Wild Tobago

  Dr Anjani Ganase reviews the latest reports on climate change from the world’s scientists. They indicate that small island states must take care of the land (agro-forestry) and manage marine resources… with urgency. (First published in the Newsday TT on March 10, 2022)   Global research has concluded that climate change continues to adversely impact most natural and human systems around the world, including many ecological services, such as food and water supply, pollination, clean air, tourism, health, clean water, coastal protection, and climate regulation. For humans, water and food production, health and wellbeing, have all diminished. About 3.3 to 3.6 billion people (more than one-third of the world population) live in hotspots vulnerable to high impacts of climate change. Many of these areas already have social and environmental ills, such as failing governance and poverty. Central and South America, West and East Central Africa, South Asia, and small island stat...

  The climate continues to change causing fiercer wildfires, stronger storms and displacing coastal and island communities all over the world. Dr Anjani Ganase reviews the IPCC 6 th Assessment Report and looks at the slippery slope that small islands face. The world as we know it is changing rapidly.   The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (IMO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for the purpose of reviewing and compiling climate-related research to advise governments on the impacts of climate change. Considering the global impact of climate change, the IPCC body consists of 193 global members and thousands of contributing scientists across many countries. The IPCC scientists volunteer their time to collate all information on the drivers of climate change, future projections, understanding the global and regional impacts, as well as studies on mitigation and adaptation strategie...

Imagine! Our emerald isles, green and serene. Tobago – unspoilt, undiscovered, untouched - remains the beacon of what our two islands can become again. So what lies beyond Petrotrin, beyond the stink of oil and gas? What is on the blue horizon for Tobago and Trinidad? Dr Anjani Ganase, marine scientist, explores the way to our future with information taken from the IPCC assessment report 5. It is clear, according to the last report from the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), we need to make changes as quickly as possible. As our lifestyles continue to advance, our energy consumption is expected to more than double from 2010 in 2050 unless we drastically reduce greenhouse gas emission. Climate change has already resulted in scorched landscapes.  Island nations are drowning, adding climate refugees to the caravans. Coral reefs are decimated worldwide. We cannot imagine what life would be like in 2050 if we continue business as usual. Fortunately, scientists have...

Why should we pay attention to coral reefs, which are only half alive? What does climate change have to do with Tobago? What does it all mean? Pat Ganase provides a perspective. Around the world, we are witnessing catastrophic changes that we are told have been brought about by man’s industrial progress. It turns out that over the last century, our activities are heating up the planet. Ice caps are melting. Terrific storms are brewing over warming waters. The coral reefs are dying. The mean temperature of the planet’s surface has heated up by one degree Centigrade since the industrial age, just over 100 years ago; and is edging up by fractions of a degree every decade. How could Tobago be expected to take responsibility for what seven billion of us together are shaping? Perhaps it will all pass us; and Tobago will be spared.   Mt Irvine Reef: though vibrant, fish life here is heavily impacted by pollution and sedimentation (Photo courtesy Anjani Ganase) CORA...

Dr Anjani Ganase, marine scientist and environmentalist, explains climate change, and how its effects may appear in different places at different times, or not at all in some other places. Understanding climate change and its effects is urgent for small island states. Over the years, discussion of human-induced global warming has slowly transitioned to climate change as scientists began to realise the broader effects of industrial carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions on our planet. While global warming refers specifically to the increase in global temperatures of the atmosphere and oceans, (as a result of the heat trapping capabilities of carbon dioxide emissions - the green house effect), climate change refers to the many other changes directly as a result of CO 2 or because of the rise in atmospheric and oceanic temperatures. Some other physical phenomena that are occurring as a result of higher CO 2 levels and/ or rising temperatures include changes to the physical and chemical n...

Anjani Ganase, marine biologist, discusses the response of small island states to extreme events like hurricane Irma. This feature was first published in the Tobago Newsday, September 14, 2017 In the wake of hurricane Irma, the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin closely followed by hurricane Jose, the question of whether climate change is affecting the frequency and intensity of hurricanes in the Caribbean has once again come into question. Unfortunately, at the moment there is no certainty of whether the intense and frequent hurricanes of a single year are a result of human induced trends. Only future observations over multiple years and a better historical cyclone record will allow us to determine whether these trends are part of a long-term natural cycle or the result of a warming planet. What we do know, based on the climate assessment reports provided by the intergovernmental panel on climate change, (IPCC) is that cyclone activity in the Atlant...

Anjani Ganase, marine scientist and PhD candidate for a study of Coral Reefs, made a presentation to the Green Market community in Santa Cruz. She shares the presentation here in support of her belief that caring for the Caribbean Sea no longer rests only with marine scientists. We should all know and care about what’s happening offshore our islands and in the oceans everywhere. This feature was first published in the Tobago Newsday on Friday March 3, 2017  Follow Anjani on twitter @AnjGanase Coral reefs around the world can be found in specific locations, around tropical islands where ocean temperatures are warm and the water is generally clear enough for sunlight to filter through. These locations amount to about one percent of the ocean floor. If we look at the map, we’ll see that our islands – Trinidad and Tobago – lie within one of these coral-select regions of the world, the Caribbean.  Map shows where most coral reefs are located (Courtesy WWF)...