|
Welcome!
|
No Need to Reinvent the Wheel
Lynne Carter
Director, Adaptation Network
As we develop potential adaptation responses to a changing, variable, and more extreme climate system, we need not start from scratch. There are numerous places we can find excellent beginning thoughts on how to prepare for, respond to, and reduce our risks to a variety of climate changes and extremes, as Josh Foster also discusses in his article for this issue on his work with CCAP's Urban Leaders Adaptation Initiative (see below).
We can begin by recognizing that many of the climate problems that are likely to impact us first may already be impacting us, albeit at a less dramatic level than is projected under a changing climate. Some may have already impacted another region or sector. We can look at how others have responded including our predecessors or our ancestors.
We can also choose to learn from earlier generations' ingenuity and apply it with appropriate variation to the present and the future. For example: some Native American nations have lived in arid locations for centuries: how? One early adaptive technology used perfectly placed rocks within plantings to capture dew and transfer it to crops. Irrigation is so much easier that we may have forgotten how to do this, and our mechanized plowing means we haven't wanted rocks in our way. But with the new best-practices emphasis on low-til/no-till agriculture and local food production, some traditional methods could provide interesting and innovative ideas to consider when water availability is in question. Rain barrels are another example. We can use that resource for many purposes not requiring potable water and at the same time reduce our burden on aging and over-subscribed water infrastructure.
We can look at the work that continues to be done by the disaster reduction community--since we are trying to reduce climate-related disasters. Disaster-reducers and climate-adapters both examine many of the same factors in identifying risk and assessing what will overwhelm communities in their planning. Extreme weather events are increasing some disasters because many people live in locations (e.g. flood plains, fire-prone forests) that have become vulnerable because natural buffers have been disturbed or destroyed (such as dunes and wetlands). Too, residents tend to be unaware of the potential for serious problems in some locations and they, often along with the local authorities, are ill-prepared when an extreme event occurs. We now live in an era of "just-in-time" management whereas the disaster-reduction community seeks to help people to again be knowledgeable, plan, and be prepared. For example, the multi-agency program Firewise (firewise.org) has worked with communities around the US that are at risk of wildfire. Program officers have educated residents of vulnerable areas to understand their risk and prepare their communities to avoid loss of life and property by taking preparatory steps. Many of the steps they recommend are excellent starting points for communities that are likely to see their risk of fire increase as a result of a changing climate and hydrologic cycles.
Another group we can learn from are "early adopters" -- those who saw the need to adapt to climatic change and took action sooner than most. These are in the US and in locations around the world; many countries are ahead of the US in assessing and planning for adaptation to climate change. Examples include: the recognition of a continually rising sea has prompted the City of Boston to raise the height of their sewage treatment plant on Deer Island by nearly two feet to accommodate projected sea-level rise over the lifetime of that infrastructure. A number of states (e.g., Michigan, North and South Carolina, Rhode Island) have regulations that require setbacks that vary based on observed erosion rates and as a result greatly lengthen the expected lifespan of new planned buildings. Maine has coastal sand dune rules that require that certain sized buildings must remain stable under a sea-level rise of two feet or prohibits them. We could study the lessons from these early adopters and increase our knowledge base as well as expand our options for action.
Best practices from the US and elsewhere seem to be important starting places for work with ecosystems. In 2004, I planned the conference and wrote the follow-up document for the organization of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers on adaptations for the regions' natural resources. Most conference speakers suggested that two actions would really assist the regions' natural resources: (1) reducing other stressors (e.g. fragmentation, pollutants, over-harvesting, etc.) because ecosystems that are healthy and less stressed can handle other perturbations like climatic change better; and (2) implementing best management practices rather than business as usual. In many places, best practices are not being implemented.
One of the most recent of the federal US Climate Change Science Program's synthesis and assessment documents [see the "Adaptation Network News" section for more on this document] reviews adaptations for ecosystems and climate-sensitive natural resources. It concludes that, among other things, 'many existing best management practices for "traditional" stressors of concern have the added benefit of reducing climate change exacerbations of those stressors.'
