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Video: Conservation portfolios for climate adaptation - Daniel Schindler, University of Washington

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. Read More...
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Video: Red Eyes in Copenhagen: Adaptation at COP15

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...
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Video: Jim Jarvie from Mercy Corps on Development and Ecosystem-based Adaptation

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.
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Video: More Water Asks at the COP

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 More...
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Video: The Language of Climate Change Is the Language of Water

At a recent event sponsored by TERI and the Yale School of Forestry, WWF-US CEO Carter Roberts spoke to a small distinguished group in Denmark’s Kronborg Castle about the vulnerability of freshwater species and ecosystems — and communities and their livelihoods — to climate change. His key message: the language of climate change is the language of water. Listen to the language of climate change. This message has largely been missing from current discussions about how to prioritize climate change adaptation actions. This video was produced over the weekend from the event. 5 mins. Read More...
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Video: Voices on water, biodiversity, and COP15

The Dutch government and its environmental assessment agency organized a great series of events over two weeks here at the COP on climate adaptation issues. If you’re interested in water, it would be hard to leave the Holland Climate House. I’m involved in a total of four side events there, with one remaining. A video was produced from one of the events I participated in last week focusing on water, climate adaptation, and biodiversity issues in the negotiations (background material on the event itself is described here). Some nice quotes from a wide range of people!
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Video: UK Rivers on the Edge

When we think about great freshwater ecosystems globally, most people don't think about the United Kingdom. The Yangtze of China is probably closer to most visions of a great river, or perhaps from a wild perspective Lake Baikal of Russia or the Colorado river as it passes through the Grand Canyon. But there is also great beauty and wonder in small places — streams and ponds — that may lack grandeur but are no less moving or important. The chalk streams of southern England and northern France are precisely such places.
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Speaking Water to Power: An Address to Ministers in Advance of COP15

Does the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change help anyone with adaptation practice on the ground now? Can we improve international adaptation policy? Here, I was asked to speak by the Stockholm International Water Institute on behalf of the CSO/NGO community to a group of minister/cabinent-level officials involved with water and development from six different countries. The "high-level panel" occurred in late August 2009 during World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden. By way of backstory, I was pretty angry by the time I got to talk. Most of the ministers had gone way over their allotted 5 minutes, and it was clear they weren't very interested in listening to me anyway. I felt a bit of passion by the time the discussion came around to me. Their statements were deeply theoretical -- lacking in people and places, removed from practical issues. They were cold. I felt hot. 7.5 min. Below is the written text of my presentation. Read More...
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The Watery Road to Copenhagen: Video Interviews from World Water Week

The water community gathered in Stockholm, Sweden, in August 2009 to discuss emerging and critical issues, and adapting to climate change was easily one of the most prominent topics discussed. Part of this prominence comes from the international climate change discussions that will occur in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009. Here, a group of rapporteurs was asked by the World Water Week staff with SIWI to interview conference attendees about what they expect, if anything, will come out of the Copenhagen negotiations relevant to water, their home countries, and their families. 8.25 min. Read More...
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One Talk, Two Heads: Bloviating on Climate Adaptation in Two Languages

This video is a fair representation of the overview adaptation talk I've been giving for the past few months, describing how climate adaptation differs from much of the economic development and conservation work up to now and how climate adaptation has some special challenges and opportunities for the water sector. Filmed on 3 August 2009 in Brasilia, DF, Brazil, this is a long flick at 25 minutes, so brace yourself. Although I appear visually a few times in the stream, most of what you see are the presentation slides filling the screen with me (in English) and Martin Charles (my most excellent Portuguese translator) delivering the substance of the keynote talk to a live audience of leading policy and resource management staff from various government and civil society groups. The event was billed as a climate adaptation workshop, spanning two days at a place called the LBV (very interesting in itself) but hosted by WWF-Brazil. Filmed in August 2009. Read More...
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Fixed video streaming! The Cerrado of Brazil

I’ve just returned from a trip to Brazil, where most of my time was spent talking in Brasilia with colleagues and policymakers working on climate adaptation issues from a freshwater perspective. While I will soon post a video of a talk that I gave (and perhaps some other video content), I’ve just finished a short video from I trip I made to the beautiful savannah or cerrado of interior Brazil a few hundred kilometers from Brasilia. Hope you enjoy! — JM Read More...
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New! Video blog entries

I’ve started teaching a distance learning course with Dr. Bruce Dugger at Oregon State University on wetlands. My contribution focuses on wetlands of the world and on climate impacts on wetlands, and includes making some short videos on wetlands I visit on my travels. The first installment is posted here. A new posting will be uploaded by early August for the cerrado of Brazil. Read More...
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