Climate change will hit water supply hardest in developing countries

Liz Kalaugher in Environmental Research Web: Climate change is predicted to have a big impact on water supply, but to date there have been few estimates of the total cost of adaptation for the water sector worldwide. Now a team from the Netherlands, US and UK has found that by 2050 adapting the supply of raw industrial and domestic water to climate change could cost $12 billion per year, with the bulk of this amount – up to 90% – needed in developing countries.

"Many studies have already shown that the developing world is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change," Philip Ward of the VU University Amsterdam in the Netherlands told environmentalresearchweb. "In this study we show that the costs of adaptation to climate change in the industrial and municipal water supply sector are also greater for developing countries than for developed countries, both in absolute terms and as a percentage of GDP."

The highest climate adaptation costs were for sub-Saharan Africa, where western Central Africa is projected to dry, followed by Latin America, which is likely to see increased seasonal and interannual rainfall variability in eastern Brazil.

To come up with the figures, the team first analysed the cost of meeting existing and future demand for water by 2050 without the effects of climate change, in what they called the baseline scenario. "Since present-day demand is not yet met, baseline costs cover both the elimination of any development deficit, and the consequences of socioeconomic development without climate change," explained Ward. The researchers then analysed the effect of adaptation to climate change over and above this baseline, using one emissions scenario and two global climate models to project the effects of climate on water supply.

"We found that in most regions the baseline costs far exceed adaptation costs," said Ward. "This supports the notion of mainstreaming climate-change adaptation, and current and future climate vulnerability, into broader policy aims. It raises the question of 'how much climate change adaptation should be factored into the current design of water supply systems?' "…

The Gabrun oasis, with date palms, shot by Franzfoto, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Food producers to benefit from innovative crop irrigation systems

Cranfield University: A four year research project led by Cranfield University aims to improve energy and water efficiency and crop quality through developing an innovative approach to irrigation practices. Rising energy costs, increasing water regulation and supermarket demands for premium quality produce are forcing growers to address the impacts of irrigation on crop quality whilst simultaneously reducing energy and water consumption. Nearly three-quarters of all field vegetable crops, the most important crop in the UK after potatoes in terms of crop value, are irrigated using overhead methods which are inefficient in energy and water use, therefore affecting crop quality.

40,000 ha of outdoor vegetable crops are irrigated in a dry year. The total annual running costs are estimated to be £16.5 million, of which the energy (pumping) costs account for over three quarters of all in-field costs. New technologies to improve the targeting of water application and improved crop response crop quality could reduce water and energy annual running costs by up to 20%, or almost £3.5million.

The ‘precision irrigation’ approaches being developed at Cranfield combine knowledge of soil, crop and equipment management practices to improve irrigated production, water application and water use efficiency, - more ‘crop per drop’ - and reduce the ‘non-beneficial’ losses such as soil erosion, and reduce energy costs, thereby improving post harvest quality of crops and reducing crop wastage in the supply chain.

Dr Jerry Knox, Project Leader, said “Making maximum use of soil moisture and rainfall, knowing precisely where and when irrigation has to be applied, and then applying it accurately and uniformly, are the fundamental steps in the ‘pathway to water efficiency’”….

An irrigation canal in northerm Peru, shot by Alfredobi

Bringing water to the climate change agenda

Hannah Kett in Ecosystem Marketplace: “This is the first time that water issues will be addressed in a climate change COP,” said José Luis Luege Tamargo,Director General of the National Water Commission (CONAGUA). “No mitigation strategy will be successful if the perspectives on water do not become one of the guiding principles in the climate change agenda.”

During COP16, CONAGUA hosted the first Dialogs on Water and Climate Change in Cancun (D4WCC) with the aim of highlighting the importance of water in climate change discussions. The goal of the dialogs was “to shed new light on the importance water management for climate adaptation.”

“Investing in water resources can endure climate change even more without necessarily having to increase expenses. Good water-related policies, laws and regulations can have a huge impact without a large financial cost,” said one of the DW4CC participants, Julia Bucknell, Head of the Water Anchor at the World Bank.

Back in September, at World Water Week in Stockholm, organizations discussed the intersection of water and climate change. Beyond informing individuals of the threat that climate change posed to water resources, the presenters looked ahead to Cancun, sharing their goals for the conference….