Using these and other existing resources can help us jump-start adaptation. I am encouraged knowing that we do not have to reinvent the wheel to get started. The adaptation community has the need and the opportunity to bring together all of these communities to move forward. Let's be inclusive rather than exclusive in our effort to build resilience.
|
|
How Sweet it is!
|
"I used to think adaptation subtracted from our efforts on prevention. But I've changed my mind," says Al Gore.
Make that bittersweet: the rest of Gore's quotation is "Poor countries are vulnerable and need our help." True!
The thrust of the British magazine's online article is environmentalists' directional change toward adaptation internationally, epitomized by Gore's change. For more of that bittersweet taste, visit
The Economist article Adapt or Die. Thanks to Linking Climate Adaptation Network. To subscribe, email a.stanley@ids.ac.uk. To view the archives, visit http://community.eldis.org/lca. |
|
Wetlands Impact Model Available
|
The SLAMM model simulates the effects of rising sea level on coastal landcover
(www.spea.indiana.edu/wetlandsandclimatechange/SLAMM-View.htm). The
Viewer shows 45 fine-scale combinations of sea level rise scenarios for coastal South Carolina and Georgia,
with over a dozen contextual layers you can turn on or off. |
|
Coming Soon! Adaptation Database
|
The Integrated Assessment Research Program of the US Department of Energy (DOE)
is supporting the development of a data base on climate change adaptation processes
and managed practices. The intention is that this data base will be developed in communication
with the larger adaptation research and practice community and will become web-based as a part of
the integrated information infrastructures of both the US Climate Change Science Program (CCSP)
and DOE. At that point, it will be accessible to all interested users. A parallel effort is under
way to develop a data base on climate change impact research. For further information, contact
Tom Wilbanks, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, at wilbankstj@ornl.gov. |
|
"Downscaling":
Answers to the Question "What'll Climate Be Like Here?"
|
The Adaptation Network's Director Lynne Carter and Robert Corell, Vice President for Programs at
the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment (Washington, DC) recently
collaborated on a paper to explain "downscaling" and how it will be used to help plan adaptation as
well as help adapters evaluate adaptation plans. This is part of the answer to the problem Josh Foster
touches on in his article in this issue: "the uncertainty of climate change information at the local level."
Lynne and Bob's paper is new on our website:
go directly to the article at:
adaptationnetwork.org/assets/downscalingPlanning.pdf
go to our resources page at:
adaptationnetwork.org/resources.html |
|
|
Adaptation Network News
|
The Adaptation Network and the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve on Cape Cod, are planning a day-long program in early 2009 on adaptation. This is a follow-up to a meeting held last fall. The program will address four issues that should be of concern to the towns on Cape Cod (and elsewhere) under a changing climate: developing a sea-level rise plan, infrastructure planning, reducing vulnerability to wildfires, and stormwater modeling and action planning. An adaptation planning pilot program for the region's towns is the outcome planned to emerge from this one-day meeting. For more information contact Lynne at lcarter231@aol.com.
The Adaptation Network has been working for some months with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and a team of co-authors on the report: "Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States." The main focus of this document is a description of projected impacts. It will also briefly describe response options to climate change: mitigation and adaptation. At least one adaptation example that is already occurring will be highlighted in each region and sector. The document should be available winter 2008/spring 2009.
The Adaptation Network: Building Resilience in a Changing Climate is a nonprofit, tax-exempt project of the Earth Island Institute. For more information on Earth Island, see www.earthisland.org. We are supported by caring people like you. You can make a gift to support us easily through our website or by mailing a check to
PO Box 117, Berkeley Springs, WV 25411
Make checks out to: Earth Island Institute, with "for the Adaptation Network" clearly indicated in the memo section of the check. If you'd like to make an inkind gift to the Adaptation Network, airline credits are always useful and welcomed! Gifts "in honor of" are a wonderful way to reduce "stuff" and add meaning to your birthday, anniversary, and other giving--tax-deductibly! Contact Beth Raps to do this at bethraps@earthlink.net.
