They are killing us and they are watching us die. It's honestly crazy how the big polluting countries don't give a crap about us while we here in Jamaica, the rest of the Caribbean islands like the Pacific are dying because of climate change. I'm Dionne Jackson Miller. Thank you so much for joining me. Time for tea.
Roosevelt Skerrit-I come to you straight from the front line of the war on climate change.
DJM- That was the prime minister of Dominica Roosevelt Skerrit talking to the United Nations General Assembly in 2017. That was after Dominica had been flattened by Hurricane Maria. And sadly and tragically in Jamaica today, we know exactly how that feels. At least 45 people have died in Jamaica. And while our people are still coping with the damage, right? Houses destroyed, farmers trying to clean up their farms that have been flattened, business people cleaning up the rubble that's been left of their businesses, their shops, their stores, churches destroyed, damaged, and the entire country is mourning our dead. Delegates around the world are again meeting at the big climate change conference, the so-called COP30, to talk some more about what they already know they need to do to try to deal with climate change.
1.19
COP means conference of the parties, meaning the meeting of the parties, the countries that are part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. That's a big international agreement that's supposed to help to prevent the world getting warmer and warmer exactly because of the kind of things we're seeing now. Hurricanes, floods, droughts.
But honestly, COP has become more known for what is not achieving than for what it is.
It's not just that it's painful watching them try and squeeze out the smallest concessions out of the greenhouse gas producers. It's that having squeezed out those concessions, you then look and say, "All right, let’s see if that's going to happen." And a lot of times it's not.
Look, there is nothing more we can say about the effects of climate change. When the prime minister of Dominica Roosevelt Skerrit spoke to the UN General Assembly, he gave what I thought was one of the most powerful speeches I've heard on climate change because it was so personal.
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Roosevelt Skerrit- I come to you straight from the front line of the war on climate change. With physical and emotional difficulty, I have left my bleeding nation to be with you here today because these are the moments for which the United Nations exist.
DJM--The man was talking truth. That year was actually wild because we had two cat 5 hurricanes in one month, right? Hurricane Irma first of all right affected Antigua and Barbuda Anguila Bahamas British Virgin Islands Cuba the Dominican Republic Haiti Puerto Rico St.Bartholomew St. Martin St. Martin Turks and Caicos and the US Virgin Islands. This report says 75,000 buildings exposed to wind speeds higher than 252 km per hour. 5.5 million people lived in the area where the winds were blowing in excess of 120 kilometers per hour. At least 134 people reported dead.
3.16
Days after that, Hurricane Maria came through at the time the 10th most intense storm on record, causing catastrophic damage and at least 97 fatalities across the northeastern Caribbean, including Antigua and Barbuda. Barbuda was flat, by the way. Dominica also flat, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and Guadaloop. So Mario made landfall in Dominica on the 19th of September. And in Puerto Rico on the 20th, it's considered the worst natural hazard induced disaster on record in Dominica. It caused catastrophic damage in Puerto Rico. And that year, I can tell you here in the Caribbean, we were saying what is power. Father?
Roosevelt Skerrit- We as a country and as a region did not start this war against nature. We did not provoke it. The war has come to us. Mr. President, my fellow leaders, there is no more time for conversation. There is little time left for action. While the big countries talk, the small island nations suffer.
Roosevelt Skerrit cont- We need action and we need it now. Mr. President, we in the Caribbean do not produce greenhouse gases or sulfate aerosols.We do not pollute or overfish our oceans. We have made no contribution to global warming that can move the needle. But yet we are among the main victims on the front line.
But what is our reality at this moment? Pure devastation. As Dominicans bear the brunt of climate change. I repeat, we are shouldering the consequences of the actions of others. Actions that endanger our very existence. and all for the enrichment of a few elsewhere.
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Mr. President, we dug graves today in Dominica. We buried loved ones yesterday and I am sure that as I return home tomorrow, we shall discover additional fatalities as a consequence of this encounter. Our homes are flattened. Our buildings roofless. Our water pipes smashed and road infrastructure destroyed. Our hospital is without power. And schools have disappeared beneath the rubble.
Our crops are uprooted. Where there was green, there is now only dust and dirt. The desolation is beyond imagination. Mr. President, fellow leaders, the stars have fallen. Eden is broken.
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DJM--Now, PM Skerrit could have been talking for us in Jamaica today. House them mash up, right? Schools, roads, and a whole country. The entire country of Jamaica right now mourning our dead. Early damage assessments are that Hurricane Melissa has cost us $9 billion US. 90,000 families in western Jamaica alone said to be affected and we are still taking stock.
PM Andrew Holness Nov 4, 2025- Madam Speaker, Hurricane Melissa was not only a national tragedy. It was a warning. the storm's 30 ft storm surge on our western coastline and up to 30 in of rain in the central highlands reveal the devastating power of a new climate reality. The era of once in a generation hurricane is over.
7.27
In fact, the the era of being hit by a hurricane once every 30 years is over. Imagine we were hit by burial, then immediately after that a tropical storm, almost 6 weeks of consistent rains and then this year to be then drought and then this year to be hit by a category 5 hurricane.
DJM- Look at how the foreign minister of the small island developing state of Tuvalu, that's an island in the Pacific. Look at how he delivered his speech to COP 26, the climate change conference in 2021. Look man, there's nothing else for us to say. All right? You know, when you're watching a court drama on TV or you're watching actual court and they're showing the jury and exhibit, we- we are the exhibit. Jamaica is the exhibit. The Caribbean and the Pacific are the exhibits.
8.23
So that is the perspective from which I've been looking at these climate change conferences and I've been noticing three things. One, lack of urgency, two, lack of implementation and three, lack of progress.
he 2015 climate change meeting was very different, right? I mean, people came out of that meeting so hopeful. I was interviewing environmental advocates, people who are saying yeah man they finally get it. Something is going to happen now. Almost 200 countries signed a landmark agreement which was supposed to help to avoid the worst consequences of climate change.
One major aim of that was to try to prevent the temperature of the world from increasing by more than 1.5° above what is called pre-industrial level. That was what the small island developing states wanted.
That's when you started really to hear the slogan from small island developing states like Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean and the Pacific. 1.5 to stay alive. We were saying if the earth warms up more than 1.5°, we are not going to survive.
9.25
So, where are we now? All right, going to take that up in my next video because I want to do several videos on this issue of climate change as COP continues. Thank you so much for watching. I'm Dion. Thank you so much for watching, back to my tea.
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[KE: Everything climate scientists predicted about global warming since the 1970s is coming true, only faster] SIDS = Small Island Developing States, good Monday morning
