Negative Effects Of Climate Change On Jamaica

Title: The Negative Impact of climate change on Jamaica’s society

Assignment Name: Expository Essay

Student Name: Vanessa James

Course Name and Number: Communication I

Tutor: Mrs. Clarke

Date: December 1

“There’s one issue that will define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other, and that is the urgent threat of a changing climate.” (Santiago, 2015) This quote from Barrack Obama former president of the United States of America truly brings into sharp focus the seriousness of climate change and the negative impact it will have on today’s society. Jamaica’s Government has the onerous task of educating the people on what is climate change the impact on the economy and farming communities and also the consequence

Field vegetables will be affected because the crops may not be able to survive the high temperatures. Changing weather patterns means, growing seasons are changing, ecological niches are shifting, and rainfall is becoming more unpredictable and unreliable both in its timing and its volume. This will lead to greater uncertainty and heightened risks for farmers. The value of traditional agricultural knowledge such as when to plant a particular crop will diminish. With these impacts the production of agriculture goods will decrease. Livestock will be affected also i.e. Pigs and Chickens could undergo heat stress that leads to lack of appetite; this will slow their growth rate or leads to death and a decline in production. If the growth rate is reduced production will take a longer time thereby affecting the cost of production, and even creating a scarcity in the market. The end-user, the populace, they would find it rather difficult to cope with the high cost of goods as it takes the farmers much more to sustain the crops and livestock and as such they would have to sell at a price manageable for them to survive and replant or care for crops and livestock. Early in 2017, a severe drought in St Elizabeth (known as the bread basket parish because of its ability to produce in volumes to feed the nation) resulted in significant losses to farmers and a scarcity of farm produce. It would be rather worse if our agricultural communities were to be so devastated that they are not producing and the government would have to be importing, then all that overhead cost would be handed down to us the consumers. So you see the effects of climate change has the potential to impact on all aspects of our