In early October, Adaptation Network Director Lynne Carter facilitated a roundtable in Washington, DC, for the Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) soliciting suggestions from a variety of climate experts on ways to improve the next round of the program and ways to include adaptation and mitigation research along with traditional climate science research. Lynne will also facilitate a "listening session" at Scripps Institute (La Jolla, California) at the end of the month to solicit information on the climate science information needs of municipal decision-makers and the public. This is one of about a dozen such listening sessions around the country that CCSP is holding to increase input to planning the next climate science program.
On October 10, Lynne was invited to speak about the Adaptation Network at a Forum for Social Entrepreneurs called together by The Indus Entrepreneurs and the Boston University School of Management, held at the BU Executive Leadership Center in Boston. Lynne's talk opened with a description of the Network and its purpose, and along with the two other speakers' presentations prompted a discussion of the differences and interconnections between adaptation and mitigation.
In September, the Adaptation Network participated in TippingPoint, a by-invitation program of the United Kingdom's Climate Impacts Program (UKCIP) and the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University (UK). The program brings together climate scientists and artists in all media so that the scientists may help inform interested artists and encourage them to incorporate climate issues into future works. TippingPoint aims to "harness the power of the imagination to help stabilise the climate." The ways they accomplish this are awe-inspiring and extraordinarily stimulating. For a fresh dose of delight and imagination in your own climate work, browse Lynne's meeting report here:
adaptationnetwork.org/assets/tippingPoint.pdf
See other resources on our website:
adaptationnetwork.org/resources.html. |
|
Feature Article
|
In our last issue, we congratulated Josh Foster on his move from NOAA to CCAP. Find out what he's up to now (and what the acronyms are!) in this article...
The Center for Clean Air Policy: Urban Leaders Adaptation Initiative
Josh Foster
Manager, Climate Adaptation, Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP)
I spent the last 13 years working at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Program Office finding better ways to understand, communicate, and engage with decisionmakers about the impacts of climate variability and change. The goal was helping them to better manage risk associated with those impacts. This objective is at the heart of climate adaptation.
The challenge for NOAA as a federal science mission agency was to provide the best available weather and climate information to decision makers without becoming embroiled in the politics of climate either overtly in favor of mitigation via emissions reductions or in promoting adaptation as an alternative--one often viewed as a "retreat" from mitigation solutions by the environmental community. NOAA's strategy on adaptation had been to pursue development of "climate services" in the same way that weather services developed after WWII, bringing practical, everyday approaches to how people manage climate through encouraging the application of science-based information delivered by NOAA and its partners across various climate-sensitive sectors and time-scales.
Believing in a collaborative approach, NOAA launched the Climate Resilient Communities (CRC) Project in 2005, a pilot effort in cooperation with ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability to engage a select number of local elected leaders and governments on the issue of climate adaptation. The goal of the CRC project was to bring the concept of adaptation to a new community of decisionmakers already immersed in mitigation activities but only just awakening to the need to manage the inevitable impacts of climate change. Their awareness of climate adaptation had been heightened after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, and was later reinforced by the 2006 movie The Inconvenient Truth, and the 2007 reports of the Nobel Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
As manager of the CRC project, I saw its tremendous potential to bring NOAA climate science and scientists together with ICLEI's 500-strong US network of local urban governments to advance adaptation strategies in local decisionmaking--even if only in five communities at first (Keene, NH; Miami-Dade County (FL); Fort Collins, CO; Homer, AK; Fairbanks, AK), the initial CRC communities committed to the project.
NOAA did not allocate funding to continue the 3-year project, so in April 2008 I jumped to the "stakeholder side of the fence," joining the Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP) to manage its Urban Leaders Adaptation Initiative. CCAP is the only organization besides ICLEI that has a program convening local urban governments on climate adaptation.
