its advertised 146 columns and a wine list to please royalty. The man-
ager is out, so I content myself chatting with the young man in charge
of the boathouse. He’s pleased to offer names of some of the recent
guests: “that 60 Minutesguy,” Ed Bradley, was here over Christmas.
Sylvester Stallone dropped in once “on a big boat,” Princess Diana had
stayed here with her kids.
The young man was working at the club in 1995 when Hurricane
Luis descended. “Lot of high swells and wind took some sand inside
the villas. Basically Luis ripped the hotel apart. But they rebuilt it.”
And had anything changed when the K-Club was rebuilt? No, the
young man says, it was constructed “exactly the same.”
THEIRHANDSARETIED
Inside the Ministry of Planning in the Antiguan capital of St. John’s,
Daven Joseph leans across his desk and talks of the need to “train our
people in coastal zone management and development.” Removal of
beach sand has been restricted but, he adds, “It is not enforced prop-
erly because we don’t have the capacity to patrol the beaches.” There
has been, he admits, no effort to replant mangroves, “but I think that
can be one of the more significant programs.”
At another cramped office not far from the airport, Brian
Challenger notes that summer planting of mangroves is being under-
taken by fishermen and the environment department, “but it certainly
doesn’t equal what has been cleared.” The Ministry of Public Utilities,
where he works, is preparing a study on climate change and tourism
that will contain other suggestions such as setbacks for beach hotels
and elevations of 2 feet rather than 1 foot for buildings.
Challenger is also examining whether health problems could be
exacerbated by climate change. “For example, the leading cause of
death in Antigua and Barbuda is cardiovascular. If you have to with-
stand more heat, your heart must work harder.” The Caribbean
Epidemiology Center has simultaneously undertaken a 3-year project
examining what warmer days will mean for the breeding of dengue
fever and malaria, diseases already endemic to the region. The last
major dengue outbreak in Antigua occurred in 1981, with seventy-
Antigua and Barbuda 75