Reservoir at Vianden, shot by Vincent de Groot - http://www.videgro.net, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Tuvalu urges capacity building from Adaptation Fund Board

Stanley Simpson and Climate Pasifika Media Team in Scoop: Tuvalu’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Enele Sopoaga has urged the climate change Adaptation Fund Board to provide greater capacity building for islands that are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. “The issue of capacity is real and should be addressed seriously,” Sopoaga told Board chairman Farouk Khan.

“I urge the Board to conduct workshops training and awareness development at regional and national level to enable these countries to draft and come up with proposals that can be submitted for consideration. “

The Adaptation Fund Board approves funding to countries that meet the criteria for climate change adaptation projects. However Sopoaga pointed out that Small Island States were struggling to fulfill the eligibility criteria to access funds.

“In order for entities to be accredited as National Implementing Agencies they have to prove capacity for sound financial management and sound reporting practices among others – many of our small island countries don’t have that capacity because of our limited human capacity, and also our limited infrastructure,” said Sopoaga….

A beach at Funafuti atoll, Tuvalu, shot by Stefan Lins, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

Pakistan flood victims face harsh winter

Terra Daily via UPI: The onslaught of winter is compounding the hardships faced by millions of Pakistan flood victims, aid agencies say. Completing a four-day visit to Pakistan Sunday, Valerie Amos, U.N. undersecretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said millions of people need assistance for healthcare, education, agricultural support and to build rebuild their homes and livelihoods. "The world's attention is waning at a time when some of the biggest challenges are still to come," said Amos in a news release.

The July-August floods, the worst natural disaster in Pakistan's history, killed nearly 1,800 people and displaced 21 million others. So far, the United Nations has received about half of its $1.94 billion appeal target.

The U.S. military formally ended its relief mission to flood-stricken Pakistan, it was announced Thursday but officials stressed that the government would continue with financial relief for flood victims, saying that it is providing more than $571 million.

While some displaced families have returned to their villages, they live in tents and makeshift structures that don't protect them adequately from the elements. And with a shortage of food, children are going hungry, making them more vulnerable to pneumonia and other diseases, Save the Children said. In the Swat district in the northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa, temperatures are already below freezing….

A foggy winter morning in Lahore, shot by Jugni, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Glaciers in Southern South America and Alaska Melting Faster than those in Europe

UNEP: Glaciers in Patagonia, which cover parts of Argentina and Chile, followed by ones in Alaska and its coastal mountain ranges have overall been losing mass faster and for longer than glaciers in other parts of the world. These are among the findings of a new report compiled by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in partnership with scientists and research centres from around the world, including the Norwegian Polar Institute and Norut Alta.

The third fastest rate of loss is among glaciers in the northwest United States and southwest Canada followed by ones in the high mountains of Asia, including the Hindu Kush of the Himalayas, the Arctic and the Andes. Overall Europe's glaciers have been putting on mass since the mid-1970s but this trend was reversed around the year 2000.

While the overall trend is down, higher levels of precipitation in some places has increased the mass and in some cases the size of glaciers, including in western Norway, New Zealand's South Island and parts of the Tierra del Fuego in South America. Some mountain ranges are experiencing apparently contradictory effects. In smaller areas of the Karakoram range in Asia, for example, advancing glaciers have even over-ridden areas that have been ice-free for some 50 years.

Meanwhile, in the Tianshan and Himalayan mountain ranges, glaciers are in fact receding - and some rapidly. "Accumulation of science shows us a clear general trend of melting glaciers linked to a warming climate and perhaps other impacts, such as the deposit of soot, reducing the reflection of heat back into space", says UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner. "This report underlines a global trend, observed over many decades now in some parts of the globe, which has short and long-term implications for considerable numbers of people in terms of water supplies and vulnerability".

"Without doubt the main driving force behind the rapid melting of Himalayan glaciers and formation of the catastrophic Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) is warming due to climate change. The risk to lives and livelihoods in the fragile Hindu Kush Himalayan region is high and getting higher. Immediate action by the global community on launching long-term adaptation and resilience-building programmes is urgently needed," said Madhav Karki, Deputy Director General, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD)….

