Climate adaptation, water, and governance: An emerging nexus
27/08/10 00:39
Changing Climate,
Shifting Institutions: Building Governance and
Capacity through Freshwater
Adaptation
Efforts to respond to the impacts of a shifting climate in the water community have widely focused on particular eco-hydrological changes in freshwater systems, such as floods, droughts, and higher water temperatures. From this perspective, climate change is defined largely as a problem with an engineering (or engineering finance) solution. Engineers themselves, however, have declared that the current measures for designing long-lasting water infrastructure assumes that the recent historical hydrological information is a fair representation of future conditions — an assumption that has recently been declared “dead,” since historical statistically “normal” hydrological states are expected to shift, but without knowing how much or often even in what direction. Climate change thus causes increasingly uncertain hydrological futures for decades and possibly centuries.
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Efforts to respond to the impacts of a shifting climate in the water community have widely focused on particular eco-hydrological changes in freshwater systems, such as floods, droughts, and higher water temperatures. From this perspective, climate change is defined largely as a problem with an engineering (or engineering finance) solution. Engineers themselves, however, have declared that the current measures for designing long-lasting water infrastructure assumes that the recent historical hydrological information is a fair representation of future conditions — an assumption that has recently been declared “dead,” since historical statistically “normal” hydrological states are expected to shift, but without knowing how much or often even in what direction. Climate change thus causes increasingly uncertain hydrological futures for decades and possibly centuries.
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Guest Blog: Communicating impacts and adaptation: Scientific guidelines
26/08/10 01:21
Many of us know from
experience that opportunities arise at unlikely
moments. “Never let a crisis go to waste,” was the
famous line from Barak Obama’s chief of staff Rahm
Emmanuel. As the summer of 2010 dishes up one
weather-related crisis
after another,
environmental-minded individuals and
organizations around the globe may feel
compelled and obligated to respond – both on the
ground and in public statements about the
genesis of these events. Is climate change to
blame? In this season of extreme weather, we
have an opportunity to solidify our messages and
our standing as the conservation organization
that can help policymakers and the public
separate fact from fiction. But we must tread
carefully.
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Global Strategy Forum: Water Policy in a Shifting Climate
24/08/10 22:06
The Bled Strategic
Forum: Global and National Water Policy
for the Next Decade
30 August 2010, Bled, Slovenia
As a result of climate change, population growth, environmental degradation and increased demand for food and energy, almost half of the world's population will have lived in areas of high water stress by 2030. With longer droughts, more frequent extreme meteorological events and changes in precipitation patterns, global warming affects particularly the water cycle. Climate change will impact on the most vulnerable communities in developing countries, multiplying the effects of poverty, poor governance and political instability. Read More...
30 August 2010, Bled, Slovenia
As a result of climate change, population growth, environmental degradation and increased demand for food and energy, almost half of the world's population will have lived in areas of high water stress by 2030. With longer droughts, more frequent extreme meteorological events and changes in precipitation patterns, global warming affects particularly the water cycle. Climate change will impact on the most vulnerable communities in developing countries, multiplying the effects of poverty, poor governance and political instability. Read More...
Guest Blog: Pakistan Flooding: Impacts, Attribution, & Adaptation Solutions
21/08/10 17:03
by
Hammad Naqi Khan, WWF-Pakistan Programs Director
We cannot attribute these floods in Pakistan solely to climate change but labeling them as an extreme weather event that probably has a climate change component is logical; the current seasonal monsoon rains and flows in the Indus river and a few of its tributaries are a 1 in 100
year event. The signature of
climate change will take some time to quantify,
but 2010 has a confluence of weird weather that
probably has a link to human-induced climate
change. Consider: 2010 is the globally
warmest year on record to date, the record high
temperatures and wildfires in Russia, the
exceptionally high rainfall and mudslides in
China, the below average rainfalls in Bangladesh
and most of India, and extremely high rainfall
and flows in northern Pakistan rivers (which
carry snow/glacier melt).
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We cannot attribute these floods in Pakistan solely to climate change but labeling them as an extreme weather event that probably has a climate change component is logical; the current seasonal monsoon rains and flows in the Indus river and a few of its tributaries are a 1 in 100
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Pakistan flooding: live webcast from the Asia Society
18/08/10 20:28
The Asia Society
invites you to participate in our upcoming
Pakistan Flood
Response,
scheduled for this Thursday, August
19th, 2010 at 8:30 am ET via live webcast. Online
viewers are encouraged to submit their questions
to
moderator@asiasociety.org before and during the
webcast. We would also appreciate your help in
getting the word out about this event to your
networks. Thank you!
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Madonna and Child, with Climate Change
02/08/10 18:02
This is a story about
what fear for the climate of the future looks like,
on a personal level. I usually try to be optimistic
in these entries. This one is less so.
We had been touring the eastern plateau in Qinghai province, western China, for over a week, slowly making our way up to the headwaters of the Mekong river. Each day was sunny and clear, but every evening clouds would gather rapidly. A wall of blustery rain would approach, pushing us to set up our little tents quickly under cover and have a wet meal under plastic.
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We had been touring the eastern plateau in Qinghai province, western China, for over a week, slowly making our way up to the headwaters of the Mekong river. Each day was sunny and clear, but every evening clouds would gather rapidly. A wall of blustery rain would approach, pushing us to set up our little tents quickly under cover and have a wet meal under plastic.
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Green Glaciers: The Melting Grasslands of the Tibetan Plateau
31/07/10 21:18
An enormous amount of
attention has been paid to the loss of the ancient
glaciers in the Himalayas and across the Tibetan
plateau. Their retreat and the loss of glacial mass
have been tied to rising air temperatures, longer
warm seasons, and shifting precipitation patterns.
But while dramatic and newsworthy, the loss of
glaciers does not have an
immediate impact on most
people and ecosystems in the region beyond
dry-season flows. Glaciers represent old
reservoirs of water that build up over decades,
centuries, and even millennia. However, most of
the liquid water resources in the Himalayas and
plateau come from seasonally frozen rain,
groundwater, and snow, which accumulate each
winter and melt over the following spring and
summer to enter the rivers, groundwater, and
lakes of south and central Asia.
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For US readers: action requested on legislation
16/06/10 02:21
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Briefing paper: the road to COP16
13/06/10 21:50
WWF-International and
GermanWatch have put together a briefing paper
assessing the state of global adaptation discussions
and the road forward to COP16:
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Guest Blog: U.S. National Adaptation Summit results
08/06/10 04:19
"While nations negotiate at international conferences about future global commitments to reduce greenhouse gases, and while Congress talks but continues to delay adoption of a strong greenhouse gas reduction program for the country, we're already seeing the effects of the pollution we put into the atmosphere since the start of the industrial revolution" said New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson at the summit. "That's why we have to begin adapting to climate change today -- not tomorrow."
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