By: Diana Barahona - HaitiAnalysis
In a very short period of time Cuba has suffered the impact of four
cyclonic storms: Fay, which struck Cuba on August 18; Gustav, a near-
category 5 hurricane which tore through the western provinces on
August 30; Hannah, which caused flooding in eastern Cuba as it
devastated Haiti on September 1; and Ike, which hit Cuba as a
category 3 hurricane on September 7.
Gustav slammed into Isla de la Juventud with winds of 150mph — the
most devastating storm in 50 years. Roads were washed away and homes,
food and crops were destroyed amidst heavy flooding.
The country was still assessing the damages from Gustav when
hurricane Ike made landfall eight days later with 120-mph winds on
the northern coast of Holguin Province in eastern Cuba . The category
3 hurricane and slowed to a category 2 as it moved over the center of
the island with
100-mph winds and torrential rains destroying
buildings, toppling electrical towers, tearing out trees and leveling
sugarcane. It passed just south of Havana as it crossed the length of
the island, hitting the in the still-flooded Pinar del Rio province
in the west on September 9.
Cuban state television reported some 2.6 million people were
evacuated. Although there were no deaths from Gustav it damaged
140,000 buildings in western Cuba — 90,000 of them homes. Hurricane
Ike claimed only seven lives, testimony to the government's
internationally recognized storm-preparedness, which was in full
swing as medical teams, food and potable water were mobilized, fuel
and power generators prepared and homes secured across the country.
Damages of $5 billion
In spite of the minimal loss of life, the economic damages are
formidable, estimated to be around US$5 billion. Approximately
444,000
homes were damaged with more than 63,250 totally destroyed
according to the National Housing Institute. In addition to homes,
there was damage to schools, health facilities, cultural facilites
and industrial buildings and warehouses. Communications and energy
infrastructure were also affected.
The island's agricultural sector was heavily impacted. According to
different sources, 5.840 tons of warehoused food and half-a-million
chickens and other poultry were lost. There was extensive damage to
sugar and diversified crops, with 32.000 hectares of plantain lost,
plus more than 10.000 hectares of other crops such as rice, beans and
organic vegetables. All coffee growing areas in the eastern provinces
were affected, with a total loss of the harvest in the most
productive areas. Many covered growing houses and 200 greenhouses
were damaged or destroyed. Cubans have organized volunteer brigades
to go
out into the fields to try to recover some of the crops before
they rotted and the Ministry of Agriculture and Sugar announced an 85-
measure package on September 18 to boost the recovery of both
sectors. The already-extensive network of urban and periurban farms
may have ameliorated potential food shortages by increasing overall
production, by spreading production over a greater geographical area
and by reducing the problem of transportation as production is
localized in the same area as consumption.
Worldwide aid immediate
At a September 18 press conference (
http://www.ipsnews. net/news. asp?idnews=43930) , Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said the most
pressing needs were for food and housing assistance and materials to
restore electricity. He reported that 23 countries had offered
assistance. Russia was in the lead,
sending construction materials
and tents and 14.7 tons of food. Ecuador sent nine tons of canned
tuna through the World Food Program and Venezuela shipped 6.600 of
food to Haiti and Cuba . The Venezuelan government is also sending
construction brigades and said the donation drive would continue as
long as necessary. Spain responded with a flight of aid worth
$400,000 and offers of future assistance. Among nonprofits, Oxfam had
already raised $200,000 and the UN had so far mobilized 3.5 million
dollars in aid, according to IPS. Poor countries responded as well,
with Vietnam sending $200,000 worth of rice and $120,000, East Timor
donating $500,000, Trinidad and Tobago pledging $1 million and
Tanzania pledging $100,000. In addition, many people-to-people offers
of aid have been received. The Bush administration initially offered
$100,000 on condition that Cuba accept an "assessment team." Later it
offered $5 million, which Cuba rejected as it twice repeated its
request that the United States suspend the blockade to allow the
country to purchase construction materials on credit.
Cubans make the connection to global warming
Global warming causes increased oceanic temperatures, which increases
the intensity of tropical storms. Other current effects are changes
in rainfall, causing drought in some areas. Cuba has been concerned
about global warming for many years: in 1992 Fidel Castro warned at
the UN Conference on the Environment and Development that "An
important biological species is at risk of disappearing due to the
rapid and progressive elimination of its natural habitat: man. … If
we want to save humanity from that self-destruction, there must be a
better distribution of the available wealth and technologies on the
plantet. There must be less luxury and less squandering in a few
countries so that there will be less impoverishment and less famine
in a large portion of the Earth." On Sept. 24, 2007, Foreign Minister
Felipe Pérez Roque commented that in the 15 years since that
conference almost nothing was done
(
http://embacuba. cubaminrex. cu/Default. aspx?tabid= 6165): "The
situation is now a lot more critical, the dangers are greater and we
are running out of time."The scientific evidence is clear. Practical
observation is overwhelming. These could only be called into question
by irresponsible people. The last ten years have been the warmest.
There is a decrease in the thickness of artic ice. Glaciers are
receding. Sea level is on the rise. Also increasing is the frequency
and intensity of hurricanes.
"The future looks worse: some 30% of all species will disappear if
global
temperature increases by 1.5 to 2.5 degrees centigrade. Small
island states are running the risk of disappearing under the waters."
According to economist Minqi Li, the world may be already committed
to a 2˚C warming relative to pre-industrial times, which is widely
considered to be a critical threshold in climate change.
(
http://www.monthlyr eview.org/ 080721li. php) What this means is that
far from being alarmist, Cuban officials have been honest about the
gravity of the situation.
Cuban scientists monitoring the situation
The Cuban Institute of Meteorolgy has experts working with climate
scientists internationally in the sharing of information. But as a
very low emitter of greenhouse gases, the most Cuba can do is to
implement measures to try to protect the population from its
immediate effects.
These measures fall into two categories: those
that protect the population from increasingly strong storms, and
those that guarantee access to essentials such as food and water. In
his speech of July 26, 2007, Raul Castro warned of the triple dangers
to Cuba of environmental degradation, the energy crisis and the food
crisis:
(
http://www.granma. cubaweb.cu/ 2007/07/27/ nacional/ artic01.html):
"I am not exaggerating when I say that we face a very trying
international economic situation, where, in addition to wars, lack of
political stability, the deterioration of the environment and the
rise in oil prices—apparently an irreversible trend— we now face,
like comrade Fidel has recently denounced, the decision made
primarily by the United States, to transform corn, soy and other food
products into
fuel. This move is bound to make the price of these
products, and those directly dependent upon these such as meats and
milk prices, climb dramatically as it has been the case in recent
months."
Castro then went into great detail about measures taken to increase
food self-sufficiency and reduce the use of fuel by eliminating
unnecessary transportation of food.In this year's July 26 speech
(
http://www.granma. cubaweb.cu/ 2008/07/27/ nacional/ artic22.html)
Castro spent a good deal of time talking about water, reporting on
the ongoing expansion and repair of aquiducts, the laying of water
networks and the modernization of a water purification plant. He
reported on the building of nationwide water transfer systems to move
water from one province to another and said the government was moving
as quickly
as possible to finish these projects. Without a doubt, the
government expected the hurricane season to be a dangerous one and
was working against time to prepare the country's infrastructure. The
projects were not yet completed when the two hurricanes struck;
however, the following damage report published in Granma on September
16 gives an indication of how the reservoirs function:
"With respect to the volume of accumulated water in the country's 239
reservoirs managed by the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources,
at the close of September 12, it was in excess of 7,892,005 million
cubic meters, 86% of the total of usable capacity retained, which
signifies an increase of 1,791 million of cubic meters with respect
to Friday, September 5.
"Currently, 128 reservoirs are releasing water into drainage
channels, 94 more than before Ike's passing.
When the new water transfer system is in
place, it is hoped that less
water will have to be released and that it can instead be transferred
to reservoirs that have more capacity.
A plea from Cuba 's artists and intellectuals
A consciousness of the crisis of global warming is evident not only
among public officials but among artists and intellectuals. On Sept.
3, 2008, days before the automobile accident that took her life,
essayist Celia Hart wrote the following
(
http://links. org.au/node/ 622/5327):
"We should be used by now to seeing our scorching Caribbean summers
ended by enemies attacking us by air and sea, as if they were intent
on training us for other contingencies. However typical they are of
this region, hurricanes are now growing in size and number as a
result of human disdain toward nature's balance. The unbridled
luxuries of the rich of the
world; their deadly obsession with
putting in their pockets something that their poor souls are
incapable of enjoying, condemns us to struggle with these new enemies
that appear in the summer threatening – for a change – the fragile
islands of the Caribbean with all of their dispossessed. "
After expressing her pride in the way Cubans responded during the
emergency, with solidarity in evidence everywhere, Celia Hart adds
this note: "Eventually, we'll build the houses, schools, churches and
pylons the hurricane victims need, but what about next August?
Capitalism kills nature while we're left to breathe worse, starve to
death and suffer from the ravages of their squandering. The world is
not working and in the face of that only a socialist society has
alternatives. "
Source:
http://haitianalysi
s.com/2008/ 10/11/cuba- confronts- global-warming-now- drought-hurrican es-and-threat- of-rising- oceans
