Our beautiful Caribbean shores have always stood as gateways: places of arrival and departure, where its tides tell stories of trade, migration, and cultural blending. However, swimming with these tides today are foreboding and ominous truths.
Just as rising waves are steadily washing further up on familiar beaches in Jamaica’s Montego Bay, Maracas Bay in Trinidad and Tobago, and pounding against the seawall in Georgetown, Guyana, so too is global warming impacting our chances for a sustainable, livable future. And it is happening one fraction of a degree at a time.
The latest forecasts from the World Meteorological Organisation recently added more brush strokes to an already stark portrait: that global temperatures will remain at or near record-breaking levels over the next five years, propelling our planet toward increasingly severe and deleterious climate disruptions.
For our Caribbean diaspora in the GTA, these findings resonate deeply. Our community remains intimately linked to our homelands through family ties, culture, and memory, even as we are now anchored in Canada. We understand that climate change respects no borders; that its impacts weave seamlessly across both our worlds.
The WMO’s report, issued on May 28, underscores the immediacy of this threat. According to its analysis, there is an 80 percent chance that at least one year between now and 2029 will surpass the record heat of 2024. In 2024, the WMO recorded that the global temperature hit 1.55 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Even more alarmingly, there is an 86 percent likelihood that at least one of the next five years will be more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the 1850-1900, pre-industrial average. Also, long-term warming continues to accelerate, with Arctic temperatures predicted to rise three and a half times faster than the global average.
These numbers, while abstract on paper, translate into tangible, often catastrophic, realities. Every incremental rise in global temperature brings intensified hurricanes, devastating floods, crippling droughts, unprecedented heatwaves, and extensive wildfires.
For our Caribbean homelands, already vulnerable due to their geographic position and economic reliance on tourism and agriculture, these extremes threaten economic collapse and social instability. Hurricanes in recent years, such as Maria in Dominica and Dorian in The Bahamas, continue to remind us how swiftly extreme weather can dismantle entire communities.
Canada is far from immune. Last summer’s wildfires, and the latest, ongoing conflagrations, continue to highlight local vulnerabilities. Canada’s responsibilities extend beyond coping with consequences; as an influential nation, we must lead in climate action, supporting international cooperation and resilience projects, particularly for our vulnerable Caribbean homelands.
While some argue climate patterns have historically fluctuated, experts continue to emphasise that each fractional rise in temperature directly intensifies these disasters. The Paris Agreement’s 1.5 degrees Celsius target explicitly addresses this reality. Even temporary breaches significantly escalate extreme climate events.
Our Caribbean homelands, though small, wield considerable moral and diplomatic influence as frontline witnesses to ongoing climate change devastation. Our diaspora can amplify Caribbean voices, urging Canada towards aggressive climate action at the upcoming COP30.
Addressing climate change is also a matter of social justice. Caribbean nations, among the least responsible for global emissions, are bearing disproportionate burdens. Positioned between two worlds, our diaspora holds both moral authority and practical capacity to advocate for equitable climate action, urging Canada to fulfill its commitments and support Caribbean adaptation initiatives.
Our future hinges upon recognising these intertwined responsibilities. The rising tide, both a metaphor and an existential surge, underscores the urgency for collective action. We must choose wisely and act decisively now. Our homelands, beaches, and collective heritage, depend on it.