Beyond Thoughts and Prayers: Horrific Images of Hurricane Melissa Connect Climate Change with Fossil Industry’s Stranglehold
Thoughts and prayers ring hollow when your home has been destroyed by a Category 5 hurricane made four times more likely by climate change. New pipelines and LNG terminals are no part of the solution.
This week we’re passing the mic to Alex Cool-Fergus, a political organizer and self-described climate policy enthusiast who previously worked as National Policy Manager at Climate Action Network Canada. This was her reaction on LinkedIn as her relatives in Jamaica began preparing for Hurricane Melissa to make landfall.
As my Jamaican cousins, aunties, and uncles brace themselves for Hurricane Melissa, I’m bracing myself for a barrage of “thoughts and prayers” for all those affected. But thoughts and prayers won’t bring back the homes which will be destroyed, the ecosystems which so many rely on for sustenance, or the lives which will inevitably be lost—much as we wish otherwise.
Canadians like to think that we are helping Jamaicans when we go there on vacation. I’d like us to think about how we are singularly unhelpful to nations around the world, particularly island nations, when we expand Canadian “ethical LNG” or oil that “respects human rights”. By expanding fossil fuel dependency around the world, we are contributing to the maintenance of a dirty status quo which makes the most vulnerable even more at risk of experiencing record-shattering weather events like Hurricane Melissa.
Thoughts and prayers are only useful when they lead to action. I’m acting to shrink the influence the oil and gas lobby has on our politics. Maybe think about how you can contribute to a cleaner world: my family in Jamaica is counting on you.
…and here’s the rest of the story.
Of all the foods in Jamaican cuisine, my favourite is a meal called ackee and saltfish. The ackee fruit is the national fruit of Jamaica, a small, yellow pod with a large black seed that is toxic if eaten raw. And the saltfish would be recognizable to anyone living on Canada’s easternmost coast: it is salted cod, imported from Newfoundland to the warm waters of the Caribbean sea.
The ties between Jamaica and Canada run deep. British imperialism unites our tortured histories—while French, Scottish, and Irish settlers traded pelts and opened land for agriculture, slaves in Jamaica toiled in cotton and sugar plantations, building enormous wealth for their British owners. In the first half of the 20th century, my family moved to Canada from Jamaica and the West Indies, seeking better lives. My grandparents met in Montreal in the late 50s and, like so many other members of the diaspora, became valued members of their community, working as teachers, nurses, musicians, and in the Armed Forces.
My father’s stories of his youth in Montreal’s West Island are colourful. I loved hearing about the annual hot pepper competition, in which Caribbean men grew and then sampled each other’s scotch bonnets and habaneros, pretending not to be affected by the spice while wiping tears of pain from their eyes. Holidays, weddings, and funerals took place across eastern North America: cousins would pile into cars to visit family in Toronto, the Carolinas, and Florida, leaving with a “Jamaican goodbye” which could last for hours as families shared one and then another last joke on the front stoop, not wanting to part.
I am a third generation Canadian, but nevertheless, my Caribbean heritage has always been a key part of my identity. Even three generations out, I experienced the legendary Jamaican generosity and welcome while living with my great uncle and aunt during university. I learned how to spot and peel the perfect mango as well as cook rice and peas. We received visitors from the diaspora almost daily, laughing through their ridiculous stories, and pausing to sing a few bars of calypso tunes from their youth. Every visit to Jamaica with my grandfather means long walks where he explains the names and properties of various plants, and we sample the edible ones. I hope to bring my sons there with him someday, so we can all experience this magnificent country together.
What’s Left Now?
Today, I am left wondering: what is left of the Jamaica they knew? The pictures and videos of the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, the strongest hurricane ever to hit the Atlantic, are horrific. Communication with my family still on the island is spotty. Internet and electricity are down, but we’ve heard that my aunts, uncles, and cousins are okay.
Meanwhile, here at home, we are debating whether we need yet another couple of LNG terminals or an oil pipeline. The fossil fuel industry’s stranglehold on Canadian politics has left little room to debate what is sold to the population as inevitable, necessary for energy security around the world or, worse, as part of our national identity.
As they do whenever there is a global shift (think the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and now the tariff dispute with the Trump administration), the fossil fuel industry in Canada has positioned itself as both necessary and uniquely poised to drive economic growth for Canadians. Not only could this not be further from the truth, it is also incredibly dangerous for other countries and their residents.
Fossil fuels ripped from the ground in Canada and sold around the world account for hundreds of millions of tonnes of emissions. It’s enormous- and set to grow, if the industry has its way. We like to think that Canada only accounts for close to 2% of global emissions. However, that number doesn’t count the enormous impact our fossil fuels have around the world when burned. The hundreds of millions of tonnes of direct emissions the industry pours into the atmosphere each year—solely from fossil fuel extraction—are bad enough. But the total is actually about five times higher.
