Number of questions: [10]
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Posted on 06/03/2008 08:43:23 |
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Please introduce some usefull websites related to wetlands because I am a freshman to this interesting topic. Thanks.
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Du Nguyen (from Viet Nam)
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There are a growing number of online resources related to wetlands.
I suggest that you begin with RAMSAR, the international convention on Wetlands (www.ramsar.org)
I’ve also found publications of Wetlands International to be quite useful (www.wetlands.org)
The International Water Management Institute (http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/) has some publications and information specific to Vietnam (as well as many other countries).
Hopefully these sites will provide enough information and inspiration to keep your interest in these vital ecosystems!
Best Regards, Glenn
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Posted on 06/03/2008 01:36:55 |
i am a teacher educator for environment education
now i am preparing some matterials for disater safety education for students under the "safety education in schools " training programme.
i want some matterials regarding this. let me know where i can get.
If any unep matterial is available it can be very useful for the students community of pondichery . kindly i request you sir to dend it to the following address
with kind regards
V.Ramalingam
In-Charge
Environment Education Cell
State Training Centre
Directorate of School Education
Pondicherry-India- 605005
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ramalingam varadarajulu (from India)
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Thank you for your question.
There are a number of online resources for teachers on PreventionWeb including an eductational game for children and other resources for teachers.
http://www.preventionweb.net/english/themes/education/
I have sent your request for hard copies of the material to the International Startegy for Disaster Reduction.
You’ll also find links to other organizations working on similar issues, UNICEF and UNESCO have recentlz launched a global initiative on education for disaster reduction. You might want to explore their websites as well.
Best of Luck, Glenn
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Posted on 15/09/2007 13:13:38 |
Dear Glenn,
I am just from Madrid was attending a conference on Desertification and was wondering why the world is ignoring the problem of desertification yet focusing on climate change. Is it that climate change has a greater disastrous impact than desertification.
Thank You
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Ngehndab Gwanvalla (from Cameroon)
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Thank you for your question. Desertification continues to be a pressing concern and climate change is expected to intensify both the physical and social drivers of desertification in many parts of the world. Global climate change amplifies the urgency of halting and reversing desertification. Much more attention must be given to harmonizing work in these fields and to facilitating synergies between the programmes initiated under the many multi-lateral environmental conventions that are already in force.
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Posted on 15/09/2007 08:27:31 |
Dear Sir,
i thank the team for providing interacting site.
my questions are,
Climate cahnge risk is high enough to casue river flooding.
but very few research have been done. sir i am going to do one at community level. i would like to know how r\to relate climate cahnge risk and riverflooding?
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Aseem Sharma (from Nepal)
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Thank you for your question. There are many linkages between climate change and flooding. Changes in precipitation, for instance, are an important consideration. Unfortunately, modeling precipitation presents a number of challenges that have yet to be overcome. Glacial melt is another factor that will affect flood risk in Nepal. There are several organizations working on community based disaster reduction in South Asia. The Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (www.adpc.net) and International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (www.icimod.org) may have some useful suggestions to help you in your important efforts
I look forward to learning more about the outcomes of your work.
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Posted on 14/09/2007 14:16:15 |
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How and under which conditions can current disaster risk managment help prepare for climate change.
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Esther Pacheco (from United States of America)
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Thank you for your very timely question.
Disaster Risk Management is an essential component of climate change adaptation.
Coping with the extreme events that are expected to accompany climate change will require increased capacity for early warning and disaster preparedness but we will also need to build capacity to address underlying risk factors – the social and environmental factors that make communities, infrastructure and assets vulnerable to hazards. This is the core message of disatser risk management.
The Hyogo Framework for Action (www.unisdr.org) provides guidance on priorities for risk reduction at the global, regional and national levels. These priorities are equally useful for helping us to organize our thinking about climate change adaptation.
