Monday, October 19 2009

A CARIBBEAN online magazine dedicated to issues of environmental sustainability celebrated its first anniversary last month.

Earth Conscious magazine, produced and edited by journalist Linda Hutchinson-Jafar, features articles on what Caribbean countries — from governments, businesses, communities and individuals — are doing to create a sustainable environment against the backdrop of the impact of climate change.

“Climate change has emerged as the biggest threat currently facing the world. For us here in the Caribbean, climate change is already impacting on us in a big way.

“We’ve experienced in the Caribbean increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather events, changing precipitation patterns while scientists are reporting damage to bio diversity, coral bleaching and coastal erosion to name a few,” said Hutchinson-Jafar, who works for the international media organisation, Thomson-Reuters and as a special business correspondent for several media houses in the Caribbean.

But what led Hutchinson-Jafar, a former Caribbean News Agency correspondent to challenge herself into producing a quarterly magazine on issues of climate change, global warming, sustainability and environmental protection?

According to her, it all began when she was researching an article on what the Caribbean was doing to prepare itself for climatic changes and the difficulty she faced in obtaining information.

Even worse, she found that the population was not being empowered to adopt sustainable development initiatives and practices in their homes, offices and communities.

“I’m still not convinced that ordinary folks throughout the Caribbean are aware of how climate change will impact their lives and I do believe those in authority must begin to get those messages across to them.

“You’re talking about impact on the very important tourism sector — the lifeblood of the vast majority of Caribbean countries; impact on agriculture, on fishing, on water resources, drought, just to name a few,” she said.

“People have got to get on the climate change bandwagon because whether we ignore it or not, it’s right in our faces,” she said referring to a recent World Bank report which estimates that the total annual impact of potential climate change on all CARICOM countries is estimated at US$9.9 billion or about 11.3 percent of the total annual GDP of all 20 CARICOM Member States and Associate Member States.

Apart from feature articles, there are several interesting segments in the magazine. Two pages are devoted exclusively to children to increase their awareness of their environment and surroundings. There’s also a regional segment which provides updates on Caribbean countries and a global section which highlights best practices and news updates on countries and organisations.

The magazine’s two columnists are husband and wife, well-known motivational speaker Garfield King who writes on Green Living and Barbara King, a Facilitator who works throughout the Caribbean whose column is devoted to Family Life.

The magazine is freely distributed worldwide through direct email listing to governments, embassies, international organisations, journalists, academia, environmentalists and ordinary people throughout the world.

Apart from its two websites www.beingearthconscious.com and www.earthconsciousmag.com, it is also published on the premier online magazine website www.issuu.com.

Companies are also encouraged to post the magazine on their website for their workers and visitors and already several have taken up the invitation.

Hutchinson-Jafar has conceptualised a special online publication for the December issue of Earth Conscious magazine which will be devoted exclusively to the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark in December.

The 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will be seeking a new climate treaty as a successor to the Kyoto protocol which expires in 2012.