We don’t pretend to properly understand all the details being offered by scientists and rainfall specialists. However, we were left reeling by information from Meteorological Services of Jamaica’s Ms Jacqueline Spence-Hemmings regarding measurements of rainfall in sections of the capital city during last Friday afternoon’s “severe weather event”.

Identifying Mona in upper St Andrew as an example, Ms Spence-Hemmings said the Meteorological Services’ average rainfall record for the period between 1971 and 2000 in Mona during September — traditionally among Jamaica’s wettest months — was 140 millimetres.

She said Friday’s figure for rainfall in Mona was 68 millimetres in two hours.

We suspect Ms Spence-Hemmings is inclined to understatement, given her comment, that: “So you got almost half of a figure that’s expected in a month… that’s significant…”

Let’s recall that Friday’s cloud burst in Kingston and St Andrew caused flooding of homes and businesses, posing severe threat to those living close to gullies and other water courses.

Motorists, stranded — with road surface and sidewalk indistinguishable because of fast-moving, rising water — tell horror stories.

We shudder to think of the likely disastrous consequences had the downpour lasted a while longer.

We readily appreciate that much more needs to be done at the local and national levels to ensure that drainage infrastructure, not just in the capital but across Jamaica, is improved.

As was said in this space earlier this week, there must be appropriate enforcement to ensure adherence to building codes thereby reducing flooding episodes.

However, unlike US President Donald Trump and other sceptics, we believe we have to accept what the scientists tell us — that such weather events are likely to intensify and become more frequent because of environmentally unfriendly human activity.

Apart from weather extremes, including flooding, droughts, and heat waves, island states such as Jamaica have the visual evidence of fast-receding shorelines, caused by rising sea levels. Globally, the very existence of low-lying coastal communities is under increasing threat.

Scientists say the melting of land-based ice, including ice sheets and mountain glaciers; and heat-induced expansion of water, trigger sea-level rise. They identify alarming increases in greenhouse gas emissions traced to actions such as the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation, as root causes.

On the grand scale, Jamaica, like other small economies, is hardly a factor in the undermining of the globe’s natural environment. However, we take satisfaction from the assurance by Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness at the United Nations General Assembly this week that this country is committed to doing its part in reducing climate change.

As he reminded the world, “[D]roughts, floods, tropical storms, and hurricanes have already impeded Jamaica’s economic growth and social development. Given that 90 per cent of our GDP [gross domestic product] is generated in close proximity to coastal regions, robust adaptation measures are not merely preferable but imperative, constituting a foremost developmental priority”.

Dr Holness gave the assurance that, “By 2035, Jamaica aims for emission reductions between 26 per cent and 41.7 per cent compared to 2012 levels, depending on the scale of international support received.”

Ultimately, when all is said and done, all that any country can do in this fight to protect the planet and its inhabitants is the very best it can.