That’s because most of Canada’s fossil fuel production is exported, about 80% of the emissions in a barrel of oil occur when the finished product is burned by its eventual users, and international carbon accounting rules attribute those emissions to the place where the burning takes place—not the country that put the climate pollutant into the system in the first place. Much like how we export our garbage to lower-income countries rather than deal with it at home, we are shipping dangerous pollution around the world, which is then spewed into our collective atmosphere.
In a way, Canada has displaced the British empire in terms of keeping other nations in poverty, and dependent on foreign imports. When our business leaders and decision-makers talk about building new LNG terminals, they are actively impeding the energy transition elsewhere.
Credit Where Due Means Taking Responsibility
Canadians appear increasingly ready to accept the wonky math that would theoretically give us credit for reducing emissions from coal-fired power plants in China and India. This is a message the gas lobby and their associated think tanks have been parroting for years, despite the fact that there is currently no mechanism that would provide these credits, and that an expansion of LNG abroad would actually displace rapidly accelerating renewable energy.
But let’s take it at face value and assume good faith. If we are to believe that we can magically receive kudos for reducing the use of coal elsewhere, Canadians should push for credit where credit is due: because our fossil fuel industry also contributes directly to record-shattering events like Hurricane Melissa. Therefore, Canada must be ready to provide support for the damages inflicted by our fossil fuels on other countries—a longstanding demand of many small island states. It is only fair.
Hurricane Melissa will not be the end of Jamaica. Islanders there, as everywhere else, are resilient. However, the violence and poverty which already afflict the island will certainly be exacerbated.
Beyond Thoughts and Prayers
We do not yet know the full extent of the damage, but, as we saw here in Canada with Hurricane Fiona, wind and waves like these leave massive destruction in their wake. Over the coming weeks and months, Jamaicans will need much more than thoughts and prayers: they need fossil-fuel driven hurricanes to stop, so that they have a chance to rebuild and live lives free from extreme weather events.
All the things that make Jamaica such a beautiful place—its natural beauty, the kindness of its residents, the beaches, culture, music, biodiversity, and food—are at risk. I am calling on all Canadians, whether from the Jamaican diaspora or not, to speak up. Call on your bank and pension fund to divest from new fossil fuel infrastructure. Tell decision-makers there is no political appetite for new LNG or oil. Support frontline Indigenous communities opposing the buildout of fossil fuels or false solutions like carbon capture and storage, which only perpetuate the social licence of fossil fuel promoters.
At the COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil next month, Prime Minister Mark Carney should at a minimum come to the table with significant amounts of money for adaptation and reparations for countries which bear the brunt of the unchecked expansion of Canada’s fossil fuels over decades.
Canada has an important role to play for the well-being of Jamaicans, and we must not give up hope in the light of tragic extreme events. Let us once again unite, as we do in ackee and saltfish, to rebuild a better, safer world for all.
Chart of the Week
4 Youth Sue CPP Investments for Failing to Protect Pensions from Climate Risk
$70B Wonder Valley Project Still A Mirage as O’Leary’s AI Dream Stalls in Alberta
Economists Say Ottawa Should Rethink Tariffs on Chinese EVs
‘Catastrophic Is A Mild Term’ as Hurricane Melissa Sweeps Through Caribbean
Toronto Calls for Portlands Gas Plant Phaseout, Province Plans Decades of Operation
Carney, Ford Announce $3B in Subsidies for Darlington Nuclear Project
Bloc Québécois Letter Demands Halt to Nuclear Waste Transports to Chalk River
Oil Sands Tailings Plan Sparks Indigenous Opposition, Calls for Federal Oversight
Offshore Wind Joins Nova Scotia’s Long Line of Energy Promises
Drill, baby, drill is dead and Trump may have killed it: Oil giants accuse the US president of ‘kneecapping’ the industry with low prices (The Telegraph)
Doug Ford launches feasibility study of an east-west oil pipeline (Toronto Star)
B.C. communities could lose millions as pipeline companies set to pay lower property taxes (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)
Trump’s Order to Keep Michigan Coal Plant Running Has Cost $80 Million So Far (Inside Climate News)
Global methane action pays for itself at least six times over (Science)
Rising heat kills one person a minute worldwide, major report reveals (The Guardian)
Disaster Recovery Is an $8 Trillion Driver of U.S. GDP (Bloomberg)
‘Yawning’ finance gap for countries to adapt to climate extremes, UN says (Financial Times)
Mozambique Unrest Flares as $25B LNG Work Set to Resume (Bloomberg)
Europe’s biggest asset manager joins Canadian investor climate coalition (Globe and Mail)
Wind turbines keep killing bats in Canada. Advocates say this needs to change (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)
Europe’s Original Climate-Resilient City Has a Lesson for Us All (Bloomberg)
 | A guest post by
|
Amazing Read 👏🏽