This detailed astronaut photograph (from NASA) shows the merged outlet of Penguin Glacier and HPS 19 into a fjord carved into the snow-covered mountains of the southern Andes. The designation HPS stands for Hielo Patagónico Sur (Southern Patagonian Icefield) and is used to identify glaciers that have no other geographic name. Ice flowing into the fjord begins to break up at image centre, forming numerous icebergs. The largest visible in this image is approximately 2 kilometres in width. The large ice masses visible at image centre have a coarse granular appearance due to variable snow cover, and mixing and refreezing of ice fragments prior to floating free.

US set to see more droughts

Environmental Research Web: Each year the average cost of droughts in the US is around $6–8 bn. Water demand looks set to rise and, together with the uncertain effects of future climate change, this puts water planners under considerable pressure.

Now researchers from the US have found that, while meteorological drought – based on precipitation – is projected to become more frequent in areas such as the southwestern states and less so in other regions, hydrological drought is projected to increase across most of the country. Hydrological drought is based on both precipitation and temperature, which affect the amount of soil moisture.

The team looked at 99 water sub-basins using all 22 general circulation models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) under three emissions scenarios and a number of different indices for drought.

"In most of the 99 sub-basins scattered across the country, but particularly for those located in the southwest and the Rocky Mountain States, we find that it is very likely that the frequency of hydrologic drought will increase over the next century," Gary Yohe of Wesleyan University, US, told environmentalresearchweb. "These results are robust across the economic drivers of climate change – as reflected in alternative socio-economic scenarios (three IPCC SRES alternatives) – and the sensitivity of the climate to increased greenhouse-gas concentrations."

…Yohe and colleagues from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Industrial Economics Inc say that they are highly confident that impacts caused by hydrologic drought – on agriculture and water availability, for example – will be increasingly negative and widespread over time, despite persistent uncertainty about projected precipitation patterns….

The Mohave Desert in Arizona, shot by Renjishino, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

Beach protection may carry price tag of AUS$700 million

Kelsey Munro in the Sydney Morning Herald: Preserving Sydney's beaches against rising sea levels could cost more than $700 million over the next 50 years and would require the government to reverse its long-standing position regarding offshore sandmining, according to a study on climate change-induced beach erosion. The report was commissioned by the Sydney Coastal Councils Group to investigate whether beach nourishment could stop Sydney's beaches from being washed away by the projected sea level rise of 10 centimetres a decade.

But the report also identifies a business case for beach nourishment, saying the economic benefits would outweigh the costs, compared with doing nothing. “At some point, which will come sooner for some beaches than others, Sydney beach sands will be depleted, and [offshore] sands in the shelf sand bodies could be used to nourish these beaches,” said Professor Bruce Thom, the President of the Australian Coastal Society and an adviser to the coastal councils group.

Beach nourishment involves a floating dredge drawing up sand from deeper waters and depositing it in the shallower ''surf zone''. The action of the waves then pushes it onto the beach. ''It's a practice that has been used on the Gold Coast for many years,'' Professor Thom said. ''Different techniques, but the basic principle is the same: using sands from a local source, putting them into the surf zone, and [allowing] the waves to push sand on to beach.''…

Coogee Beach in Sydney, shot by Bozotexino, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

New report sees cities as central to climate action

The World Bank: A new report from the World Bank released today outlines how residents of cities are responsible for as much as 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions while at the same time facing significant impacts from climate change.

The report, Cities and Climate Change: An Urgent Agenda, says that up to 80 percent of the expected $80 billion to $100 billion per year in climate change adaptation costs will likely be borne by urban areas. Nevertheless, says the report, climate change offers cities opportunities to alter course, implement smart policies, and develop sustainable communities. Well managed, dense cities are also shown to be the most important pre-requisite to mitigation of GHG emissions and overall sustainable development.

“Many world cities, such as New York , Mexico City, Amman, or Sao Paulo are not waiting for a comprehensive and global climate deal to emerge, they are already acting on climate change,”said Andrew Steer, World Bank Special Envoy for Climate Change. “They are showing how to address mitigation, adaptation, the delivery of basic urban services, and poverty reduction through smart ideas and local initiatives. They need the support of their national governments and the international community at large.”

