News stories by Desmond Brown, page 17

Its accolades include being labelled the breadbasket of the Caribbean as well as the Amazon adventure. But the natural environment for which the South American country of Guyana is famous is also reeling from the effects of climate change.

Evi Johnson points to the spot where, as a young boy, he and his friends would go swimming at Crabb Hill Beach.

It is mid-morning and the temperature has already soared to 80 degrees centigrade.

When it comes to developing a 'green economy', Barbados is leading its English-speaking Caribbean neighbours.

The 15,000 residents of this British Overseas Territory had always prided themselves on having perhaps the most reliable and efficient source of electricity in the Caribbean.

James Nicholas has always made a living off the sea. A fisherman in the tri-island state of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique, he recalls the profitable business of selling his daily catch to residents and restaurants on the island and even exporting fish to luxury hotels in neighbouring ones.

When Hurricane Luis, a category four storm, lashed the tiny Caribbean island of Anguilla on Sep. 4, 1995, its forceful waves eroded all of the beaches, leaving vast areas of the shoreline carpeted with dead sea grass and debris torn from the coral reefs.

Two years after a severe drought wreaked havoc with a number of Caribbean countries, some are now adopting new strategies in a bid to prevent a repeat of a situation where countries were rationing water and imposing strict restrictions on residents.

When scientists speak of the Sargasso Sea, which occupies part of the Atlantic Ocean, there is usually little mention of things drifting out because of the immobile currents.

Like most of its neighbours in the English-speaking Caribbean, Barbados's main economic asset is its coastal zone.