IGNITE! WHAT FUTURE FOR OUR ENVIRONMENT?

Today, JUNE 5 is UN World Environment Day.

Who knew? Who Cares? The Streets are on Fire! First the WUHAN er.. No.. I mean COVID 19 Virus and Global Pandemic. Now the Minneapolis Virus er.. No.. I mean American Crosses and Global Incendium. Against this backdrop, what does the environment matter?

World Environment Day, is the United Nation's (UN) attempt to promote global awareness and action for the protection of our environment.  It was first celebrated in 1974 with the theme "Only One Earth" over the past 26 years, has been at the forefront of efforts to promote environmental issues from marine pollution, human overpopulation, and global warming, to sustainable consumption and wildlife crime.

This year’s World Environment Day theme is biodiversity- and in the face of COVID 19 and other CROSSES I am concerned that very few people will get what that means now as well as for the future of the Caribbean. Last December a group of notable scientists and conservation professionals predicted that mosquito-killing fungi and a kelp crisis could be among the trends affecting living things next year. That was then. This is now. A bigger threat might be COVID-19 and its Aftermath. 

The vision of the SMART Caribbean Gathering… A Futures Brainfest is to create an inclusive, prosperous global Caribbean society. The forum will be dynamic and rich with new information, innovative ideas, and perspectives from some of the transformational leaders, academics, and change makers in the global Caribbean nation and ‘friends and lovers of Caribbean’ from around the world … among them Scientists, Health and Environmental Advocates. This is our moment to construct… to cultivate the way forward for a SMART Caribbean and SMART Futures, to advance the welfare of the whole human race.

 For the SMART Caribbean SMART Futures explorers, this moment is ripe… to ‘reimagine and regenerate’… Our Healing, Our Thrival… Ubuntu.

Here are our guiding questions: How do we go forward in a more responsible way towards each other and Mother Earth? How can we leverage the opportunity of the COVID Crisis to hack out new pathways for creating the futures we want? How might we re-imagine a future where the Earth and nature (rivers, caves, etc.)?

Today we begin to address these questions in our gathering called 'Ignite SMART Caribbean'. This gathering of persons will discuss hot button topics in the region such as the opportunities presented by the blue/green economy in the context of climate resilience and sustainability. And it begins today UN World Environment Day JUNE 5th, and ends on JUNE 8th, UN World Ocean Day.

Over the next four days, we hope to engage people of Caribbean heritage and friends of the Caribbean to focus on the future we want. To turn away from the fires of conflagration and turn to the fires of hope. We will need to leverage current trends, developments, and opportunities to create a climate that respects the nature that gives us life. I look at the 2017 New Zealand Law that has given rights as living beings to a river, a forest and soon the government will grant such rights a mountain legal person-hood.  And this new way of seeing our reality has found its way to America with voters in Toledo, Ohio granting legal standing to Lake Erie.

In the wake of these seeds of hope, the question on my mind is whether the Caribbean? What would happen if we gave such person-hood to the Caribbean Sea? Is there room for a Caribbean Green Party whose only function is to serve as guardians of the future of our environment and its biodiversity. The Caribbean island region is known as a biodiversity hotspot. Within its diverse terrestrial ecosystems, there is a high proportion of 'endemicity' making the region one of the world's greatest centers of biodiversity. It has over 11,000 plant species, about 72 per cent of which are found only in this region. Its diverse animal species include many exotic fish and birds. That is a lot of richness for such small spaces.

In the Ignite SMART Caribbean Gathering, we aim to examine questions about the future we want. We want to identify ways to drive engagement and enhance participation of the Caribbean community in the economic, social, and political spheres. Our goal is to foster unity and inclusion while celebrating our uniqueness and to create a world where everyone thrives regardless of their race, religion, nationality, gender or sexuality. We want to imagine a world in which we work in hand with nature to deliver the future of 'thrival' we know is within our reach.  Let all ideas contend. Join us!

REGISTER bit.ly/IGNITEJUNE5-8

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