Systematic attention to the connections between disaster risk and climate change is still in it’s infancy but I expect that we will soon see more concerted efforts at integrating long-term climate information into our risk reduction interventions and more attention to the dynamic aspects of risk and vulnerability. I expect that this will also lead to more explicitly flexible risk management approaches. In short, disaster risk management as currently practiced can help us to prepare for climate change, but disaster risk management will also continue to evolve as practitioners begin work more closely with colleagues in the field of climate change adaptation.
Please feel free to drop me a line if you’d like to explore these issues further. My address is glenn.dolcemascolo@unep.ch
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Posted on 14/09/2007 13:06:13 |
Dear Mr. Glenn,
First of all, I thank all UNEP experts for taking time to answer questions through your interactive website.
I have two questions for you. The first one is: How effective are the National Adaptation Programmes of Actions (NAPAs) towards reducing the vulnerability of East African communities to Climate Change Impacts? The second one is: How do you respond to comments by some leaders in Tanzania, or similar ones in other parts of the world, that illegal activities such as deforestation and the use of fire by farmers to prepare their fields will vanish the snowcap of Mt. Kilimanjaro and that it will remain if such activities are curbed, against the scientific findings included in the Third and Fourth Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2001 and 2007 respectively that the whole continent of Africa contributes less than 3 % of global greenhouse gas emissions responsible for Climate Change?
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Francis Bagambilana (from Tanzania (United Republic of))
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Thank you for your questions.
National Adaptation Programmes of Action are a valuable means of identifying impacts and vulnerabilities and building multi-stakeholder participation through joint problem solving exercises. However, to be effective these plans need to be financed and implemented.
At the sub-national level we are beginning to see more adaptation plans being put into action. Municipal governments, for example, have been accumulating a good body of experience in designing and implementing on-the-ground adaptation strategies. (See, for instance, how the City of London has been learning from other cities: http://www.london.gov.uk/climatechangepartnership/docs/adapting-climate-change-london.pdf).
It should also be remembered that adaptation plans must themselves be adaptable. Risk and vulnerability will change over time and we need to be able to adjust our plans and programme as new information becomes available.
Your second question touches on some very important issues. It is clear that non-energy related emissions contribute substantially to global warming. FAO, for instance, reports that the livestock sector alone accounts for 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, while deforestation is responsible for 18 percent of carbon dioxide emissions.
As negotiations over the Kyoto protocol have shown us, deciding how best to reduce emissions is a complicated affair in which political, economic, social and environmental factors are weighed in an effort to distribute risk and responsibility. There are many good reasons to curb deforestation and illegal burning, climate change adds new urgency and raises the stakes. However, to avoid creating new vulnerabilities, mitigation strategies in these sectors must be designed with an equal commitment to ensuring that local people have access to sustainable livelihood options.
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Posted on 14/09/2007 08:14:49 |
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Are traditional methods of earthquake resistance construction viable or communities should opt for other technology. This is I am asking realted to recent earthquake in South Asia 9India-Pakistan Boarder areas)
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Snehasis Das (from India)
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Thank you for your question. I’m sorry but I am not familiar with construction practices in South Asia. In general, it can be said that both traditional knowledge and modern innovation are useful in designing locally appropriate earthquake resilient structures.
If you send me your contact details I will consult with colleagues who are more familiar with the issues in South Asia. My email address is glenn.dolcemascolo@unep.ch.
In the meantime you might find some interesting ideas through the Open Architecture Network (http://www.openarchitecturenetwork.org). Their database of design solutions for environmentally sound and safer buildings includes one used in Pakistan after the earthquake.
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Posted on 14/09/2007 07:58:43 |
Dear Glenn,
Best wishes. Is heat wave also considered as climate change induced disaster? As such In India, this is not in the lexicon of Government’s typology of disasters although nearly 10,000 people died in last two decades. Most of the government strategies are ad-hoc in nature. Even, several temperature projection models predict more frequency of heat waves and also engulfing more geo-graphical regions in India. The heat wave affects most of the socio-economic backward communities like migrant labourers in the emerging cities in India as well as in Pakistan. What is your recommendation to mitigate, manage or adapt to this type of hazards?
