Don't forget about Saint Lucia
After the hype of the Olympics fades, the tiny Caribbean island nation will still need the world's attention.
I’ve loved many things about this year’s Olympics. The gymnasts’ comradery. The table tennis players’ intensity. The constant hyper-excited yelling of that one NBC swimming commentator.
I’ve especially loved watching Saint Lucia celebrate its first-ever Olympic medal. After Saint Lucian sprinter Julian Alfred unexpectedly bested U.S. favorite Sha’Charri Richardson in the women’s 100 meter final on Saturday, multiple videos of rejoicing Saint Lucians went viral—thrusting the tiny Caribbean island nation of less than 200,000 people into the global spotlight.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
Alfred’s win and her country’s celebration has more people searching Saint Lucia than ever before, according to Google Trends. That means thousands of people are now learning about the West Indies island and what makes it special—from its vibrant, coral-rich waters to its creole vernacular to its much-visited sulphurous “drive-in volcano.”
But what these tourism-focused searches almost always neglect to mention is that the future of Saint Lucia is highly threatened by climate change—and the country can’t do much about it on its own. For Saint Lucia’s ecological and economic future to be truly secured for future generations of athletes and enthusiastic spectators, it needs help and attention from other, higher-polluting nations that are causing their problems—many of the nations Alfred beat in the Olympics this weekend.
This is something Saint Lucia’s president, Philip J. Pierre, speaks about frequently. “We still are constrained by some elements that are beyond our control,” he said just last week, reflecting on the anniversary of slavery emancipation in Britain, which formerly colonized Saint Lucia. “And one of these elements is climate change.”
Indeed, though Saint Lucia’s own contribution to climate change is incredibly small, it faces extraordinary threats from worsening sea level rise, coral bleaching, hurricanes and extreme heat—all caused primarily by the fossil fuel emissions of developed countries. If these countries don’t ramp down their emissions quickly, the island is expected to lose 24.5 percent of its GDP by 2050 and 49.1 percent by 2100, according to the country’s National Adaptation Plan. And that’s a fairly conservative estimate.
Being dependent on other nations’ actions for survival is a source of immense frustration for Pierre. “Developed countries do not treat the climate challenges facing developing countries with the urgency and importance they deserve,” he said in a speech at the U.N. General Assembly last year. “These challenges not only negatively impact our economic growth, but threaten our very existence.”
The need for attention and action from other countries is captured well in a short 2016 documentary on Saint Lucia funded by the United Nations.
“Today, it appears deceptively calm, the picture-perfect Caribbean setting that is our invitation for thousands of tourists every year,” the documentary’s narrator says. “[But] far away from our shores, industrialization has created manufacturing capitals, spewing greenhouse gases and deforested tracts of land which destroy our futures for the greed of now.”
”The biggest threat to our survival is not human terrorism, but a more insidious environmental terrorism, perpetuated by one group or another in search of growth with no limits—an impossibility,” the documentary concludes. “This is a matter of life and death; it is a plea to the global community for help.” Remembering Saint Lucia after the Olympics are over is an easy way to begin.
Other important stories this week:
Kamala Harris picks Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as VP. The New York Times, August 6.
Over the course of his two terms in office, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota has quietly emerged as one of the nation’s most forceful advocates for tackling climate change. … Most notably, in 2023, Mr. Walz signed a law requiring Minnesota to get all of its electricity from wind, solar and other carbon-free sources by 2040, eliminating the climate-warming pollution generated by coal and gas-fired power plants. … Under that law, Minnesota would transition to clean electricity sources even faster than California.
Big Oil is drilling, drilling, drilling—and promising to drill even more. E&E News, August 5.
Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP and ConocoPhillips topped analysts’ expectations for second-quarter earnings last week … Most of the billions of dollars in company earnings came from oil and gas production, and executives said they would be spending more on new exploration projects in the future.
Hurricane Debby hits Florida—and that’s just the beginning. Yale Climate Connections, August 5.
If the rains from Debby are as intense and widespread as implied in the strong agreement among forecast models and official outlooks, Debby is likely to cause damage in excess of $10 billion, making this Category 1 hurricane more like a Category 3 or 4 storm in its impacts.
Climate deniers make up nearly a quarter of the U.S. Congress. The Guardian, August 5.
A total of 123 elected federal representatives—100 in the House of Representatives and 23 US senators—deny the existence of human-caused climate change, all of them Republicans, according to a recent study of statements made by current members.
New billboards across the U.S. call out Big Oil’s role in climate chaos. Rolling Stone, August 5.
The bold campaign, launched by non-profit organization Fossil Free Media, calls out the decades of misinformation spread by oil and gas companies as they sowed doubt about the environmental dangers of burning fossil fuels while greenwashing their public image
The billboards feature dramatic images of climate disasters specific to the states they're located in. Billboards are currently in California, New York, Arizona, and Philadelphia, with plans to expand to Florida and Louisiana in September. For the first time, solar and wind are beating fossil fuels in Europe. Canary Media, August 2.
A new report from think tank Ember shows that in the first six months of 2024, solar and wind rose to account for 30 percent of the region’s electricity generation, while fossil fuels slipped down to 27 percent.
A chart from Canary Media. Source: Ember, “Wind and solar overtake EU fossil fuels in the first half of 2024”
Catch of the Day: Almost camouflaged enough to hide—but not quite—Russian blue Anton relaxes in a rare moment of peace from his dog siblings, Mookie and Buddha, not pictured. (But we hope they will be soon).
Thanks to reader William for the submission.
Want to see your furry (or non-furry!) friend in HEATED? Send a picture and some words to catchoftheday@heated.world.
yes millions living along coast lines communities will be displaced. Lots of land inland on many coastal nations. We need to incentivize folks to move inland and maybe just visit coastal areas but not live there. Lot's of land in the interior at land prices and house prices much more reasonable than along coastal communities. But to make this happen our industries need to move there as well. NY, Boston, Baltimore, Floridians, coastal southern states....move inland. or learn how to tread water for long periods of time.
Excellent piece. Thanks.