Climate-change issues in 'Limbo'

Christopher Serju, Gleaner Writer

The time to act is now, if Jamaica is to have any hope of slowing, much less mitigating the deleterious effect of climate change on its environment. So stop talking and start acting with immediate effect!

That's the overriding message from Esther Figueroa, film-maker and environmentalist, turned to Jamaicans, in general, and policymakers, in particular. The need to change the way we do simple, everyday things, such as dispose of garbage, use water and pollute our rivers and ocean is something she has advocated over the years. Now Figueroa is taking her message to further up the food chain - to policymakers, and the issues she tackles in the book Limbo are much less mundane and significantly more controversial.

The impact of corruption, compounded by a woeful lack of enforcement when blatant environmental breaches are committed, as policymakers make promises about issues on which they are for the most ignorant, with public safety, health and property put at jeopardy constantly as a result of their inaction and when they do act, misguided action.

tackle matters

Though she doesn't name persons or places, it is evident that this first-time author is sounding an urgently needed and well-timed call to action to tackle matters of major concern. The haphazard approach to issues of national importance which threaten and affect the lives for people who are for the most part at risk from and during national disasters, a situation exacerbated by unplanned housing developments, absence of environmental impact assessments - even and especially in the face of overwhelming evidence for such due-diligence exercises are but some of the issues under her microscope.

Through Limbo, Figueroa uses her detailed and extensive knowledge of the Jamaican environmental landscape to draw attention to the need for a comprehensive overhaul of relevant legislation, to address loopholes and get people to recognise that things such as prolonged droughts, unseasonal rainfall, and higher daytime temperatures should become matters of immediate concern, as they are in other countries.

I was pleasantly surprised and properly impressed that she was able to do this without resorting to the use of technical/scientific jargon, which, if directed at the wrong audience, can have the unintended result of clouding the issue, generating more heat than light. Further to her credit, Figueroa is able to share an interesting story about the intricacies of everyday life in Jamaica, with all the elements of love, lies, intrigue, and happiness, which still makes for fascinating reading - just in case you miss the real storyline.

I am optimistic that despite its title, which so definitively captures and encapsulates the state of ignorance, misinformation and, in some cases, corruption, that continues to undermine the public debate about the real and present threat from issues such as global warming, sea level rise, overfishing and much more, Limbo could trigger a level of awakening and ultimately enlightenment, so urgently need at this time.