In partnership with government leaders from several large counties and cities, CCAP launched Urban Leaders in 2006, to serve as a resource for local governments as they face important infrastructure and land-use decisions that affect local adaptation efforts; and to empower local communities to develop and implement climate resilient strategies. Urban Leader partners are representatives from Chicago, King County (Washington), City of Los Angeles, Miami-Dade County (Florida), City of Milwaukee, Nassau County (New York), Phoenix, San Francisco and Toronto. With its charter partner, Washington State King County Executive Ron Sims [whose adaptation guidebook, supported by NOAA and ICLEI, was profiled in an earlier issue of the Adaptation Network's newsletter, and which link is available on our website], and core funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, CCAP's vision is to examine projected climate impacts in 2050 and "back-cast" to identify what steps are necessary to reduce GHG emissions and build community resiliency.
I particularly appreciate the way the Urban Leaders program frames "resilience": the ability to bounce back quickly from climate impacts. This in my mind is the ultimate goal of climate adaptation. I also appreciate the chance to work full-time on local urban climate adaptation, determining the practical "how-to's" of climate adaptation.
When I speak to audiences about climate change, I like to provide a few simple take-home messages. The first is that climate change is inevitable and in fact many of us are already experiencing it or looking at sensor-based or modeled trends. (I think most of the Adaptation Network's readership already get this point or they wouldn't be part of the Network). I next underscore that climate is not static, nor is climate change limited to some far-off future, but rather climate--and climate change--is what happens at all timescales from days, to weeks, to seasons, to years, to decades, to centuries and we should consider even climate over the last 10,000 years as informing our expectations of "worst cases" for the future. Finally, adaptation can be defined as "preparedness" for climate extremes (e.g. stockpiling sandbags before a flood), "active adaptation" (e.g. reinforcing levees in anticipation of floods, or raising them in anticipation of worse floods); and "passive adaptation" (e.g. building dikes or retreating from the coast as sea level rises).
Philosophically, Urban Leaders believes that adaptation and mitigation of climate change are like eating and breathing: people cannot do one without the other if we are to solve the emerging climate crisis. CCAP is encouraging Urban Leaders partners to "Ask the Climate Question"--to examine what we build where and how. It also emphasizes that the daily choices we make as leaders, urban managers, and consumers must incorporate a climate component. Climate is no longer just an environmental issue but must now encompass issues of infrastructure, land-use, urban planning, building design, disaster management, and public health, etc. Some have encapsulated climate mitigation and adaptation with the phrase "avoiding the unmanageable, and managing the unavoidable." Many sectors from public works to engineering to water management are already doing climate adaptation, but they may not see it as such. Once they discover that what they indeed are doing is climate adaptation, and that they are in a position to be part of the solution to climate change, we believe local government and private sector innovation and investments will accelerate and "snowball."
The CCAP Urban Leaders Adaptation Initiative is also encouraging climate change solutions that achieve both mitigation and adaptation. For example, the water management sector uses large amounts of energy-transporting water so conservation measures reducing demand--an adaptation to scarcity--will also reduce emissions. Green roofs, urban forestry, and open space are adaptive measures increasing resilience to urban heat island effects, heat events, or extreme rainfall while simultaneously reducing energy demand for cooling or managing storm-water. Smart growth planning can make communities potentially more resilient to climate extremes through stronger building codes while also lowering vehicle miles traveled. I like to say that mitigation buys time to adapt to inevitable changes--by slowing the pace of warming, while adaptation compels mitigation by focusing attention on the stark need to prevent climate impacts in advance.
An ongoing challenge of climate adaptation--of which many readers will no doubt be aware--is the uncertainty of climate change information at the local level. Global climate change models are not yet accurate or precise enough to define exactly what future climate conditions will be in a city let alone a neighborhood. The best climate scientists can do is to provide coarse-resolution information at a regional scale.
