Is Panama up to the challenge? Although the country has dubbed itself the 'epicenter of climate action' and is a signatory to dozens of international commitments, many people have their homes flooded without ever having heard a clear explanation about climate change and how to react to the events it causes. The low levels of knowledge on the topic highlight one of the main failures of public policy: education, training, public awareness and citizen participation in climate action. In Panama, the construction sector lost up to 40% of its potential profits due to impacts on its workforce from excess heat. Scientific evidence shows this is only the beginning, it will get worse, and much more. Studies indicate that it not only puts humans at risk, but also animals and plants. Who will have a say in those decisions? This requires, at least, three things: climate education in schools, citizen participation mechanisms in adaptation plans, and transparency about who funds the public debate. It is time to prepare for the future we will have instead of pretending, once again, that the system that feeds the heat machine will solve this crisis on its own. The author is a doctor in genetic biology, an environmental educator and an activist. This refers to campaign financing in the U.S., which registered tactics of deception and disinformation to discredit science and improve the public image of those industries. If Panama truly wants to be at the forefront of climate action, it cannot continue in this tradition. More and more species are being forced to migrate to survive and even food production is already affected. Experts and economists warn of the exorbitant costs to the economy that the climate crisis will generate in the coming years, if the world does not change course drastically. To prevent and mitigate these impacts, one must be prepared. The institutional response remains fragmented, reactive or non-existent. Behind the floods, the rising sea level, the droughts affecting the Canal, and the extreme heat we complain so much about, there is a common cause: global warming. A 2023 national survey confirms that there is a high level of concern, but little knowledge and frustration due to the lack of clear information and concrete actions. It is no coincidence. And a certainty that no longer requires conversation: it gets hotter every time. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology of Panama (IMHPA) confirm it: in the last decade, the rate of warming has practically doubled, resulting in extreme temperatures that break records and cause chaos. This is not an isolated natural phenomenon: it is a crisis for which Panama is not sufficiently prepared. We need to move towards a public, honest and mature debate, worthy of the manifest emergency, accompanied by a sustained national guidance campaign. It is the path to create the basic conditions to face difficult questions: How is adaptation achieved? To gauge the magnitude of the problem: in the last decade, this rate was ten times faster than in any comparable period of its geological history, according to NASA. Excess heat is not just uncomfortable —it generates bad mood, difficulty concentrating—, it is dangerous: it reduces academic and productive performance, causes cognitive decline and low birth weight, it slowly makes us sick or suddenly kills us. According to the scientific journal The Lancet, heat mortality in Latin America doubled in the last decade. What will be the rules and criteria for deciding how we adapt? This column was produced in the 'Think Panama / Narrate Democracy' writing program, by Concolón and the British Embassy in Panama. Its origin is the burning of oil, gas and coal: fuels that drive the world economy and release gases such as carbon dioxide, which trap heat in the atmosphere and raise the planet's temperature. What is worrying is that the speed at which the Earth accumulates this energy is increasing every year. Every summer, the same suffocating heat. Behind the low public knowledge there are seven decades of disinformation campaign by the fossil fuel industries, as documented by the Union of Concerned Scientists and the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee. Sweat on the streets, media alerting to health dangers, authorities issuing heat advisories for unusual temperatures.