Cities and Climate Change: An Urgent Agenda conveys a need to act now— massive investments in buildings and infrastructure that cities in developing countries are undertaking today will lock in urban form and lifestyles for many decades to come, foretelling greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and vulnerability to climate events like wind storms, flooding, heat waves, and sea level rise….

A view of eastern Amman from the citadel atop Jabal al-Qal'a, shot by David Bjorgen, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Drought and warmer weather threaten Chinese wheat and water supplies

People’s Daily (China): Unusually high November temperatures and low rainfall were threatening water supply and the growth of winter wheat in the North China Plain, a senior water resource official revealed on Saturday. Chen Lei, minister of water resources and deputy director of the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters (SFDH), said at a preparatory meeting on drought relief that temperatures in most agricultural areas since mid-November were 1 C to 4 C higher than in previous years. At the same time there was a sharp reduction in rainfall in the North China Plain.

The SFDH revealed that a wheat planting area of 57.99 million mu (3.87 million hectares) was plagued by a drought caused by higher temperatures and water shortages in areas along the alluvial plain of Yellow River and Huaihe River. Some 1.77 million people and 1.55 million head of livestock have suffered shortages of drinking water.

The drought-affected area accounted for 19 percent of the country's winter wheat planting area. The drought's influence on next year's wheat yield was hard to determine as the yield will also depend on subsequent weather and drought relief work, Lu Bu, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), told China Daily on Sunday.

In North China's Shanxi province, winter wheat in a planting area of 2.4 million mu (160,000 hectares) is suffering from drought, although it is not severe. The situation is likely to continue given the lingering windy and dry weather, Wang Zhiwei, deputy chief of Shanxi provincial climate center, told China News Service (CNS) on Thursday.

…Chen said the drought was expanding rapidly, and the situation was even worse in areas without enough reserve water....

Kangxi Chinese radical 199 麥 "mài" (U+9EA5), which apparently means wheat, created by Magna, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license

Ravenous invasive pests threaten US national treasures

Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala in the University of Central Florida Newsroom: Foreign pests are eating their way through our national forests, destroying majestic scenery and costing taxpayers millions of dollars. If enforcement efforts to prevent their importation aren’t stepped up, irreplaceable resources will be lost forever and taxpayers can expect to fork over billions of dollars more by 2019, according to a comprehensive study published today in BioScience.

Researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Michigan State University, the University of Central Florida, and the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service analyzed the impact of invasive insects and pathogens introduced into the United States through 2007.

What they found was a staggering list of more than 455 insects and 16 pathogens that are destroying everything from oak trees in California to redbay trees in Central Florida. Based on the pattern, the researchers predict one especially destructive pest will sneak into the nation every two years.

“Entire forests are being wiped out, and it is costing taxpayers millions as the government tries to eradicate these invaders that threaten industries dependent on trees and plants,” said Betsy Von Holle, a biologist at UCF who worked on the project. “We’re losing a variety of native species as a result of importing these pests. It’s not just aesthetics. It’s impacting our economy.”

These pests and diseases sneak into the country on everything from horticultural (or plant) imports to the wooden pallets used to transport everything from building supplies to electronic goods. “Global trade has had tremendous benefits for Americans,” said lead author Juliann Aukema from the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara. “Unfortunately, it also has resulted in the introduction of destructive insects and other organisms that threaten native ecosystems and the services they provide.”…

The Asian Longhorned beetle is one of the pests destroying trees. Photo: J. E. Appleby, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Adaptation calls for government-business teamwork

In Audit about a report from PwC (full disclosure – PwC has been a client): With poor observance of how climate risks might affect businesses, different industries and governments have been advised by a new PricewaterhouseCoopers report to improve their climate change adaptation to deliver “coherent national adaptation plans” as noted by Richard Gledhill, PwC head for climate change services.

The report noted the weak cooperation between the government and business leaders to establish a strong climate change adaptation plan to help the global economy respond to environmental changes. Most businesses are focusing only on adapting to practices as a mainstream concern, giving little importance to climate changes that could hugely impact the global economy, the report stated.

