunami alert for Jamaica and other islands went out, triggered by a huge earthquake between Honduras and the Cayman Islands, for an hour or so; it was then discontinued. The next day, there were some careless and downright silly comments on social […]

Those Neglected Places That We Don’t Want to Care About

May 14th, 2017

Here’s an important question, in this “information age” where we try to know everything about everywhere (at least superficially): How is it that there are some parts of the world that we simply ignore? No matter what disasters befall these places, we just shrug shoulders and move on. That is, if these places ever make […]

The Puzzling Silence of ODPEM as Hurricane Season Approaches

May 6th, 2017

The 2017 Hurricane Season begins on Thursday, June 1. We are currently under a flash flood watch, which has been issued for all parishes over the weekend. Here we go again, I hear you say… Barely two weeks ago, after a couple of days of rain, a large built-up area in Clarendon was awash with […]

Tackling Climate Change on Several Fronts

March 1st, 2017

Despite what the new President of the United States says, climate change is real. It is with us, here and now. I believe developing countries such as ours have fully acknowledged this fact (as well as ninety-something per cent of scientists). After all, we are already feeling the effects. Jamaicans may not look at regular […]

The Uncertain Life and Times of the Jamaican Weather Forecaster

October 5th, 2016

In the wake of Hurricane Matthew – who is still churning around Cuba and giving the Bahamas and Florida the jitters – one thing struck me. Our friends at the Meteorological Office of Jamaica received unjustifiably harsh criticism from the Jamaican public. It is almost as if some Jamaicans felt cheated that they had gone […]

Water Is Life, and Life is Precious

September 15th, 2015

“The precious commodity.” This is how local journalists often characterize that element, which is a pretty small component of Planet Earth but which makes up a large percentage of the physical makeup of our own bodies. I am talking about water. Here are a few examples of how water (or the lack of it) is […]

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