Climate change in the Caribbean

Graph showing historic temperature change globally and in the Caribbean region.

Climate change in the Caribbean poses major risks to the islands in the Caribbean. The main environmental changes expected to affect the Caribbean are a rise in sea level, stronger hurricanes, longer dry seasons and shorter wet seasons.[1] As a result, climate change is expected to lead to changes in the economy, environment and population of the Caribbean.[2][3][4] Temperature rise of 2°C above preindustrial levels can increase the likelihood of extreme hurricane rainfall by four to five times in the Bahamas and three times in Cuba and the Dominican Republic.[5] A rise in sea level could impact coastal communities of the Caribbean if they are less than 3 metres (10 ft) above the sea. In Latin America and the Caribbean, it is expected that 29–32 million people may be affected by the sea level rise because they live below this threshold. The Bahamas is expected to be the most affected because at least 80% of the total land is below 10 meters elevation.[6][7]

  1. ^ Beckford, Clinton L.; Rhiney, Kevon (2016). "Geographies of Globalization, Climate Change and Food and Agriculture in the Caribbean". In Clinton L. Beckford; Kevon Rhiney (eds.). Globalization, Agriculture and Food in the Caribbean. Palgrave Macmillan UK. doi:10.1057/978-1-137-53837-6. ISBN 978-1-137-53837-6.
  2. ^ Ramón Bueno; Cornella Herzfeld; Elizabeth A. Stanton; Frank Ackerman (May 2008). The Caribbean and climate change: The costs of inaction (PDF).
  3. ^ Winston Moore; Wayne Elliot; Troy Lorde (2017-04-01). "Climate change, Atlantic storm activity and the regional socio-economic impacts on the Caribbean". Environment, Development and Sustainability. 19 (2): 707–726. doi:10.1007/s10668-016-9763-1. ISSN 1387-585X. S2CID 156828736.
  4. ^ Sealey-Huggins, Leon (2017-11-02). "'1.5°C to stay alive': climate change, imperialism and justice for the Caribbean". Third World Quarterly. 38 (11): 2444–2463. doi:10.1080/01436597.2017.1368013.
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  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Lewsey2004 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).