PwC has surveyed 40 senior executives of different firms worldwide, and found out that most businesses are failing to advance climate change adaptation ahead of anything else because they are not fully aware of the risks it can bring to businesses, they do not have clear policy direction, and they are not sure as to what extent the risks of climate change may reach.

Gledhill observed that a large gap between government and business sector exists in terms of addressing this concern. PwC’s sustainability and climate change division director Celine Herweijer said businesses need to develop a fresh risk management and insurance services plan and create technologies that would enhance climate change adaptation strategies….

Teamwork, a large monoilithic granite sculpture by David Wynne, 1958. Commissioned for the Taylor Woodrow construction company, England. Moved to the Solihull head office in February 2006. Photographed 19 September 2006 by Oosoom, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Staple food crops do not want global warming

IRIN: Taking steps to control global temperatures is a key issue at the UN talks on climate change in Cancun. Within the next four decades maize prices could rise by up to 131 percent, there could be 17 million more undernourished children in the poorest countries, and some African farmers might have to give up agriculture if the planet keeps getting hotter, new studies show.

“[We wanted] … to get countries in Cancun to take action now to keep the global temperature increase below two degrees Celsius by the turn of the century – otherwise we are headed towards a four degree rise if greenhouse gas emissions remain unchecked,” said Phillip Thornton, of the Kenya-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), who used climate models in a study showing the serious impact of a four-degree Celsius rise in temperature on food production in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2090s.

…A comprehensive study led by Gerald Nelson and Mark Rosegrant of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), projected the possible impact of climate change on three of the world’s main staple foods - maize, rice and wheat - from 2010 to 2050.

The study used various combinations of income and population growth juxtaposed with temperature and rainfall levels ranging from slightly to substantially wetter and hotter. Crop yields and prices fared best when global temperatures rose by one degree Celsius by 2050, IFPRI noted. Other scenarios saw rice yields plunging and maize production dropping considerably, even in countries such as the United States of America, while prices of the staples soared.

The IFPRI study showed that a perfect scenario of sustained higher incomes, lower population growth and effective cuts in greenhouse gas emissions had a dramatic effect on the number of malnourished children in developing countries, bringing it down by 45 percent between 2010 and 2050….

Loading sacks of grain on a ship in Montreal, around 1920

Climate change threat to tropical forests 'greater than suspected'

John Vidal in the Guardian (UK): The chances of northern Europe facing a new ice age, or of catastrophic sea-level rises of almost four metres that swamp the planet over the next century, have been ruled out by leading scientists. But the risk of tropical forests succumbing to drought brought on by climate change as well as the acceleration of methane emissions from melting permafrost, is greater, according to the Met Office Hadley Centre, in its latest climate change review.

The government-run climatology centre also suggests that, by the latter half of this century, the Arctic could become largely ice-free in summer, given new evidence of a slightly faster rate of decline. The study examined international peer-reviewed science over the past three years, and involved remodelling data on a more powerful computer. The research will feed into the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's assessment in 2013.

"The evidence of the dangerous impact of climate change is clearer than ever," said Vicky Pope, head of Hadley's climate predictions programme. "New understanding of the science suggests the overall impact will be about the same [but] in some cases, like the risk of methane release from wetlands and permafrost melting, [we] now conclude that the risks are greater."…

Spruce Nature Trail about 0.1 km from the Hoh Rain Forest Visitor Center, near the end of the loop, shot by Walter Siegmund (Wsiegmund), Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Severe weather, air strike disrupt travel across Europe

Terra Daily via AFP: An early cold snap in Europe claimed more lives Saturday, while a wildcat strike by Spanish air traffic controllers added to the travel chaos caused by snow, ice, and in some countries flooding. Freezing weather killed another nine people in Poland over a 24-hour period, bringing the death toll there to 46 since the beginning of November, police said.

Temperatures there dropped as low as minus 19 degrees Celsius (minus 2 Fahrenheit) overnight Friday. In the neighbouring Czech Republic, it was minus 20 Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit) overnight, disrupting rail traffic as the ice seized up signals at several junctions.

French police blamed icy driving conditions for three deaths in the east of the country after a car slid off the road and into a canal near Plobsheim late Friday. Neither the driver nor the passengers had been drinking, police added...

