Environmentally Speaking

It's the final Episode! We speak to Gender Specialist, Kristina Neil and Dr. Dalea Bean, Head of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies, Mona Campus Unit on the connected topics of Gender & Climate. For successful climate adaptation and a just transition, we have to include gender from the planning stage. We can't have success without it- when success looks so different for...

Everyone complains about the traffic. But it's not as simple of an issue as it may seem. It goes to the heart of how we plan our cities, what we prioritize and how we zone- residential vs. commercial, concrete vs. agricultural.  When we think about climate change, specific to these cities, it's clear we need to make changes as well. What do we want our cities to look like? How do we want...

Climate Change is not just an environmental issue, it's a public health issue that affects us all. Whether it's airborne/waterborne diseases, industrial contamination, or even access to healthcare during natural disasters, we cannot separate our own well being from the health of our environment. This episode we discuss Health and Environment with Linnees Green-Baker, Public Health Inspec...

If there is one thing we all have in common it's waste. We use it, try to lose it, but we have to find a way to deal with it.  With no sanitary landfills in the country, waste management in Jamaica becomes a huge issue for our homes and communities, even affecting livelihoods and worsening disasters.  We talk to Theresa Rodriguez-Moodie, CEO of Jamaica Environment Trust and Senator Sophia Fra...

With the memory of Hurricane Beryl fresh in our minds and as we are heading into another hurricane season, we can't forget Disaster Readiness & Recovery on the campaign trail.  We have to talk about the support and infrastructure we need to create resilience towards these natural hazards that could prevent disaster. This episode we are joined by Kristinia Doughorty, Disaster Risk Reductio...

One topic that can turn the tides in an election season: the grocery bill. The cost of food cuts to the very essence of our humanity: can people afford to eat? and to eat healthy?  Right now, not so much. With the Caribbean being one of the most food insecure regions in the world where it is the most expensive to access healthy foods. The grocery bill is a topic that we couldn't afford to mis...

We're Live! Last episode we talked with our expert guests about Jobs- specifically green jobs and the just transition. Our breakdown show where your voice can be heard. Climate on the Ballot is about getting the citizen voice out and the votes in! It's time we see the issues we care about most represented on the ballot. Tun in by joining the live show (Zoom Link can be found in each epis...

On Today's ballot: jobs .  The climate is changing, and so is the work world. We are joined by Marissa Sheppard,  Just Transition Officer at the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Sean Yates, Entrepreneur and Animal Science Instructor at the College of Agriculture, Science and Education (CASE), to explore what's missing from the conversation around the job market this election s...

We're Live! Last week we talked about education with our expert guests. This week is our breakdown show where your voice can be heard. Climate on the Ballot is about getting the citizen voice out and the votes in! It's time we see the issues we care about most represented on the ballot. You can stream our live shows every other Saturday over on our Youtube channel: Ourfootprintja 

We're back! Season 4 is ‘Climate on the Ballot’. This election season we want to see the issues that affect us most at the forefront of the discussion. That means more meaningful dialogue on climate change through the lens of our everyday struggles and concerns. Episode 1 focusses on education. How does climate change affect the classroom? and how do we create a better future for our students...

It's just us in the studio! For this, our final episode of Season 3, we take the time to have a frank discussion with each other about climate justice and what it means to us and the marginalized groups of which we form part. We get more personal and local on ‘Justice in Climate: Equity at the intersections of ‘Being’ in the Caribbean’ tying the bow on Temperature Check, a season devoted to t...

Sustainability is a hot topic, but it's more than just a buzzword.  It's an absolute necessity for human survival and continuity. We dive into the real crux of what it takes to secure our collective futures.  We speak to guest, Eleanor Terrelonge, our founder and director of the JCCYC on the intricacies of sustainability and the fabric of society.  What are the drivers and setbacks of su...

How do you see your relationship with energy? What costs are we willing to pay to ensure everyone has access to this life force? For years we have been talking about renewable energy and a just transition to address the climate crisis. But what does it take to get there, what considerations haven’t we yet made? AS COP29 negotiations are going on we thought a conversation about possibilities for ou...

