#1point5toStayAlive Caribbean Climate Matters!

An Urgent Call to Artists Worldwide

History will most likely – and hopefully – remember this 20 September 2019 as the day when the fight for climate justice finally took centre stage, when thanks to courageous and visionary young people it was no longer possible to ignore the fact that climate change is an existential threat that must be taken very seriously.

On this occasion, and while hundreds of thousands of people – mainly students, but joined by their parents, by trade unionists, media workers, people from all walks of life – marched through the streets of places as far apart as Sydney, Nairobi, Delhi or London, Saint Lucian poet, dramatist and activist Kendel Hippolyte once again issued his call for artists throughout the world to add their voice to the cry for climate justice.

"We cannot - CANNOT - look at our children and grandchildren and say we did nothing or we did not know what to do. Whatever artistic gift we have - and whatever rewards it brings or we hope it will bring - will not mean a thing if all we hand over to our descendants as we leave is a planet which is their funeral pyre even while they are alive,” says Hippolyte in his call.

This call is part of a campaign launched in 2015 at the initiative of Panos Caribbean to raise awareness about the threats posed by climate change and to support the position of Caribbean countries calling for urgent action so as to ensure that average global temperatures do not rise more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above what they were two centuries ago.

The campaign works closely with musicians and other artists, and Kendel Hippolyte explains why it is important for artists to become involved in the fight for climate justice: “it is important,” he says, “because artists can make you feel, and when you feel something, that’s when you want to act”.

In this second video, Kendel Hippolyte expresses his hopes and his belief in the role artists and young people can play to save our planet.

: Category: Messengers

Earth day 2019: 1.5 IS STILL ALIVE!

Earth Day, 22 April 2019. As part of the #1point5toStayAlive Campaign that supports Caribbean and other vulnerable countries in the fight against climate change, Panos Caribbean has produced a new theme song, with lyrics by Saint Lucian poet and dramatist Kendel Hippolyte and music by musician and humanitarian Taj Weekes, who coordinated the production on behalf of Panos Caribbean.

: Category: Messengers

Climate Change is a Gender Issue

This video is part of a series of videos produced by Panos Caribbean, in the context of COP24, to highlight the human and social justice dimensions of climate change. It focuses on the relationship between gender and climate change, and looks in particular at the impacts of climate change on women and men, at the role of women in responding to these impacts, and at the contribution of women to the global fight for climate justice.

It features 4 Caribbean heroines in the global fight against climate change: Ambassador Dessima M. Williams, former Chair of AOSIS 2009-2011; UnaMay Gordon, Director of the Climate Change Division for the Government of Jamaica; Judith Wedderburn, Gender & Development Practitioner; and Dizzanne Billy, climate activist with the Caribbean Youth Environment Network (CYEN).

: Category: Messengers

Gender Matters! - UnaMay Gordon - COP24 - #1point5toStayAlive

UnaMay Gordon, Director of the Climate Change Division for the Government of Jamaica, tells us how policies must consider gender when they are crafted.