Turner's "Snowstorm," 1842

Northern wildfires threaten runaway climate change, study reveals

EurekAlert: Climate change is causing wildfires to burn more fiercely, pumping more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than previously thought, according to a new study to be published in Nature Geosciences this week. This is the first study to reveal that fires in the Alaskan interior - an area spanning 18.5 million hectares - have become more severe in the past 10 years, and have released much more carbon into the atmosphere than was stored by the region's forests over the same period.

"When most people think of wildfires, they think about trees burning, but most of what fuels a boreal fire is plant litter, moss and organic matter in surface soils," said University of Guelph professor Merritt Turetsky, lead author of the study.

"These findings are worrisome because about half the world's soil carbon is locked in northern permafrost and peatland soils. This is carbon that has accumulated in ecosystems a little bit at a time for thousands of years, but is being released very rapidly through increased burning."

"Essentially this could represent a runaway climate change scenario in which warming is leading to larger and more intense fires, releasing more greenhouse gases and resulting in more warming. This cycle can be broken for a number of reasons, but likely not without dramatic changes to the boreal forest as we currently know it."…

Wildfires in the Alaskan Interior. Shot David Wright, US Forest Service

Turning agriculture from problem into solution

Mantoe Phakathi in IPS/TerraViva: Global agriculture contributes in the region of 17 percent to the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, but according to the World Bank, climate smart agriculture techniques can both reduce emissions and meet the challenge of producing enough food for a growing world population. "As much as agriculture is part of the problem, it is also part of the solution," said Inger Anderson, the World Bank's vice president on sustainable development.

Anderson was speaking to agriculture, food security and climate change experts at Agriculture and Rural Development Day, a side event at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Cancún, Mexico on Dec. 4. Agriculture experts are punting a scenario in which farming delivers a "triple win", sequestering carbon in soil and biomass, gaining greater resilience to drought and higher temperatures, and improve food security and farmers' incomes.

…"The challenge is that in Africa, we thought only of science and technology as a way of adaptation to climate change," said Sibanda. "We started talking about adaption in Africa before we could even do research on the opportunities that come with community livelihoods."

Diana Liverman, a researcher from the University of Arizona, said smallholder farmer have long relied on indigenous knowledge to adapt to conditions, but escalating climate change may exceed their capacities. "To use indigenous knowledge at this point, when the climate has drastically changed, could be a challenge because it might not be able to cope with the present realities of the phenomenon," said Liverman.

Instead, she said, modern science should help advance indigenous knowledge to help farmers adapt. But she stressed that farmers should be at the heart of deciding which course to take.

"Researchers should refrain from making choices for African farmers," said Liverman. "Some will want the modern technologies while others would like to continue with the traditional ones. What needs to happen is that adaptation funds should be availed to all."…

Watering lettuce in the Central African Republic, shot by Jean-Francois Dontaine for FAO, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Rains leave rising death toll in Colombia, Venezuela

Terra Daily via AFP: The toll from weeks of heavy rains across Colombia has risen to 174 people dead and over 1.5 million homeless, the Colombian Red Cross said Saturday. And in neighboring Venezuela to the east, driving rains have triggered flooding and cave-ins that have killed 34 people over the past week and left an estimated 73,000 people homeless nationwide, officials said.

In Colombia, 225 people have been injured and 19 were missing, Colombian Red Cross deputy director of operations Cesar Uruena told reporters. A total of 1,821 homes have been damaged or destroyed. "We've never had this many people affected by the rainy season," he added, noting that the punishing rains were hitting 95 percent of the country.

Some regions, including southwestern Valle del Cauca department, saw more than 12 hours of non-stop rain. More than a dozen mudslides blocked roads from Valle's capital Cali to the Pacific port town of Buenaventura, stranding hundreds of trucks and passenger vehicles….

Map of Colombia and Venezuela by NormanEinstein, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Hermosa Beach storm water filtration system wins EPA award

Douglas Morino of the Daily Breeze (California): For years, a project to transform Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach into a pedestrian friendly-haven was studied and scrutinized. Now that the multimillion-dollar remodel of the beach town's main drag is complete, it's the work done below ground that's getting most of the attention.