The approach we took at NOAA, and that we are now promoting under the CCAP Urban Leaders Adaptation Initiative, is to work with local decisionmakers on understanding their current climates--particularly weather extremes--and how better to manage these impacts over shorter time-frames using available information so that different approaches can be tested in practice and in real time (e.g. managing current hurricane impacts can provide insight about how to manage future increasingly severe storms). We also encourage them to engage with scientists and experts in developing plausible scenarios of future climates under changed conditions, allowing them to spin out various planning solutions for managing anticipated risks (e.g. how to reduce the vulnerability of coastal infrastructure at different levels of sealevel rise or incorporating factors such as storm surges from more intense or frequently returning storms and along with tidal effects).
One of the most promising outcomes I have discovered from my brief time at CCAP is just how much the Urban Leaders partners are already doing to adapt to climate change. Among the nine partner cities and counties, several have engaged scientists and consultants to analyze their climate change vulnerabilities given available tools and techniques. One study included economic vulnerabilities and costs and benefits of responding. Some partners are in the process of developing climate plans that incorporate adaptation, and some already have comprehensive, "stand alone" adaptation plans. Others have taken steps to establish divisions for climate adaptation, to hire adaptation specialists to lead on this issue, or have organized across their city or county departments to address climate adaptation. In some cases the partners are already in a position to bring to bear decision support tools and information on specific adaptation related problems or policy gaps, and have taken steps to prioritize adaptation into short, medium, and long-term actions. One Urban Leaders partner has even invested millions in building a reclaimed water treatment facility to offset anticipated water shortages from climate-change-induced declines in mountain snowpack and earlier spring run-off compensating for lower ebb in late summer stream-flows. These efforts from our partners are all truly inspiring.
Although the Urban Leaders Adaptation Initiative represents more than 5 percent of US population, CCAP acknowledges that there is a long way to go until communities across the US recognize and account for climate change adaptation in their planning. We are heartened to see that a number of urban areas not under the Urban Leaders partnership (e.g. New York City, London) are also conducting intensive adaptation activities, but they are still few and far between. States are also beginning adaptation planning, but it is a patchwork. One of the goals of the Initiative is to synthesize emerging "best practices" from the partners and share them among the group, and eventually to spread these approaches nationally and internationally. CCAP and Urban Leaders are also dedicated to bringing the voices and experiences of local governments into ongoing discussions on the formulation of national climate adaptation policies expected in 2009.
Human beings have been adapting to climate for thousands of years, from the first shelters to modern air conditioned homes, but now we must consider what further extremes we will need to absorb, and what additional information and technologies we will need to bring to bear. Better calibrating our society's interaction with the global, regional, and local climates to reduce negative impacts, and take advantage of potential opportunities whatever climate emerges will be one of the great challenges of the 21st Century. My personal philosophies about solving climate change can be summed up in a few simple ideas: climate mitigation is like voting: if each person does their small part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions we all can be inspired to save the world; climate adaptation is like governing, incorporating climate into the daily, often mundane, but essential activity of making the trains run on time. So call me a train conductor for climate adaptation. All aboard!
Contact Josh at jfoster@ccap.org
CCAP main page: www.ccap.org/
Urban Leaders Adaptation Initiative page:
http://www.ccap.org/index.php?component=programs&id=6 |
|
New Resources in Adaptation and...
Children
|
Children in a Changing Climate is a new organization "securing children and young people a voice in preventing and adapting to climate change" (emphases ours) from their communities to the UN... childreninachangingclimate.org |
|
Cities
|
The Chicago Climate Action Plan gives an important place to adaptation. This is in fact one reason the plan is unique among US climate action plans. Another is the careful focus on measuring costs and benefits of adaptive and mitigative actions. The report was released in September 2008. Downloadable are the full Plan itself, each of its chapters, the "Quick Guide to Adaptation," and a variety of more focused reports, available under the "Research and Reports" tab on the website. chicagoclimateaction.org
"Climate Resilient Cities: A Primer on Reducing Vulnerabilities to Climate Change Impacts and Strengthening Disaster Risk Management in East Asian Cities" is available in English. East Asian cities face some of the greatest adaptation challenges on the planet due to population density. To download the 176-page pdf (12.32 MB), or the text version (uncorrected, only offered for those with slow connectivity): click here.
