#ClimateStrike in the Bahamas

The Global Climate Strike on 20 September 2019 saw millions of people from Sydney to Manila, Dhaka to London and New York take to the concrete streets to defend our plant.

The UN has said “we have 12 years to limit climate change catastrophe.”

So in these cities, separated by thousands of miles, the message was the same. We have to act now.

But here in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas – there was no Climate Strike. As I saw the photos lands on my Instagram feed, I felt a sense of guilt that I wasn’t doing anything, and a frustration that I’m no longer able, like I was in London, to make many of the small personal choices to help save our planet.

In my office, where the aircon whirls all day and makes our room cold enough to wear jumpers, my Bahamian colleagues tell me there is no formalized recycling available on the island. If there is, I can't seem to find out how to do it yet. But I'm still trying. There's definitely no easy blue bins so without a recycling collection in place, residents throw away their plastic, cardboard, glass and cans (the latter being particularly heart wrenching) right into the same trash with everything else.

Furthermore, there is a a high level of plastic consumption, which seems to be unavoidable living on an island – with most things coming in via plane.

Water isn’t 100% safe to drink from the tap, so we use large plastic bottles connected to the fridge (these can be recycled at local supermarkets). But during power cuts, homes stock up with lots of drinkable plastic water bottles.

Keep Cups aren’t so much a thing here. But my white and cork one provokes questions from baristas and customers alike in the queue for Starbucks in East Bay Street. (So Keep Cups please come here – as one isn’t enough to go around).

I drive pretty much every day. I live in a complex, where I have to drive to leave. There’s no tube or metro, and the bus service the Jitney doesn’t serve the whole island. No safety of a pavement to cling to or cycle route to ride to work.

The Bahamas are made up of over 700 islands, meaning citizens mostly fly between to see relatives or pick up supplies in the US where electrical goods, clothing and even food is much cheaper.

And crucially, with the Bahamas recovering from the tragedy of Hurricane Dorian, implementing a recycling scheme isn’t going to be high on the list.

In New York clemency was given to 1.1 million students, who were allowed to skip to strike, but in Abaco and Grand Bahamas their schools have been destroyed.

The cruelty is that while the effects of climate change are making natural disasters more frequent and more devastating – it’s actually affecting countries that are contributing to it the least and have less antonymy to enforce green changes.

It’s like another form of colonization, that the Bahamas will be confronted by climate change – caused largely by the powerhouses that have exploited them for centuries.

Hurricane Dorian was the most powerful tropical cyclone on record to strike the Bahamas, and the worst natural disaster in the country’s history. It was biblical in force. Its maximum sustained winds of 185mph, which lasted an unrelenting 24 hrs.

Last year a severe monsoon hit the southern Indian state of Kerala, with heavy rains causing extensive flooding, landslides and building collapses. Millions of people had to abandon their homes in Japan and over 200 people lost their lives as a result of deadly landslides caused by too much rain.

In 2018, we saw record breaking wildlife and rain in the US– and this summer Europe saw its highest summer heatwave, with temperatures reaching 113 degrees in France.

The United States Geological Survey has said that these catastrophic natural disasters are directly linked to climate change.

"With increasing global surface temperatures the possibility of more droughts and increased intensity of storms will likely occur. More heat in the atmosphere and warmer ocean surface temperatures can lead to increased wind speeds in tropical storms. Rising sea levels expose higher locations not usually subjected to the power of the sea and to the erosive forces of waves and currents."

It's a frightening thought.

While we are hopeful that with the support of the international community, the Bahamas can and will come back stronger, there’s no doubt that sustaining environmental practices will fall further down the priorities list.

The Climate March is valuable for provoking conversation too of course, which is accessible to everyone.

One of Leonardo Di Caprio’s posts urged people to strike digitally – updating banners and retweeting images – or to write a piece like this. London-based blogger Venetia Falconer urged her followers to just start conversations about climate change.

The Bahamas is the most naturally beautiful place I’ve ever been. The waters are crystal clear in a stunning blue. I know they will do their bit to protect it here. One of the most positive steps already in place is a ban of plastic carrier bags, coming into force at the end of this year.

And when I get home to London, as I casually leave the lights or throw things away in the wrong bin, I hope I’ll catch myself.

Don’t waste the privileged of being responsible with your waste.

Remember we’re not only threatening a future for own children, that sometimes feels too distant to grasp – but impacting the world’s most vulnerable, and most unspoiled places, like the beautiful, breathtaking Bahamas.