Cuba: Living Between Hurricanes: Climate, Commodities and Sustainability

This book is based on the film Cuba: Living Between Hurricanes (2019, dir. Michael Chanan), and tells the stories through the voices of those who were interviewed. It is a book about the elements - hurricanes and rain, the sea and the earth. About a fishing port on the north coast of Cuba which has seen better days: Caibarién, where Hurricane Irma - one of the most powerful ever to sweep the Caribbean - made landfall on 9th September 2017. About the effects of climate across the centuries in a Caribbean island sucked into global markets for its commodity crops - tobacco, coffee and above all, sugar. How sugar changed the landscape, through deforestation and soil exhaustion. About the collapse of sugar and the encroachment of a new commodity market - tourism. About the growing threat from climate change, and the move towards reforestation, ecotourism and sustainable farming.