LAST weekend I was shopping at the City Mall when a group of Environmental Law students from the University of Guyana (UG) stopped me and asked me to participate in a survey for an assignment. Assignments (especially group assignments) are taxing, so I immediately agreed. Fortunately or unfortunately, they wanted to question me about a topic I am super into: climate change and the environment.

They tailored their questions based on an initial assessment of my knowledge. And it immediately got me thinking about what questions they might be asking other people. I didn’t have to wait too long because a few days later, a friend in that class saw the group’s survey with me (they videoed our interaction) and messaged me about it.

I don’t have any of their findings- if that were collecting empirical data- to share people’s level of knowledge. However, for what it is worth, my friends said, based on the videos shown in class, I was the only person who “didn’t sound dumb.”

I said earlier that the group’s decision to tailor their questions based on an assessment of my knowledge got me thinking. I thought about it because I have been exposed to many people- especially those disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis- who are largely unaware of the global catastrophe before us.

I choose my words very carefully to say this.

Certainly, anyone can explain how devastating a flood is. People living along Guyana’s vulnerable, low-lying coastal plain can aptly describe how disastrous rising sea levels are, especially during the rainy seasons. I am not attempting to be condescending when I say this but based on my experiences engaging people in the field, not everyone can link those events to climate change. Not everyone can even describe what climate change is.

I have learnt not to write people off based on their limited knowledge of any subject area. And even though the climate crisis affects our everyday life, I still don’t believe that we should write people off as being dumb or ignorant when they don’t know much about it, or they don’t want to know more about it (sometimes ignorance is bliss, I get it). It just goes to show that those of us who do know could do a little bit more to help enlighten the people around us. That’s my take on it. And that’s why I hope to do whatever little I can through this space.

From a very young age, I was exposed to the value of Guyana’s forests and efforts to protect them. I didn’t know too much about climate change then, but again, I inherently understood that our forests were so valuable and the world had started to realise this. In the following years, global warming and climate change became increasingly serious topics in my high school classes. And now, perhaps because of attention directed towards Guyana’s nascent oil and gas sector, the updated LCDS is, once again, getting the world’s attention. More recently, that strategy has been leveraged to help Guyana earn millions more by selling carbon credits.

There are a few particularly interesting things to know.

First, the process itself is key. Trees breathe in the carbon dioxide (a gas) that humans breathe out; this carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere when trees are cut down or when fuels are burnt. When this gas (called a greenhouse gas) is released into the atmosphere, it makes the earth hotter (through a process called global warming). It contributes to other climatic situations, such as increasingly worse natural disasters like floods. Carbon dioxide is viewed as an environmentally- unfriendly gas, and the goal is to limit how much of this gas we release into the atmosphere.

Guyana’s forests are valuable because intact forests mean that more trees would capture those gases that make the earth hotter. Because of that, companies like the Hess Corporation would pay Guyana significant sums of money to keep protecting those trees. This payment scheme involves “carbon credits”- a kind of tradeable permit or certificate that represents the removal of a certain amount of carbon dioxide from the environment.

Already, Hess secured 30 per cent of Guyana’s available carbon credits. So, the country has about 70 per cent of credits left to market to countries or companies. That means Guyana can earn millions more for its forest-saving efforts. And for any of the credits sold, Guyana’s government said it will directly allocate 15 per cent of the funds secured to Indigenous communities for their developmental priorities. The remaining 85 per cent will be spent on national development priorities.

In the months and years ahead, we will be able to see just how the LCDS and Guyana’s environment-saving plans will unfold, especially amid an increasingly prolific oil and gas sector. Until then, I hope we can continue learning more about all that going on and I hope that we can care about learning and care about saving the earth bit by bit.

If you would like to connect with me to discuss COVID-19, this column, or any of my previous works, feel free to email me at vish14ragobeer@gmail.com