Christian scientist Tracy-Ann Hyman loves the story of Joseph and his exploits in Egypt, so she was excited when she left for the north-eastern African country on November 7 to attend the UN’s 27th annual Conference of the Parties (COP27) which ended on November 20.
The journey took her 14 hours, but her experience at the global event will be etched in her memory forever. After not travelling for three years, being on a plane again was a welcome reprieve for the globetrotter who pursued a Master’s degree in Sustainability Science at the University of Tokyo in Japan, and has written a book documenting that experience.
Just a week prior, Hyman was quoting UN World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley’s statement that a famine of biblical proportions was imminent. She asked then, “Where are the 21st century Josephs and Josephines?” after recounting in a newspaper feature carried in the Freedom Come Rain Newspaper how Joseph was sold into Egypt by his brothers, and how God allowed him to be of help to Pharaoh, the ancient Egyptian leader.
“So here I am in Egypt, and I am saying, I wonder if I am a part of the 21st century Josephs?” she mused.
She then proffered, “Sometimes you are part of the solution, but sometimes you don’t see it, so it’s full circle that I actually wrote about Egypt and now I’m here to experience maybe some of what the Biblical Joseph did.”
At the time, Joseph helped Pharaoh to navigate through a famine, but Hyman hopes to help policy-makers save life and property by focusing her research on the creation of a flood planning tool that will help disaster planners properly prepare for flooding. Hyman, who is currently pursuing her PhD at the University of the West Indies, Mona, was granted a fellowship by the Association of Commonwealth Universities. The university sponsored her trip to Egypt, while the Jamaican delegation, headed by government senator Mathew Samuda, ensured she was accredited.
The researcher left Jamaica on November 7 and went through the UK and Turkey before reaching her destination two days later. What she encountered at the global conference exceeded her expectation and she has been sharing aspects of her exciting journey on her LinkedIn page.
Hyman is used to feeling odd because of her rapacious appetite for climate change discourse; it’s not something the average person wants to talk about, but while at the conference, she felt right at home as she conversed with others, who, she said, were speaking her language.
“I was just expecting maybe to come, sit down in a large theatre and view some debates in terms of climate change and the 1.5 degrees and how we can reduce emissions, not realising that while that is going on, you are also meeting people from across the world. It’s a big space. You are seeing booths, you are seeing all the people who are doing work on climate change issues, both adaptation, mitigation, all of the different components in one place,” said Hyman,who admitted to feeling like she was in a maze some days as she tried to navigate the different booths.
As a little girl, Hyman wanted to be a lawyer and a part-time actress, but even from then, her passion for the environment was undeniable. She recalled “Mr. Clean” visiting the St Andrew Preparatory School in Kingston where she attended and teaching students that they could help to protect the environment by not littering.
“I have found that those awareness initiatives have reduced over the years, so the respect for the environment is an issue. You throw things through the window, you throw things on the ground,” she noted, while acknowledging that several non-government-organizations like the Jamaica Environment Trust have been implementing projects to tackle pollution.
Hyman viewed herself as an average student while attending the St Andrew High School for Girls, so even she is surprised that she ended up in academia. Her trip to Egypt has got her reflecting more intentionally about her purpose and destiny.
“God has a role in how you will end up, despite the challenges and the things that you may face. He is really ordering our steps, and so I’m just going along and seeing what’s next,” she said.
As a Christian, she is well aware that some people of faith are skeptical about the global thrust towards climate change and the belief that humans can cause natural disasters, but while she welcomes all views, she maintains her interest and her position that human activities are a contributor to global warming, flooding, and drought.
“The bottom line is, we are doing things to the earth that are destroying it,” she said. “Definitely, we are not caring for the environment, and we are definitely suffering the impact.”
