Video: Conservation portfolios for climate adaptation - Daniel Schindler, University of Washington
07/01/10 16:38
In this video,
Daniel Schindler of the University
of Washington discusses his research on
ecosystem changes in response to climate change
and the importance of heterogeneity. Schindler is
a fisheries ecologist who works on a wide range of
topics, especially with salmonids and plankton in
the Pacific Northwest of the North America.
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Wetlands and climate change compendium
06/01/10 15:17
The Association of State Wetlands
Managers (ASWM) is a great North American
group that has been collating some resources on
climate change and wetlands, both from climate
mitigation and adaptation perspectives. I’m
posting some of their material verbatim here,
including a set of recommendations for managing
wetlands they compiled recently. I have some
issues with using wetlands as a carbon
sequestration mechanism in some cases, but I’ve
included those links as well. Read
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A Cold Controversy: Himalayan Glaciers
05/01/10 16:17
A controversy has been
brewing over glaciers and climate change, especially
the glaciers of the Himalayas and the Tibetan
plateau, a vast region that spans India, Pakistan,
Bhutan, Nepal, the Tibetan region of China, and other
parts of China too. The conflict began last November
after the Indian government produced a report on their part of
the Himalayas, focusing on how the leading
edges of their glaciers (called the
snout) have been trending over the
past century or so. Were the snouts advancing?
Retreating? Using many lines of evidence, the
report stated that the snouts of their glaciers
were mostly retreating, but some were advancing.
The most important conclusion of the report was
that the movement of the snouts did not seem to be
related to climate change.
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Video: Red Eyes in Copenhagen: Adaptation at COP15
27/12/09 08:26
Red Eyes in
Copenhagen: Climate Adaptation at COP15
7 mins, December 2009, Copenhagen, Denmark
In December 2009, representatives of 192 nations met in Copenhagen, Denmark, to negotiate a new international climate change agreement. Most of these efforts focused on climate mitigation — reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases in order to slow down the rate of climate change. These results received widespread analysis. But there were also heated if less publicized negotiations to help the poor and vulnerable of the world adapt to the negative impacts of climate change. Filmed within hours of the conclusion of the Copenhagen Accord on 19 December 2009, this film shows the sleep-deprived thoughts of WWF staff about the impacts and efficacy of the Accord for international climate adaptation policy. These staff have worked on these issues for many years.
7 minutes, produced and directed by John Matthews. Read More...
7 mins, December 2009, Copenhagen, Denmark
In December 2009, representatives of 192 nations met in Copenhagen, Denmark, to negotiate a new international climate change agreement. Most of these efforts focused on climate mitigation — reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases in order to slow down the rate of climate change. These results received widespread analysis. But there were also heated if less publicized negotiations to help the poor and vulnerable of the world adapt to the negative impacts of climate change. Filmed within hours of the conclusion of the Copenhagen Accord on 19 December 2009, this film shows the sleep-deprived thoughts of WWF staff about the impacts and efficacy of the Accord for international climate adaptation policy. These staff have worked on these issues for many years.
7 minutes, produced and directed by John Matthews. Read More...
Video: Jim Jarvie from Mercy Corps on Development and Ecosystem-based Adaptation
26/12/09 06:04
Jim Jarvie of
Mercy Corps: The Direction of Adaptation and
Development.
2:25 mins, November 2009, Fuller Symposium, Washington, DC
Jim Jarvie was stood apart at the WWF Fuller Symposium last November: he works for Mercy Corps, one of the leading economic development non-governmental organizations active in the developing world today. In this video, he reflects on issues that are extremely relevant to the practice of climate adaptation globally: Is ecosystem-based adaptation different than community-based adaptation? How should environmental organizations and development groups work together? These topics have been burning issues for some time, and I've seen conflict — latent usually but sometimes explicit — directed form each type of group at the other over the past two years. This anxiety and anger are a terrible waste of energy, and there is plenty of fault to go around for the continuation of the fighting. But Jim speaks movingly of the way beyond. Jim was interviewed shortly after his full talk, which is also very much worth viewing at this site.
