Local climate scientist Professor Michael Taylor on Thursday argued that Jamaica is facing the dilemma of succumbing to the impacts of climate change or giving itself a fighting chance to counter global warming’s threat to the island’s existence.

Taylor, who is dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology at The University of the West Indies, Mona, was giving the guest address at the National Environmental Awareness Week Symposium in observation of World Environmental Awareness Day.

He presented the Jamaican dilemma as a three-faced coin — on one side the challenges of climate change; on the other, the chance to deal with the issue; and the third, the thin strip on which the coin balances, representing the choices to be made which will determine on which side the country falls.

Taylor argued that droughts, intense heat, and more destructive hurricanes are all combining to wreak catastrophic damage on the environment in what he labelled a multi-hazard era.

The professor’s prognosis, based on Government and university research, is that this multi-hazard era will become a “new normal” but at unprecedented levels… and soon.

“We’re going to have an increase in the normal intensity of tropical cyclones in the next decade. This is not outside our lifetime. The stronger storms will increase. The percentage of time that we’re either in moderate, extreme, or severe drought by the 2030s is 17 per cent; by the 2060s, 26 per cent,” Taylor explained.

He also projected sea level rise climbing to one litre a year by the end of the century.

“Impacts are going to be everywhere, including in the environment,” he stressed.

Taylor explained what this extreme looks like for Jamaica, pulling real world examples from recent news stories, including ever-climbing electricity bills as residents try to beat the heat; sweltering classrooms not built to withstand increasing temperatures; food prices skyrocketing because of destroyed crops; roads crumbling from heavy rain; increasing daily heat stress on outside workers; and more.

He said that for a resident of Westmoreland, south St Elizabeth, or certain areas of Portland it means losing land at a rapid pace because of shoreline degradation and exposure to intense flooding.

Taylor also said that coastal areas will become more and more unsuitable for farming, and living, and projected that more traffic will move to the interior, adding pressure to those areas.

Meanwhile, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Regional Project Manager Taylor Clayton, in her presentation, said: “Political momentum has never been higher on this issue, yet the road ahead requires us to scale our efforts and work together.”

Clayton called for collaboration, new business models, investment in waste collection and processing, and most importantly, sustained public engagement, education, and collective efforts.

“When you put collaboration, mitigation, adaptation, research, education, [and] finance together, that’s how you get climate-resilient development,” she said.

Gillian Guthrie, chief technical officer in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, argued that all Jamaicans have a responsibility to the country.

“To be a steward of the environment in 2025 it means recycling, not because it is easy, but because it is necessary; it means conserving water, not only when the pipes run dry, but as a daily habit; it means teaching our children not just to admire nature, but to defend it,” said Taylor, who was representing minister with responsibility for the environment Matthew Samuda.

“Whether the challenge overwhelms us, or the chance of a better environment is realised, it’s clearly dependent on the choices we make today,” she said.

The symposium, staged by the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), was held under the theme ‘Turning the Tide, Combating Plastic Pollution for Ocean Resilience’.

Participants, including young Jamaicans, scientists, and Government officials discussed the country’s plastic waste problem and a way forward to protect the environment

“Plastic pollution, illegal dumping, and inadequate infrastructure have placed tremendous strain on our environment and our communities. The impact of these challenges isn’t theoretical, it’s tangible. It’s rural farmers watching rainfall patterns change without warning, it’s fishers returning to shore with empty nets, it’s entire communities grappling with the cost of drought and flooding within the same season,” said Guthrie.

According to UNEP, more than 430 million tonnes of plastic are produced each year, two-thirds of which is cast aside as waste after just one use.

That, the UN agency said, means more than 2,000 garbage trucks worth of plastic pollution is dumped into the world’s oceans, rivers, and lakes daily.