Water is life, so its scarcity is life-altering. What makes the Caribbean so susceptible to water scarcity? How does it impact our communities? How do water-filled countries in a region surrounded by water struggle to maintain the source of our being; our relationship with water. In this episode, we talk to Environmental Chemist Rashidah Khan, and Activist Jamila Falak about the various aspects of...

Temperature check? Too hot for corals…Episode two of temperature check dives into the ocean where warming waters are killing our corals. After a mass extinction event, coral restoration efforts in Jamaica came to a screeching halt despite the work of environmental experts trying their best to find and preserve survivors. Felix Charnley joins us from Ocho Rios Jamaica where he works to preserve mar...

We’re back! Season 3 of the Environment Speaking podcast, Temperature Check, focuses on our new climate reality. In this episode, we are joined by returning guest Dr. Theresa Rodriguez-Moodie, and climate justice activist  Luciano Doest from Suriname to discuss life in a new climate. We discuss a wider regional perspective on the climate impacts we are already facing, what is yet to come, and the...

Transparency and turbidity are two sides of the same coin. They are important to understand if we are to see the true impact of our environmental decisions. Whether we are looking at government processes or at the impact on deep-sea ecosystems, transparency matters. Today, the Clarion Clipperton Zone - some of the clearest waters in the world is now under threat from deep-sea mining. In this, our...

There’s a lot more to deep-sea mining than just the pure facts. It’s more than just minerals and the effects can be far beyond any financial or biophysical loss or gains. In this week’s episode, we talk with Danielle Nembhard and Esther Figueroa about the livelihood and the more-than-human impacts of deep-sea mining. By critically exploring different notions on how society is organized around cons...

In this week's episode, we dove deep into the barriers to environmental journalism. With our guest from the GlobalYaadie Podcast, Dainalyn Swaby, we explored obstacles to covering climate change and environmental issues in mainstream media, dissecting the industry that we rely on for our news and information, in the hopes of holding them to a higher standard of accountability.  This is partic...

"On this episode of Diving Deep, we spoke with EcoVybz Podcast creator and the Caribbean representative for the Sustainable Ocean Alliance, Khadija Stewart about the risks we face as small island developing states supporting big global north corporations to undertake deep-sea mining. In addition to the potential widespread environmental impacts including, biodiversity loss, carbon-sink disrup...

The ocean is approximately 12,100 feet (3,688 meters) deep and we have only explored about 5% of it. That means the majority of our ocean HAS NOT BEEN EXPLORED. This season on Environmentally Speaking, we are diving deep into the ocean and discussing the topic of deep-sea mining, which is set to start as early as July 2023. But there are still a lot of unknowns related to the ocean's ecologic...

Over the past few months, we’ve looked at how COVID-19 has affected various sectors, so in our final session we’ll be reviewing some of the most salient points, suggestions, tying them together, and wrapping them up. We want to figure out how we can craft our advocacy to address some of the issues highlighted and implement some of these solutions. We don’t want this initiative to end with us just...

There is no society without people.  According to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, “The COVID-19 outbreak affects all segments of the population and is particularly detrimental to members of those social groups in the most vulnerable situations, [it] continues to affect populations, including people living in poverty situations, older persons, persons with disabilities, youth, and...

Goal 1 of Jamaica's Vision 2030 development plan speaks to Jamaicans being empowered to achieve their fullest potential. Under this goal, one of the national outcomes is listed as “ World-Class Education and Training ” and that “ Vision 2030 Jamaica recognizes the need for every Jamaican child to have access to education to the level that enables him/her to access further education, training...

Governments need to focus on the general welfare of citizens and make investments in areas that unlock human potential, such as mental health services, reducing child poverty and homelessness, promoting Indigenous rights, fighting climate change, and expanding opportunities. "Economic growth accompanied by worsening social outcomes is not success," Ardern (New Zealand Prime Minister said...