The 2014 hurricane season is presently upon us, and this week, the City Emergency Management Organization (CEMO) is holding its annual symposium on disaster preparedness under the theme “Building Climate Resilient Municipalities.”

The main focus of this year’s seminar is climate change, and CEMO Liaison Officer, Wayne Usher, gave us an idea of the organizers’ mission.

He said, “What we are trying to do is to raise public awareness about the topic of climate change and how it will impact, not only the Caribbean, but Belize City in particular if we don’t take action to deal with it now. It is a topic that is not a daily bread-and-butter issue for most people, but it’s out there and the effects of it are slowly creeping up on us, [therefore] we need to get ready before it impacts us too much and then it will cost us more to take remedial action, so the forum is basically to increase early public awareness of the vulnerability of Belize and the region to climate change.”

Belize’s Chief Meteorologist, Dennis Gonguez, is a part of the awareness campaign and asserted that science is the basis for climate change studies.

According to Gonguez, noticeable changes are occurring and the general public is advised to take note of those transformations.

“Changes are occurring, for example, temperatures are rising and rainfall patterns are changing around the country. At our station at the International Airport, we have seen changes in rainfall patterns. Nighttime temperatures are rising more quickly than daytime temperatures, so we are warmed up more rapidly at night than during the day, but overall, we try to be involved in climate change issues because the science of meteorology thrives on climate change issues, especially since meteorologists discovered that temperatures and weather patterns were changing.”, he said.

Gonguez also commented on Belize’s level of preparedness for a major storm. “Belize is pretty much prepared for any eventuality, and I see much preparation being done in terms of the government institutions; however, the public at large tends to be a bit complacent since we have not had a major system for quite some time, and we need to get out of that and realize that it’s possible for us to get hit [by natural disasters]”, he explained.

Included among those present at the symposium was the head of the University of the West Indies’ Belize Open Campus, Jane Bennett, who stated that the university will be holding a public lecture on climate change later this year.

She commented, “We are here today to show how higher education is addressing climate change, and I have to say that regionally and locally, we are on board with this. I’m also using the opportunity to say that in October, the University of the West Indies here in Belize is hosting an international conference on climate change and I’m hoping that Belizeans will understand the importance of climate change and how it really impacts all of us across the sectors. We are poised to help in that process of public awareness and public education through partnerships with entities like CEMO to get the message out to the public.”

Several key stakeholders who were involved displayed booths documenting the various attempts to impact climate change positively aside from the verbal presentations which were conducted today.

The symposium continues tomorrow, Wednesday, at the Biltmore Plaza Hotel from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.