HEAVY RAINFALL WARNING
HEAVY TO VERY HEAVY RAINFALL WOULD OCCUR AT A FEW PLACES OVER ASSAM & MEGHALAYA, ARUNACHAL PRADESH AND SUB-HIMALAYAN WEST BENGAL & SIKKIM DURING NEXT 48 HOURS. HEAVY RAINFALL WOULD OCCUR AT ONE OR TWO PLACES OVER NAGALAND, MANIPUR, MIZORAM & TRIPURA AND COASTAL KARNATAKA AND KONKAN & GOA DURING NEXT 48 HOURS.
BANGKOK, 26 June, 2012 - The Indonesian government today announced details of the Fifth Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction which it will host in October as the region counts the cost of record-breaking disaster losses over the last year. Indonesia made disaster risk reduction a national priority following the 2004 Asian tsunami.
Last year, 137 out of the 302 major disasters reported worldwide occurred in Asia causing the majority of disaster deaths and more than US$ 274 billion in economic losses which represented more than 75.1 per cent of the global figure of US$365 billion.
“As a country which has experienced so many natural hazards, Indonesia is proud to host this important event and to share with other countries its experience in disaster risk reduction because we know that prevention pays,” said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of Indonesia, who was officially appointed Global Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction by the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon last November.
Margareta Wahlström, Head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, UNISDR, who has travelled extensively in the region over the last 12 months to see at first-hand the impact of disasters at community level, said: “The Conference will take stock of achievements in reducing the impact of disasters and demonstrate through strong active participation of local governments and civil society organizations, the importance of their action to strengthen resilience, and it will discuss opportunities for partnerships for action.
“I also consider this an important opportunity to debate and plan for a successor agreement to the international framework for disaster risk reduction, the Hyogo Framework for Action which will expire in 2015. Asia will have a significant influence on what kind of post-2015 framework we put in place to protect economies and development gains.”
More than 1,000 participants, including government Ministers and high-level representatives from 60 countries will gather in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, at the Fifth Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, October 22-25, to discuss how local policies and practices can make their communities safer against disasters.
To know more about the conference and the programme please see the following site: http://5thamcdrr-indonesia.net/
Data suggest climate change is bringing an increased risk of more severe forest fires, but warming temperatures may cause other complex ecosystem changes. Local agencies are already planning ways to mitigate and adapt, but making policy based on models that show global trends over the next century is not an easy task.
On a recent brisk sunny morning at Lake Tahoe, the waters sparkling their iconic blue. Scientists from UC Davis's Tahoe Environmental Research Center take the boat out to Tahoe Buoy Three, a floating concrete island about 10-feet in diameter with scientific instruments bolted to its tripod structure.
"When you have a long-term record, especially going back more than 40 years , you can start to see these long-term trends," said Geoff Schladow, the director of theTahoe Environmental Research Center. "So now springtime defined by the peak of the spring runoff, is occurring two weeks sooner than it did 40 years ago."
Warming Could Lead to Cascade of Changes
Data from these buoys show that the lake has warmed about 1 degree Fahrenheit on average over the last four decades.
But it's not the average that's worrisome. The concern is that the surface has warmed much more than the depths. So that makes the surface water much lighter.
"We're finding on average that density difference is getting larger, meaning more energy is needed to mix that water," Schladow said.
Historically Lake Tahoe mixes all the way from top to bottom about once every three or four years. The mixing helps move oxygen throughout the lake's water.
"What the model suggests is that in the coming decades, it's going mix to that depth less often," Schladow said. "And possibly in the second half of the century, that mixing may cease altogether."
Less water mixing could bring a cascade of changes to the ecosystem. There have already been some periodic increases in surface algae. This could reduce zooplankton, which are a critical food source for fish. And reduced mixing could cloud Tahoe's famous water clarity.
Planning For Extremes
That's the tricky thing about climate change. Science can point to some concrete trends -- water and air temperature warming; or more precipitation falling as rain, not snow -- but scientific models can't tell what will happen next year. Or exactly how climate changes might affect the ecosystem.
Andy Wirth, CEO of Tahoe's Squaw Valley Ski Resort, says they can't base their business plan on suggestions that snowpack might be reduced by half in the next 50 years.
"Those are horizons that are very difficult to manage to. And I would really make effort to have everyone understand how seriously we take this," Wirth said.
Wirth says the company's working on initiatives to reduce its carbon footprint, but when it comes running a business based on snow, decisions must be made day by day.
"We've seen that scientific information doesn't make it into decision making and policy, very easily," said Jeremy Sokulsky, president of Environmental Incentives, a consulting firm based in Lake Tahoe. His firm uses scientific data to suggest tangible actions businesses can actually take.
For example, since scientific models are predicting more rain and less snow, there's a potential for springtime flooding in the basin.
Sokulsky's group has developed checklists so when engineers design for construction near streams they build larger drain pipes than earlier standards.
