Bertarelli Summer2024 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 26
removing rats, removing goats and
other invasive species. And in turn,
we’ve helped save dozens of species
from extinction, including several
reptiles, such as the Lesser Antillean
iguana, a snake called the Antiguan
racer, and the St. Lucia whiptail lizard. We’ve also seen a huge increase
in seabirds—some 20-fold increase.
So we’re on the right track.
And how is climate change impacting that work?
Daltry: Being on the ground, my
eyes have been opened to what climate change means. Not only sea
level rise, or worsening drought,
but more intense and frightening
hurricanes. In my lifetime, the frequency of category 4 and category 5
hurricanes has more than doubled.
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That means wind speeds of more
than 130 miles an hour, sometimes
as much as 190 miles an hour. When
the hurricanes come, they bring
storm surges, which are like tsunamis that smash into the coastline
where most of the people live, but
also torrential rain, which brings
landslides and mudslides.
Being on a small island when a
category 5 hurricane is coming is
absolutely terrifying. But it’s not
just a frightening disaster; we can
see nature helping us. For example,
in 2017, Hurricane Irma hit Anguilla
and brought with it storm surges
of 20 feet high. This had a colossal
impact, and smashed or destroyed
a lot of buildings, and left many
buildings submerged in floods. But
then other parts of the island were
AQ UA PI X / S H UT TER STO CK
BIRDS TO THE RESCUE
Climate change is worsening the
bleaching of coral reefs—but
seabirds can help. Reefs located
near islands with a robust seabird
population recover from bleaching
faster than those without.
