…sorry, no holidays

NEPA (Jamaica’s National Environment and Planning Agency) has posted the 2010 Environmental Calendar.  This is a list of local and international special days that are meant to make people more aware of natural hazards, endangered species and other matters of concern.  The organizations that sponsor these special Days hope that increased public attention and knowledge will lead to useful action.  Sometimes, they’re right.

The calendar begins, almost literally, with a bang.  This past week was Earthquake Awareness Week for Jamaica.  Organized by the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), the week’s events had the theme “Learn, Plan, Prepare … the next big quake could be near”.

Montserrat’s volcano explosions last week and Tuesday’s big quake in Haiti remind us that the Caribbean is a very active region.  There are three live volcanoes and hundreds of earthquakes every year, though most of them are too small to feel.  According to UWI’s Seismic Unit, Jamaica records about 200 small earthquakes every year; the last Big One was in 1907.

These quakes happen because the section of the earth’s crust known as the Caribbean Plate is squeezed like a knee-cap between the North American Plate (ending just south of Cuba) and the South American Plate (just north of Venezuela).  The North American Plate is moving west and the Caribbean Plate is moving (more slowly) eastward.  Their combined drift adds up to about an inch a year.  The micro-plate containing Jamaica is along for the ride, and it’s a bumpy one.

Even for people who don’t believe that “the next big quake could be near”, Earthquake Awareness Week is useful.  It reminds all of us to be prepared for disasters of all sorts – whether they are natural ones like storms, floods and landslides, or man-made ones like explosions and fires.  The basic elements of being prepared are the same.

This year, the early forecasts call for a much more active tropical storm season, and it’s not too soon to start on a plan.  ODPEM has good material on getting ready for both earthquakes and hurricanes, including checklists for households, businesses and farmers.  This material is available either on the website (www.odpem.org.jm) or from parish offices in Falmouth, Montego Bay, Lucea and Savanna La Mar.

Moving quickly through the calendar, February 2 (just a couple of weeks from now) is World Wetlands Day.  This year’s theme is “Wetlands, Biodiversity and Climate Change”.  The UN has declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity, so this year’s Wetlands Day events will focus on these areas as a storehouse of life, and their relationship to climate change.

Healthy wetlands have four important benefits.  First, they clean water.  Marsh plants trap silt and rubbish before it reaches lakes and seas.  They also remove nitrates, phosphates and some metals from the water.  Second, wetlands control soil moisture and flooding by giving storm runoff a place to slow down, spread out and soak in.  Third, they provide a nursery for many kinds of land and sea creatures, as well as their own plant and animal populations.  And finally, they are effective “carbon sinks”, absorbing greenhouse gases and putting oxygen back into the air.  When we take care of our wetlands, we help ourselves.