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October 1, 2014

Fragments of Hope

 

In the year 2000, the world was worried about Y2K and what would or would not happen to computers. I was a rookie reporter that year and I can tell you that workshops hosted even then about global warming, desertification, coral bleaching and disease, ocean acidification were still considered largely “foreign” concepts, easily dismissed by the general public.

But then came 2001’s Hurricane Iris and its devastation in Southern Belize in the wake of Hurricanes Mitch and Keith as well as tropical storm Chantal and certainly, a few more people sat up and paid more attention to the concept of climate change and potential impacts to countries like Belize through weather, rising sea temperatures and stronger storm surges.

In 2006, the film “An inconvenient truth” by Al Gore raised the level of awareness of climate change to new populations, effectively re-energizing the environmental movement’s focus on the issue. That same year, a young biologist who had witnessed the ruinous impact of Hurricane Iris and who was convinced about the vulnerability of Belize’s marine environment to climate change was moved to take action.

Oceana Belize is proud to share the story of 2014 Ocean Hero, Miss Lisa Carne.

Please click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYfBmZpZn9o to view video.