Black Immigrant Daily News

Call it Law and Order: Climate Change. Scientists used detective work to pinpoint the prime suspect in Earth’s warming: us. They proved it couldn’t be anything but carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels.

For more than 30 years top scientists from across the globe have worked together every several years to draft a report on climate change and what causes it and with each report — and increases in global temperatures — they have become more and more certain that climate change is caused by human activities. In the latest version of their report, they said: “It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land.”

Scientists — including the late Ralph Cicerone, the former president of the National Academy of Scientists — have told The Associated Press their confidence in climate change being a human-caused problem is equivalent to their certainty in understanding that cigarettes are deadly.

One way to show humans caused the warming “is by eliminating everything else,” said Princeton University climate scientist Gabe Vecchi.

Scientists can calculate how much heat different suspects trap, using a complex understanding of chemistry and physics and feeding that into computer simulations that have been generally accurate in portraying climate, past and future. They measure what they call radiative forcing in watts per meter squared.

The first and most frequent natural suspect is the sun. The sun is what warms Earth in general providing about 1,361 watts per meter squared of heat, year in year out. That’s the baseline, the delicate balance that makes Earth livable. Changes in energy coming from the sun have been minimal, about one-tenth of a watt per meter squared, scientists calculate.

But carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels is now trapping heat to the level of 2.07 watts per meter squared, more than 20 times that of the changes in the sun, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. Methane, another powerful heat-trapping gas, is at 0.5 watts per meter square.

The sun’s 11-year cycle goes through regular but small ups and downs, but that doesn’t seem to change Earth’s temperature. And if anything the ever so slight changes in 11-year-average solar irradiance have been shifting downward, according to NASA calculations, with the space agency concluding “it is therefore extremely unlikely that the Sun has caused the observed global temperature warming trend over the past century.”

In other words, the sun had an alibi.

The other natural suspects — volcanoes and cosmic rays — had even less influence during the last 150 years of warming, scientists conclude.

The other way to show that it is carbon dioxide causing warming is by building what Vecchi calls “a causal chain”.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration records measured on a Hawaiian volcano show rising carbon dioxide levels as do ice records that go back thousands of years. But the key is what type of carbon dioxide.

There are three types of carbon-containing material. Some contain light carbon or carbon-12. Some contain heavy carbon or carbon-13 and still others contain radioactive carbon-14.

Over the last century or so, there’s more carbon-12 in the atmosphere compared to carbon-13 and less carbon-14 in recent decades, according to NOAA. Carbon-12 is essentially fossil carbon from long ago, as in fossil fuels. So the change in the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-13 tells scientists the carbon in the air is more from burning fossil fuels than natural carbon, Vecchi said.

That’s the fingerprint of burning coal, oil and natural gas.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of an ongoing series answering some of the most fundamental questions around climate change, the science behind it, the effects of a warming planet and how the world is addressing it.

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By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Minister of Education and Youth, Fayval Williams, has described as “reprehensible” last Friday’s machete attack on the principal of Retirement Primary School in St Elizabeth, Ann-Marie Terelonge, which left the educator nursing head injuries.

Williams said she was also “shocked and horrified” after being informed about the incident.

The minister is also urging school administrators and security personnel to be vigilant and exercise caution when dealing with unauthorised individuals on their campuses.

In a statement Sunday evening, Williams noted that it is alleged that the man entered the premises with a machete in hand and when ordered to leave, refused to do so.

“The principal, who also attempted to get him to leave the premises, was attacked and chopped in the head,” Williams noted further.

“I pray that Principal Terelonge will recover quickly. This attack on a member of the school community is highly distressing. We want our schools to be safe environments for students, teachers and support staff, and this reprehensible attack undermines all the efforts being made to create safe spaces for the school community,” said Williams.

“At the same time, I am urging school staff to exercise caution when confronting unauthorised persons who have entered your campuses. You do not know their state of mind or the extent to which they may be armed. It is better to summon the help of the security forces,” the minister added.

In the meantime, the ministry’s counselling services have been offered to staff and students who were traumatised by the attack.

The principal was hospitalised following the incident while her attacker, who has since claimed that she attacked him first, surrendered to the police who are continuing their investigation into the matter.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

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Tricia St John – File Photo

In 2004, Tricia St John was attacked and lost her left forearm and two fingers on her right hand to a domestic violence attack. On October 30, she will be hosting a fashion show and tea party to raise funds towards acquiring a prosthetic arm.