Thanking you
Avilash
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Avilash Roul (from India)
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Thank you for your question. The simple part of the answer is yes; heat waves already pose considerable risk to populations worldwide and any shift in mean climate will almost inevitably affect the frequency of extreme events. You are also correct to point out that increased human vulnerability (such as concentrations of poor in urban areas) is transforming extreme events into more climatic disasters.
Many countries have developed plans to respond to heat waves (some samples are online at http://www.euro.who.int/globalchange/Topics/20040728_1). These often include improved early warning systems, public awareness and preparedness planning but some are also taking the important step of addressing the underlying causes of vulnerability. The city of Toronto, Canada, for instance, has been exploring options such as creating a healthier micro-climate through urban reforestation and decreasing ambient air temperature through promoting reflective infrastructure.
Keep your eye on the UNFCCC online database of local coping strategies (http://maindb.unfccc.int/public/adaptation/). This is likely to expand considerably as various parties contribute to the implementation of Nairobi Work Programme on Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change.
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Posted on 14/09/2007 07:33:23 |
Dear Mr. Glen,
First of all, I thank all UNEP experts for taking time to answer questions through your interactive website.
I have two questions for you. The first one is: How effective are the National Adaptation Programmes of Actions (NAPAs) towards reducing the vulnerability of East African communities to Climate Change Impacts? The second one is: How do you respond to comments by some leaders in Tanzania, or similar ones in other parts of the world, that illegal activities such as deforestation and the use of fire by farmers to prepare their fields will vanish the snowcap of Mt. Kilimanjaro and that it will remain if such activities are curbed, against the scientific findings included in the Third and Fourth Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2001 and 2007 respectively that the whole continent of Africa contributes less than 3 % of global greenhouse gas emissions responsible for Climate Change?
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Francis Bagambilana (from Tanzania (United Republic of))
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Dear Francis,
Thank you for your questions.
National Adaptation Programmes of Action are a valuable means of identifying impacts and vulnerabilities and building multi-stakeholder participation through joint problem solving exercises. However, to be effective these plans need to be financed and implemented.
At the sub-national level we are beginning to see more adaptation plans being put into action. Municipal governments, for example, have been accumulating a good body of experience in designing and implementing on-the-ground adaptation strategies. (See, for instance, how the City of London has been learning from other cities: http://www.london.gov.uk/climatechangepartnership/docs/adapting-climate-change-london.pdf).
It should also be remembered that adaptation plans must themselves be adaptable. Risk and vulnerability will change over time and we need to be able to adjust our plans and programme as new information becomes available.
Your second question touches on some very important issues. It is clear that non-energy related emissions contribute substantially to global warming. FAO, for instance, reports that the livestock sector alone accounts for 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, while deforestation is responsible for 18 percent of carbon dioxide emissions.
As negotiations over the Kyoto protocol have shown us, deciding how best to reduce emissions is a complicated affair in which political, economic, social and environmental factors are weighed in an effort to distribute risk and responsibility. There are many good reasons to curb deforestation and illegal burning, climate change adds new urgency and raises the stakes. However, to avoid creating new vulnerabilities, mitigation strategies in these sectors must be designed with an equal commitment to ensuring that local people have access to sustainable livelihood options.
Best Regards, Glenn
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Posted on 14/09/2007 07:18:40 |
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What strategies do you propose for educating policy-makers in your area of specialization ?
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Centre for Environment Education (from India)
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As in any issue area, the principles are the same. To educate policy makers we need to engage with them. In many regions, meteorologists and forecasters have established sustained dialogues with decision makers with the aim of improving awareness of the scientific foundations of climate projections and forecasts. Policy makers gain more confidence in understanding climate information and are also able to help climate scientists better understand how climate information is used in real decision-making processes. As a result of these dialogues, a wider range of tailored information products is becoming available to assist in the design and implementation of more effective polcies, plans and programmes.
Another way to educate policy makers is to engage them with their peers in forums where knowledge and experience are shared. The Clinton Climate Initiative, for instance, is a network of mayors and officials from 40 cities have been sharing lessons in climate change.
Thank you for asking!
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