Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine is spend­ing his birth­day to­day look­ing back on a very dif­fer­ent Ju­ly 1—when, one year ago, To­ba­go was brac­ing for one of the most pow­er­ful storms the re­gion had ever seen.

Au­gus­tine spent his last birth­day in full cri­sis mode as Hur­ri­cane Beryl threat­ened to rip through the is­land. Now, he’s call­ing on To­bag­o­ni­ans to re­mem­ber, re­flect and pre­pare, warn­ing that cli­mate change is no longer a dis­tant threat.

“One year lat­er, To­ba­go, like many small is­land states, con­tin­ues to con­front the re­lent­less re­al­i­ties of cli­mate change,” Au­gus­tine said last night, mark­ing the an­niver­sary of the storm’s pass­ing. “Whether it’s the in­creas­ing fre­quen­cy of storms, the warm­ing of our seas that threat­ens our coral reefs, the per­sis­tent haze of Sa­hara dust, or the grow­ing in­va­sion of sar­gas­sum sea­weed, each day seems to bring a new and ur­gent chal­lenge.”