2:25 minutes, produced and directed by Daphne Patterson of WWF. Read More...
2:25 mins, November 2009, Fuller Symposium, Washington, DC
Jim Jarvie was stood apart at the WWF Fuller Symposium last November: he works for Mercy Corps, one of the leading economic development non-governmental organizations active in the developing world today. In this video, he reflects on issues that are extremely relevant to the practice of climate adaptation globally: Is ecosystem-based adaptation different than community-based adaptation? How should environmental organizations and development groups work together? These topics have been burning issues for some time, and I've seen conflict — latent usually but sometimes explicit — directed form each type of group at the other over the past two years. This anxiety and anger are a terrible waste of energy, and there is plenty of fault to go around for the continuation of the fighting. But Jim speaks movingly of the way beyond. Jim was interviewed shortly after his full talk, which is also very much worth viewing at this site.
2:25 minutes, produced and directed by Daphne Patterson of WWF. Read More...
Guest Blog: Farming with the Titimangsa: Losing Weather (and Water) in Time
23/12/09 17:02
By
Nikolai Sindorf,
WWF-US, based in Laos
In 1997 I went to the western part of Java in Indonesia to research on agricultural water management. Java is one of the most densely populated regions and high-yielding rice paddy lands in the world.
The focus of my
research was how rice farmers dealt technologically
and organizationally with ongoing reforms in large,
engineered irrigation systems. During this research I
met a farmer who had meticulously typed out his
traditional cropping calendar. This cropping calendar
— a titimangsa
— read like a beautiful
poem, describing the smell of the dew, the color of
the sunset, the touch of the soil, and the
observation of insect life cycles.
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In 1997 I went to the western part of Java in Indonesia to research on agricultural water management. Java is one of the most densely populated regions and high-yielding rice paddy lands in the world.
Read More...
The Future of Climate-Water Talk: WWW's Conclusions
21/12/09 18:59
World Water Week
has come up several
times here. Every August, the Stockholm International Water
Institute (SIWI) hosts what is probably the most
important water event of the year — certainly one
that’s more fun and focused than World Water Week,
which is ridiculously large. This week, SIWI
has just pubbed their year-end
review of
World Water Week’s “results,” compiled by the
rapporteur teams for each subject area. For 2009,
I was the one of six rapporteurs for the
climate change
theme, which felt like a great honor to me. Our part
of the report has what I think are some interesting
implications for the state of the water and climate
change policy dialog internationally. Which might be
an encouraging contrast to the more
disappointing news from
Copenhagen. Some highlights:
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A Final COP Postcard: The Longest Day
21/12/09 08:07
The COP is finally
over, and I’ve had about 36 hours to begin to absorb
its truths and promises. Written so soon after the
negotiations have ended, I have no doubt my
reflections will achieve at best a facile and tenuous
first draft of history (or a poor excuse for
journalism). But I must write something to describe
where climate adaptation — our efforts to prepare
ourselves and other species for the coming climate —
is headed since the conclusion of the Copenhagen
sessions.
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Video: More Water Asks at the COP
17/12/09 06:47
Quick update: a video
on the UNFCCC COP15 site of me speaking
last week on
water and climate from an event sponsored by the
Global Water Partnership, Stakeholders Forum, and
the Stockholm International Water Institute. 3
mins, UNFCCC official footage. In case the link
doesn’t work, you can find the entire event
here. Read
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Joining the Strands at the COP
16/12/09 09:15
My interest in knitting
probably marks me as one of the more visibly peculiar
members of the WWF delegation to the COP, but
knitting is a great asset in a high-stress setting.
Some of the oldest knitting in the world was found in
bogs in this part of northern Europe — perhaps five
or six thousand years old. Knitting is essentially
the ability of taking a single length of yarn and
looping it back against itself in order to make
fabric and clothing. It was a simple, brilliant
invention. And it can be quite beautiful. The idea of
taking strands of yarn and creating something new,
functional, and strong is a calming image as I listen
to the needles clicking in my room. Especially given
how the COP has been developing.
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