Caribbean

Founder and President of the US-based, International Institute for Peace through

The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and Tufts University have just released a report on the potential economic impact of global climate change on the Caribbean. The report says that unless steps are taken soon to significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions, the Caribbean as a whole will suffer a 5% GDP hit bu 2025 and 22% by 2100.

The collective Environment Ministers of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) recently agreed on a mandate not only for a full-fledged work program on environmental protection, but also for a (binding?) CARICOM agreement on it to be known as the Environmental and Natural Resource Policy Framework (CENRPF) to be ready for approval within 12 months. The CENRPF is likely to reshape environmental law among the CARICOM member states.

A ragtag crew of Bahamian islanders fight to save their coral reef at all odds.

Plans were revealed this week for a new, off-the-grid, eco-resort on Star Island in the Bahamas, and although it won’t offer any budget accommodation, it does aim to provide sustainable tourism inspiration for the travel industry.The resort, expected to open in 2009, will provide five star lodging with pools, spas, restaurants and a marina – yet the resort is also being designed to be green in all areas.

Illegal pesticide use of chlordecone, banned in 1993, is being blamed for the increase of prostate cancer in men in Guadeloupe and Martinique in the Carribean. It is being reported that 1 in 2 men will develop prostate cancer and have probably accounted for the high accounts of genital malformation and fertility rates. Chlordecone stays in the soil for up to a century, contaminating the food chain and water supply. This area is the worlds eighth largest banana exporter.