The Ethics of Early Warning Systems for Climate Change - Reducing Disaster: Early Warning Systems for Climate Change - page 286

Table 15.1 UNESCO list of Small Island Developing States (SIDS)
Caribbean Sea Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British

Virgin Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana,
Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts
and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname,
Trinidad and Tobago, US Virgin Islands

Pacifi c Ocean American Samoa, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French

Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia,
Niue, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa,
Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu

African and
Indian Ocean

Bahrain, Cape Verde, Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Maldives, Mauritius, São
Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles, Singapore
Source: UN Offi ce of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked
Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UNOHRLLS)

15.11.1 Barbados

Barbados is used as a case study to illustrate the interplay between multiple factors
that create a web of challenges and vulnerability for SIDS; these include negative
impact on fresh water, agricultural productivity, increase in disease, rising sea lev-
els, change in tourism patterns and signifi cant damage to coastal and inland prop-
erty. In 2012, Barbados had a Human Development Index of 0.825 (UNDP 2012 ),
and with an area of 166 sq miles Barbados outperforms many other SIDS in this
broader defi nition of well-being based on health, education and income. Yet, the
country is highly vulnerable to external shocks, impacts of climate change and
natural disasters, according to Foreign Minister Maxine Mc Clean (UN Media 2012 ).
As one of the lowest-lying islands in the Caribbean, sea level rise, storm surges,
changes in temperature and rainfall threaten to exert pressure on agriculture, livestock,
coral reefs, fi sheries and water resources. One of the most signifi cant threats to the
Barbadian economy from climate change is to tourism. Tourism is a dominant
economic asset to most SIDS and is acutely vulnerable to the impact of increased
hazards from climate change. It has been estimated in Barbados that travel and
tourism may contribute as much as 49 % of gross domestic product (GDP) when
indirect effects are taken into account (Worrell et al. 2011 ). As a measure of a coun-
try's social and economic health, GDP has a large impact on nearly everyone within
a given economy, and with the large focus on tourism in Barbados' GDP, EWS may
well offer useful information to mitigate or avoid the loss of its largest asset - the
environment and the communities, both local and foreign, that it supports. Much of
the activities related to tourism and directly to the economic survival of the country
are concentrated on the coasts which are highly vulnerable to predicted changes in
climate. The livelihoods of residents on, and near to, the coasts are also in jeopardy
due to an increase in climate-change-related hazards. Fragile coral reefs risk bleach-
ing from changing ocean chemistry and warmer water, resulting in damage of
marine ecosystems and loss of cultural fi shing practices. Barbados is considered a