"Climate change provides this conundrum where you can't look back and predict the future anymore. So having to use modeled predictions of what the world's going to be like in the future, is kind of culturally difficult."
The Tahoe basin provides a good laboratory to try new strategies.
"Because of it's clarity, it makes it a very sensitive instrument," said Geoff Schladow of UC Davis. "A change here of a few percent will be magnified, a change of a few percent in some of the lower elevation lakes may even be hard to measure.
Lake Tahoe is one of the most studied lakes in the world, because it's a rare laboratory. Scientists say the changes we see there could provide clues of what's coming elsewhere in the Sierra and around the world.
Source:- http://www.capradio.org/articles/2012/06/26/turning-climate-change-data-into-policy-is-no-easy-feat
HEAVY RAINFALL WARNING |
HEAVY TO VERY HEAVY RAINFALL WOULD OCCUR AT A FEW PLACES OVER ASSAM & MEGHALAYA ARUNACHAL PRADESH AND SUBHIMALAYAN WEST BENGAL & SIKKIM DURING NEXT 48 HOURS. HEAVY RAINFALL WOULD OCCUR AT ONE OR TWO PLACES OVER NAGALAND, MANIPUR, MIZORAM & TRIPURA AND COASTAL KARNATAKA DURING NEXT 48 HOURS. |
OXFORD, England, June 25, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and solutions, is pleased to announce the launch of a new quarterly journal, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction.
International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction is affiliated with the Global Risk Forum GRF Davos and will be launched officially at the 4th International Disaster and Risk Conference (IDRC) in Davos, Switzerland, August 26-30, 2012.
The combination of the world's growing population, expanding urbanization and globalization and now climate change, has greatly aggravated the risk potential of natural and technological disasters to all communities and nations. There is great demand for an improved understanding, assessment and management of disasters and risks that affect human safety, health, the environment, critical infrastructures, the economy and society at large. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction publishes fundamental and applied research, critical reviews, policy papers and case studies addressing these issues at all geographical scales, and from a multidisciplinary perspective.
Dr. David Alexander of the Global Risk Forum GRF Davos, Editor-in-Chief of the journal said of the launch, "As the founding Editor-in-Chief, my vision for the journal is to create an international and interdisciplinary forum to foster communication and collaboration between researchers, policymakers and practitioners concerned with disaster research, mitigation and risk reduction."
International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction publishes research in the following scientific fields: earth sciences in its entirety; environmental sciences; engineering; urban studies; geography; and social sciences.
The first year of the journal's content will be freely available to view online until 31 August 2013 on ScienceDirect; first papers accepted for publication in the journal are now available online.
For more information visit the journal homepage: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-disaster-risk-reduction/ . To submit a paper go to: http://ees.elsevier.com/ijdrr/
# # #
About the Global Risk Forum (GRF)
"From Thoughts to Action" - this credo is the basis of all the work of the Global Risk Forum (GRF) Davos, Switzerland. Through its various activities GRF Davos aims to serve as a centre of knowledge and exchange of know-how for the application of contemporary risk management strategies, tools and practical solutions. GRF Davos endorses vulnerability reduction for all types of risks and disasters in order to provide sustainable protection of life, property, the environment and critical infrastructure. The foundation supports on-going efforts to achieve sustainable development through integrative risk management, particularly in the context of climate change, and by actively promoting public-private partnerships.
About the International Disaster Risk Conference (IDRC)
The 4th International Disaster and Risk Conference (IDRC) will be held in the beautiful mountain area and renewed conference centre of Davos, Switzerland from 26 - 30 August 2012. Government officials, experts and practitioners, representatives from NGOs, the private sector, from scientific and academic institutions covering natural-, social-, medical-, legal-, and engineering- science as well as media and the public will discuss new findings and exchange experiences in the broad spectrum of risks societies face today. The unique IDRC Davos format includes plenary and parallel sessions, workshops and training courses, as well as poster exhibitions.
The IDRC Davos 2012 theme "Integrative Risk Management in a changing world - Pathways to a Resilient Society" will further establish and develop the approach of Integrative Risk Management within the following context: tools and instruments in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR); climate change adaptation; environment and disaster risk; agricultural risks; mega disasters and cascading effects; urban risks; critical infrastructure and services; health impacts, medical response; economics of disaster, financial tools for risk management; future humanitarism. http://www.idrc.info/
About Elsevier
Elsevier is a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include ScienceDirect, Scopus, Reaxys, MD Consult and Mosby's Nursing Suite, which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite and MEDai's Pinpoint Review, which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.
A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world-leading publisher and information provider, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).
Media contact Katherine Eve Elsevier +44-1865-843171 k.eve@elsevier.com
Read more reports at :- www.cdrn.org.in
By John Parnell
With Rio+20 over, we’re left to pick through the bones of the final outcome and asses what impact it might have, if any, on global attempts to reduce and react to the consequences of climate change.
The Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20, is a separate process from the UN’s long-running climate change talks (overseen by the UNFCCC) that were borne out of the original Earth Summit in Rio back in 1992.
World leaders at Rio applaud after finishing their portrait session. (Source: Flickr/UN_Photo_Conference)
The crossover between the objectives of the two, is obvious and the opportunities for progress enormous.
However, the outcome document has been criticized for failing to adequately address a number of development issues, particularly gender equality and the swift establishment of sustainable development goals, something the UK’s own international development department was keen on.
On climate change, there are a number of direct and indirect references that could boost efforts to cut emissions and increase resilience. Today, we’ll look at what is in the document (which can be viewed in full at the bottom of this page) and the potential impact for climate issues. Tomorrow, we’ll review what’s missing, what topics fell off the agenda and which issues championed heavily before the event, didn’t make the cut.
“We acknowledge that climate change is a cross-cutting and persistent crisis and express our concern that the scale and gravity of the negative impacts of climate change affect all countries and undermine the ability of all countries in particular, developing countries, to achieve sustainable development and the MDGs and threaten the viability and survival of nations.” Paragraph 25
This paragraph is not as bland as it looks.
The “viability and survival of nations” phrase is a victory for small island nations, many of whom have already begun migrations as a result of climate change. With increased sea level and more powerful storm surges, a devastating combination of coastal erosion and contamination of ground water supplies by seawater are making islands uninhabitable.
This acknowledgement should secure them special focus in the ongoing sustainable development talks. Four later paragraphs (178-181) build on this.
Ocean protection, particularly with relation to small island states such as Kiribati, is among the strongest components of the document. (Source: Rafael Avila Coya)
“We recognize that improving energy efficiency, increasing the share of renewable energy, cleaner and energy-efficient technologies are important for sustainable development, including in addressing climate change. We also recognize the need for energy efficiency measures in urban planning, buildings, and transportation, and in the production of goods and services and in the design of products. We also recognize the importance of promoting incentives in favour of, and removing disincentives to, energy efficiency and the diversification of the energy mix, including promoting research and development in all countries, including developing countries.” Paragraph 128
Several encouraging lines here but (and this is a running theme), the language is not strong enough.
“Recognizing that energy efficiency is important to combating climate change.” Surely that was not a point for debate?
The mention for transportation and product design is also fresh and will cut emissions and other resource depletion directly and indirectly if action on the ground results from the “recognition”.
The final line, about supporting efficiency measures in developing nations is better, but celebrations will be on pause until some money is on the table.
“We underline the importance of considering disaster risk reduction, resilience and climate risks in urban planning. We recognize the efforts of cities to balance development with rural regions.” Paragraph 135
For many, particularly those living on floodplains in the developing world, this is great to see. But again, what does recognize mean? You might recognize that your house is on fire, it’s what you do about it that’s key.
Much of the action on this sector could be carried out directly through the UNFCCC’s adaptation work, handled separately through its own talks.
“We call for support to initiatives that address ocean acidification and the impacts of climate change on marine and coastal ecosystems and resources.” Paragraph 166
Ocean-related paragraphs are among the strongest worded in the outcome document. Ocean acidification has been largely ignored in favour of sea level rise when it comes to the oceans and climate change. A specific reference to “calling for support” is effectively the rattle of a collection tin for research work looking to find solutions to this challenge.
A later paragraph (176) supports international protection specifically for coral reefs not just from acidification but also from damaging fishing practices and pollution. It also places mangrove conservation at the heart of the possible solutions.
Restoring mangroves has proven to be a successful way to reduce coastal erosion and to create jobs that rely on that particular ecosystem.
When you reach paragraphs 190 onwards, you find the designated climate change section. So will nations state their intention to cut greenhouse gas emissions (via the UNFCCC process of course)? No, but they do “express profound alarm that emissions…continue to rise globally”.
There is more grave concern over the so-called emissions gap and Parties to the UNFCCC urged to fulfill their commitments.
Most tellingly, the concept of Common But Differentiated Responsibility (CBDR), missing from the last climate change text, has re-appeared.
The Indian delegation pushed hard for the inclusion of CBDR. (Source: Flickr/UN_photo_conference)
In summary, the Rio+20 outcome moves climate action no further forward but it does still have a net positive benefit.
The relatively strong words on ocean protection will boost carbon sequestration in the seas and vulnerable nations can point to the document should they not receive enhanced protections and assistance.
The true effects of the document are impossible to predict as the wording places practically no pressure on politicians to do anything.
It does however, prove that they are aware not only of the problems, but of many of the solutions. They can’t use ignorance as a reason for inaction any longer.
Tomorrow, we’ll look at what’s missing from the document, and the resulting implications for climate change.
The full document:
