Guest Blog: An Urgent Update and Message on Waxman-Markey
24/06/09 14:38
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Guest Blog: Reflections from the Sundarbans: Short-Term Progress, Long-Term Strategies?
23/06/09 11:57
Guest Blog: A National "Climate Service"?
19/06/09 18:08
Paul Fleming works on
freshwater climate adaptation issues for the
US City of
Seattle, Washington. Seattle obtains
much of its water from large rivers, and much of
that water during the summer and fall is derived
from the melting of annual snowpack — a
process that is shifting rapidly as a result of
climate change.
Among his other
responsibilities, Paul helps the city’s water
supply utility think about how to manage their
water resources in fiscally prudent, flexible
ways, given that Seattle’s “normal” climate is
altering rapidly. In early May, Paul spoke
before the U.S. Congress in regard to the
Waxman/Markey bill (discussed in several
previous blogs here, most recently
here)
about the need for a National Climate Service —
modeled in part on the existing National Weather
Service. Such a group would likely
focus on delivering analytical services for how
climate is changing in critical parameters in
particular regions — an excellent idea,
which would be a great boon for facilitating and
groundtruthing climate adaptation efforts. Below
is his statement, as well as the statement of
marine biologist Jane
Lubchenco, who is now the head
of NOAA, which is the agency that
would host both the Weather Service and the
Climate Service. Many thanks to Paul for
supplying his remarks! — JM
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NEWS: Tabs for Sundarbans, Events Updates
15/06/09 16:31
I’ve made two changes to the site today. First, given the large number of emails I receive listing events, courses, and grant RFPs relating to climate adaptation, I’ve created a tab that lists these links. I make no promises, but hopefully some of the leads prove useful. Also, given the high level of interest on climate issues around the Sundarbans islands off of India and Bangladesh, particularly in light of tropical storm Alia in late May, I’ve created another tab that collects these stories and updates, including a set of photos from some relief efforts that immediately followed the aftermath. Read More...
The Road to Copenhagen 1: Setting the Agenda in Bonn
03/06/09 09:50
The next stage in the process leading up to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Copenhagen meeting (usually referred to as a “cop” or council or consultation of the signatory parties) began this week in Bonn, Germany. I’m not able to attend, but the process is important and I’ve been receiving almost hourly updates from colleagues there. You can see some of their progress and concerns on a video blog in order to get an idea of what being there is like. The most obvious issues are US climate mitigation policy, such as the Waxman/Markey bill (discussed in previous entries). But climate adaptation finance — the “adaptation fund” — is showing up a big second topic as well. Some background on adaptation finance was covered as well in previous entries here indirectly and here for more general issues. However, a “side event” has been planned to continue the process associated with the Nairobi Guiding Principles for freshwater adaptation and the water sector. What are those goals? And why does Bonn matter? Read More...
News: Climate Adaptation Webcast
03/06/09 09:24
The Wilson Center is
a policy thinktank in Washington, DC. They’ve got a
webinar planned on climate adaptation, presumably
from a policy perspective, scheduled for 10 June.
I’m not familiar with the speakers or their
organization, so I can’t comment on any more on the
presentation itself. Their notice below.
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News: SEI's Adaptation School
01/06/09 09:24
There are only a
handful of climate change adaptation training
programs I’ve ever run across. Columbia
University’s Earth Institute
occasionally
offers workshops and seminars (and the link to
their education and outreach section is on the
new Education
section of this
site). WWF has run many of these,
sometimes focused on particular biomes or
occasionally set up as more general “climate
camps” (I have t-shirts). I gather that
EcoAdapt.org
also runs
adaptation workshops. No doubt many other groups
do too. This morning I got a notice about a
two-week session in South Africa, sponsored in
part by the Stockholm Environment
Institute (SEI), which has some very
good staff members working on adaptation issues
and is the sponsor for the weADAPT wiki. Their course
announcement is below. Read
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