Caribbean Climate Stories
A collection of nine tales delving into the climate effects across the Caribbean.
Over the course of a month, we equipped participants with storytelling skills to create impactful visual content. These stories were not just narratives but vivid portrayals of resilience, adaptation, and hope. Each participant brought a unique perspective, shedding light on the myriad ways climate change is altering lives and landscapes in the Caribbean.
From the rising sea levels threatening coastal communities to the unpredictable weather patterns affecting agriculture, their stories captured the urgency of the situation. Yet, amidst the challenges, there were also tales of innovation and community strength. Their stories continue to inspire and educate, proving that through collective effort and creative expression, we can make a significant impact in the fight against climate change.
Check out their written and video pieces below.
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Let’s keep the pressure up. Ask Caribbean leaders to sign the Climate Adaptation Declaration now, and commit to implementing just, equitable climate action to protect our communities before another climate disaster strikes.
About the Participants
Princess Avianne Charles 🇹🇹
Princes grew up seeing her mother being affected by the rain and extreme heat as an outdoor worker. This inspired her to become a leader of Caribbean Feminist and dedicate time to work towards protecting workers’ rights and the people that she loves whose livelihoods are affected by climate change. In CCN’s storytelling program, she talks about her firsthand experience with workers and how climate action can help their daily lives. A climate action that she wants for her community is the implementation of an occupational policy that addresses climate risks at work and the risk reduction measures required to keep workers, communities, and the environment safe.
Ethan Leandre 🇱🇨
Ethan loves the beach and has a strong connection to these natural places. It has been frustrating for him to see climate effects, like frequent sargassum blooms, prevent his community from enjoying the beach. This and other effects of climate change have been constant throughout his entire life living in St. Lucia, from the threat of hurricanes, to the heat and water shortages. These experiences motivate him to take climate action and advocate for a more sustainable future.
Karina M. Cortijo Robles 🇵🇷
Karina is a Puertorican Archaeologist, passionate about the Caribbean’s rich history and Indigenous legacy. Through archaeology and climate change research, she is dedicated to understanding how this population dealt with hurricanes in the past and to use this knowledge to protect communities in the present. She has seen how archaeological sites and information have been damaged by extreme weather and wants climate action and measures to preserve our history. She hopes to connect science with the current community of Ponce, PR for them to take more action or advocate for projects like renewable energy and climate resilience for hurricanes. While promoting those changes, she wants to connect the importance of preserving our Indigenous heritage with taking the necessary measures with the corresponding authorities before the legacy gets lost due to climate change.
Jessy Alexander Becius 🇭🇹
Jessy Alexander has seen how water has been a stress on his community. He has experienced climate extremes, like intense rains leading to flooding and devastating various areas and also has seen prolonged and unusual periods of drought that affect his country. This has inspired him to research on the vulnerability of Haiti’s coastal cities to the effects of climate change, especially flooding events. He also leads a project in his community, which consists of setting up a system for the collection, storage and distribution of rainwater, which compensates for the lack of water during periods of drought. He wants more structures put in place to protect against the effects of extreme weather events and to safeguard the property, lives and infrastructure of his community.
Genesis Whitlock 🇦🇬
Genesis grew up enjoying her grandmother’s garden, something that connected her with the power of nature and ancestral wisdom. She loves how traditional Caribbean foods bring us together, like ackee, yucca, ducuna, guava jelly, callaloo, and wants to work to protect our food systems, especially as communities face climate injustice and land dispossession. She believes in allowing those most directly affected by the climate crisis to play a significant role in advancing climate policies and having direct access to climate finance to repair harm. She advocates for establishing and supporting community-based renewable energy and sustainable food production projects, particularly solar power installations for farms and households, to protect farmers, environmental stewards, and food systems in Antigua & Barbuda and the greater Caribbean.
Ysaias Lara Kevelier 🇩🇴
Ysaias grew up enjoying a local river to cool off after school. This river is now polluted due to a power plant affecting the area. He continuously sees these effects along with other calamities, like the loss of lives during cyclones. This situation motivates him to act and cooperate in the search for climate solutions. His area of interest is supporting work for replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy that will help mitigate climate change.
Diara Springer 🇧🇧
Diara loves social gatherings, especially the traditional fete or lime in Barbados, enjoying each other’s presence and the vibrant music. In the past years, these gatherings have been affected due to extreme weather changes. From scorching heat to relentless rains, hurricanes, and storms, these conditions have begun to affect the ability to gather and maintain historic traditions. This concern drives her commitment to climate action and to encourage others to see the severity that climate change has in daily lives and celebrations. She wants to see a coral reef restoration project along Barbados’ west and south coasts be implemented. This type of action is important because coral reefs are crucial for coastal protection, helping to buffer against storm surges and sea-level rise, which are increasing due to climate change and which affect beaches where festivities are held.
Roodeney Barionette 🇭🇹
Roodeney is an agronomist engineer and climate activist. He lives in Haiti in a community where there are very few trees and people are socially marginalized. They do not live in houses that can adapt to the intense heat waves caused by rising temperatures in Haiti. Seeing his neighbors being affected by this, he is inspired to take actions for the benefit of Haiti against climate change effects. He wishes to see the adoption of sustainable energy technologies (biogas, ecological charcoal, briquettes) as an alternative to the use of charcoal and firewood at homes because deforestation due to excessive cutting of trees causes frequent flooding and heat, which is unfavorable for the agricultural practices of his community.
Deniel Novella 🇹🇹
Deniel is a researcher in Trinidad. Throughout her life, she has experienced the connection between colonialism and the climate crisis, and recognised that the very same systems that unfairly and unjustly exploited lives and physical space through colonization, continue to be operational today and are active within capitalism and industrialization; and the climate crisis is a consequence of these. She is motivated to take action to protect persons in her community who experience economic strain and mental fatigue due to severe weather patterns like extreme dry season and Sahara dust concentrations. She wishes for a state housing program that not only facilitates access to housing but also facilitates access to various proofing mechanisms to ensure resilience to extreme weather events and operates concomitantly with policy and regulations that maintain standards of resilience and mitigate practices that exacerbate adverse effects of extreme weather events.