St John has been fundraising for an above elbow trans-radial prosthesis since 2019, when she received a quote for US$93,109.08 from New Life Brace & Limb operated by Trinidad and Tobago Orthotics & Prosthetics LLC Ltd. Speaking to Newsday on Friday, St John said she was awaiting a new quote.

“I’m waiting on them to make contact with their office in Texas. I have to fly there to get it fitted, which would be an additional cost even if I could find the cost of the arm. I reached out to other places but they don’t ship to Trinidad, so it would still mean I would have to go to where they are. The one that I want is a totally functional and computerised one, but I saw a young man on social media who had one that had sensors on the inside that connect to his nerves and picking up whatever action he’s trying to make. I tried reaching out to him but I haven’t gotten a response yet. I’m trying to see if I can get into contact with the person he got his from.”

St John said she was hoping that at least 80 people would come to the show, although the proceeds would only be a drop in the bucket of the total cost. She had raised $30,000 from previous fundraisers, but fundraising efforts had to be put on hold due to covid19. She said she’s restarting her efforts with this event.

“I have three local designers: Denise Williams from Ste Madeleine, Joanne Ogarro from Central, and the person doing swimwear is Sarah Samlalsingh who comes from the east. The first two are providing cultural wear for the models and Sarah does crochet swimwear.”

St John said she had contacted several corporate entities, including Digicel, Republic Bank, Maritime Financial, and internet company Airlink, but the response so far had not been positive.

She said prior to covid19, she would receive invitations to share her story as a motivational tool at conferences, events, churches and other spaces, but this was not happening as much now.

St John is the author of three books: Before me, After me, Now me; Moving On; and Chains Falling, a collection of poems. She is in the process of rewriting the first book and is working on her fourth.

She said over the years it has been very challenging to function with a missing limb and missing fingers on her other arm, “especially as I had to raise my children, and basically to do things that was the norm before I was violently amputated.

“I want the public to know I need the support because there is no way I can earn this money on my own. What happened to me is because of a lack of knowledge and experience on my part, because I was very young, but other than that it’s not my fault. I can’t speak for everybody else but society has a way of making me feel like I’m being blamed for something that is not my fault. People judge you, employers don’t hire you because they don’t feel you’re not able and it really doesn’t leave a nice taste in your mouth.”

Anyone interested in donating to St John can call (1-868) 342-4627 or (1-868) 720-4874, email stjohntricia@gmail.com, or make a deposit in the name of Tricia St. John to Republic Bank Limited Chequing Acct #290 023 389 501.

The event, the third annual Motivation In Motion Fashion Show and Tea Party will be held at the Mon Repos community centre, Tyler Smith Street in San Fernando, Trinidad from 3-6 pm.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Jamaicans are among the nationalities excluded from participating in the US Diversity Immigrant Visa Program or visa lottery for 2024 due to the volume of immigrants who have entered the North American country from the Caribbean island over the last five years.

The 2024 application process opened on October 5 and is to close on November 8, providing approximately 55,000 people with the chance to win a Green Card through a lottery in which candidates are randomly selected.

To be eligible for entry into the lottery, candidates must have at least a high school diploma or have worked within the last five years and have completed two years of training.

Only applicants from countries with rates of immigration to the US of fewer than 50,000 immigrants over the previous five years will be eligible.

Research showed that, on average, just above 10,000 Jamaicans migrate to the US each year.

Jamaicans began migrating, in large numbers, to the US in the 1960s. About 10,000 Jamaicans migrated to the US legally from 1960 to 1965. However, the number skyrocketed in succeeding years–62,700 (1966-1970), 61,500 (1971-1975), 80,600 (1976-1980), and 81,700 (1981-1984)–to an aggregate of about 300,000 documented immigrants in just under a quarter of a century.

Along with Jamaica, other countries that are not eligible to participate in the 2024 Diversity Immigrant Visa Program include Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (including Hong Kong SAR), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Korea (South Korea), United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, Venezuela, and Vietnam.

Advocates have pushed back against the exclusion of countries, saying that the educational restriction and the exclusion of developing countries are unfair.

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