From the abstract: "The primer is applicable to a range of cities, from those starting to build awareness on climate change to those with climate change strategies and institutions already in place. [It] is organized as a knowledge resource and process to engage government officials actively in educating themselves and their fellow citizens... [and] can be used by any stakeholder, city leaders, civil society, and city managers." The primer uses a dual track approach (adaptation and mitigation) to dealing with climate change impacts and disaster risk management issues; is a motivating step intended to move communities through a process that leads to action and investments; presents illustrative examples already implemented; emphasizes that mutual ability of cities to learn is enhanced by their ability to exchange experiences. |
|
Ecosystems
|
Climate Ready Estuaries is a new EPA website offering basic information, a toolkit, news, and ways to connect: www.epa.gov/climatereadyestuaries/.
Research is now being completed by an EPA-funded project, "The Effects of Sea Level Rise and Climate Variability on Ecosystem Services of Tidal Marshes, South Atlantic Coast," www.spea.indiana.edu/wetlandsandclimatechange/. The Sea Level Rise Affects Marshes Model (SLAMM) (see "Models" section above for description of and link to SLAMM) will be used to predict changes in marsh area resulting from submergence and habitat conversion.
The WWF (World Wildlife Fund, the international organization whose US branch is well-known) published the manual "Buying Time: A User's Manual for Building Resistance and Resilience to Climate Change in Natural Systems" (editors: L.J. Hansen, J.L. Biringer, J.R. Hoffmann) for natural resource managers who are ready to confront the impacts of climate change." (p. 7, "Foreword"). While highlighting adaptation, the foreword closes with a reminder that managers of protected areas are uniquely suited to report on the impacts of climate change in their areas, and advocate for mitigation. Biomes addressed are grasslands, forests, montane, arctic, temperate marine, tropical marine, and freshwater. There are also chapters on protected areas per se, and on impact assessments. The entire report, and individual chapters, can be downloaded free at www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/climate_change/publications/index.cfm?uNewsID=8678&uLangID=1
A new report from the US Climate Change Science Program calls for seven "adaptation approaches" which the executive summary notes are also best management practices. The "Preliminary Review of Adaptation Options for Climate-Sensitive Ecosystems and Resources" (editors S.H. Julius and J.M. West) main purpose "is to provide useful information on the state of knowledge regarding adaptation options for . . . representative ecosystems and resources that may be sensitive to climate variability and change." Its focus is federal lands but the adaptation options could support useful steps for a variety of resource managers. It is also Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.4, and can be downloaded in entirety or chapter-by-chapter at: www.climatescience.gov/Library/sap/sap4-4/final-report/.
Adapting to climate change and variability requires a new management strategy that is flexible and incorporates "an iterative learning process producing improved understanding and improved management over time" (Exec. Summary pg xii) as we gain more knowledge and reduce uncertainties. The Department of Interior has developed a technical guide to Adaptive Management aimed at working with natural resources that is built around four basic questions: What is adaptive management? When should it be used? How should it be implemented? and How can its success be recognized? While this document is aimed at agencies, there are numerous parts of this process and document that could be useful to others involved in natural resource management. For example, the emphasis on stakeholder participation and how results from monitoring and assessment are used to revise and adjust management decisions are two important points for anyone making decisions around climate impacts. For a hard copy contact: U.S. Department of the Interior, 1849 C Street, NW, Washington, DC 20240. For an electronic copy: www.doi.gov/initiatives/AdaptiveManagement/TechGuide.pdf |
|
Health
|
Howard Frumkin, MD, DrPH, Jeremy Hess, MD, MPH, George Luber, PhD, Josephine Malilay, PhD, MPH and Michael McGeehin, PhD, MSPH have published an article in the American Journal of Public Health (March 2008), "Climate Change: The Public Health Response." From the abstract, available free online: "[Climatic] changes are expected to have substantial impacts on human health. There are known, effective public health responses for many of these impacts, but the scope, timeline, and complexity of climate change are unprecedented. We propose a public health approach to climate change, based on the essential public health services, that extends to both clinical and population health services and emphasizes the coordination of government agencies (federal, state, and local), academia, the private sector, and nongovernmental organizations." To pay for access to this issue of the Journal, order a print copy, subscribe to the Journal or join its publisher, the American Public Health Association: www.ajph.org/cgi/content/abstract/98/3/435.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released, "Analyses of the Effects of Global Change on Human Health and Welfare and Human Systems," which also identifies adaptation strategies to help respond to climate challenges and long-term research goals for addressing data and knowledge gaps. The peer-reviewed report is the most up-to-date synthesis and assessment of scientific literature on the impact of global change on human health, welfare and settlements in the United States. Download at http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/cfm/recordisplay.cfm?deid=197244. For a two-page summary brochure: http://downloads.climatescience.gov/sap/sap4-6/sap4-6-brochure-FAQ.pdf.
While it is good to have the imprimatur of the CCSP on this question, the report echoes conclusions reached by the IPCC's Third and the Fourth Assessment reports (sections on North America, subsection on health). The 2002 article published by Redefining Progress and still available free on their website, "A Fair Climate for All" raises public health questions that remain not only unanswered but unasked by government studies
(www.rprogress.org/publications/2000/afairclimateforall.pdf, by Ansje Miller with Paige Brown). |
|
Natural Resource Management (see Ecosystems, above)
Risk Management
Note: Adaptation Network Director Lynne Carter has long emphasized that adaptation is "just better planning," and for professional planners, is another factor to consider, and not a whole new ballgame. The two international resources below highlight this understanding and help us contribute to it!
|
"Dear colleagues,
I would like to draw your attention to two initiatives the ProVention Consortium
has recently developed: (1) Web portal on synergies between climate adaptation
and disaster risk reduction... www.proventionconsortium.org/?pageid=95, and (2) ProVention YouTube channel, a library of community based disaster risk management films with over 50 videos from 15 [nonprofit organization]s. A wide range of climate change adaptation videos have also been collected: www.youtube.com/profile_play_list?user=ProVention...Let me know if there are any resources/links you would like to add to the Portal or YouTube channel.
Best regards,
Bruno Haghebaert,
Senior Officer, ProVention Consortium Secretariat, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, bruno.haghebaert@ifrc.org, proventionconsortium.org." |
|
Sealevel Rise (see Ecosystems, above)
Wetlands (see Ecosystems, above)
Announcement
|
A new quarterly American Meteorological Society journal, Weather, Climate, and Society, publishes scientific research and analysis on the interactions of weather and climate with society. The journal encompasses economic, policy, institutional, social, behavioral, and international research, including mitigation and adaptation to weather and climate change. Articles may focus on a broad range of topics at the interface of weather and/or climate and society, including the socioeconomic, policy, or technological influences on weather and climate, the socioeconomic or cultural impacts of weather and climate, ethics and equity issues associated with weather, climate, and society, and the historical and cultural contexts of weather, climate, and society. Because of the interdisciplinary subject matter, articles that involve both natural/physical scientists and social scientists are particularly encouraged. See: www.ametsoc.org/pubs/journals/wcs/index.html. |
|
Desperately Seeking
fellow researchers/practitioners. . .
Your AD Here!
no photo necessary.
send all correspondence in care of the Adaptation Network.
If you are seeking colleagues, partners, or simply contacts in any area related to adaptation to climate change, please send us your "ad" and we'll publish it!
|
|