A public works project that collects storm water under the busy street and filters it with sand to irrigate landscaping has earned a national award from the federal government. City engineers spent nearly six years developing and working on the ambitious project, which includes a storm drain and water filtration system that keeps polluted water from reaching the ocean and allows it to be reused. The storm drain and infiltration system, part of the Pier Avenue Beautification Project, earned a 2010 Environmental Achievement Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The award was announced Thursday during a ceremony at Union Station in Los Angeles.

…The award-winning system uses gravity and sand to naturally collect and filter storm water, which is captured in one of 30 sidewalk drains - or infiltration basins - along the city's main drag. Contaminants, including leaves and trash, are filtered from the water in each of the basins, which are later cleaned out by city workers. Once captured, water saturates the soil below ground, which works as a sponge and natural filter.

From there, water is funneled through plastic pipes buried about four feet underground to the center of Pier Avenue, where it provides deep root irrigation along the street's landscaped median. No water is returned directly to the ocean.

"The project was innovative because rather than just putting in a traditional storm drain, (city engineers) thought outside the box," said Kathleen McGowan, a city-hired consultant who worked on the project. "I think it can be a model for what can be done in the South Bay."...

Hermosa Beach, shot by Christophe.Finot, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license

Ocean acidification may threaten food security

Alister Doyle in Environment News Network via Reuters: Acidification of the seas linked to climate change could threaten fisheries production and is already causing the fastest shift in ocean chemistry in 65 million years, a U.N. study showed on Thursday. Production of shellfish, such as mussels, shrimp or lobsters, could be most at risk since they will find it harder to build protective shells, according to the report issued on the sidelines of U.N. climate talks in Mexico.

It could also damage coral reefs, vital as nurseries for many commercial fish stocks. "Ocean acidification is yet another red flag being raised, carrying planetary health warnings about the uncontrolled growth in greenhouse gas emissions," said Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP).

"Whether ocean acidification on its own proves to be a major or a minor challenge to the marine environment and its food chain remains to be seen," he said in a statement. A UNEP booklet reviewing scientific findings about ocean acidification, caused by water soaking up greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, said that it adds to threats to food security that already include overfishing and pollution….

Jakob van Ruisdael's "Rough Sea at a Jetty," from 1650

Balkans flooding prompts emergency call

BBC: Hundreds of people have been evacuated from areas close to the River Drina Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro have declared flood emergencies after heavy rain pushed the River Drina to its highest level in 100 years.

Hundreds of people have had to be evacuated from areas close to the river, which runs along the three states' borders. In Foca, Bosnia, floodwater reportedly reached the second floor of buildings.

An eyewitness in nearby Gorazde compared the river to a lake. "This area is famous for rafting but if this goes on, big ships will be able to dock in Gorazde, it's really unbelievable," Muris Razanica told the Associated Press news agency.

On the opposite bank, rescue workers in Serbia and Montenegro were evacuating hundreds of people from their homes and the Drina flooded farms and roads. The entire area was hit by power outages and lacked drinking water. Officials warned that more rivers, especially in southern Bosnia, were threatening to burst their banks….

The Drina River in less flooded times, shot by Julian Nitzsche (j.budissin), Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Forgotten Pakistan flood victims face grim winter

Matt Wade in the Sydney Morning Herald (Australia): Underestimated from the start and then quickly forgotten. That is how aid workers have summed up the international reaction to the Pakistan floods, one of the worst natural disasters in modern times. More than four months after the emergency, more than 10 million are still receiving daily emergency assistance and nearly 7 million remain without adequate shelter.

The aid agency Save the Children has warned that freezing winter conditions in flood-affected areas pose a fresh risk to flood victims, especially children. ''This must not become a forgotten emergency, especially now as children could die due to cold-related illnesses like pneumonia,'' said Mike Penrose, Save the Children's director of emergency response.

''More children will die in the flood areas if they don't get the appropriate treatment in time. We are already seeing an increasing number of chest infection cases. The immediate need is to ensure people can keep warm and have proper shelter.''

The devastating monsoon flooding in July and August, which affected 21 million people, destroyed entire villages, wiped out 2 million hectares of crops and caused widespread damage to basic infrastructure. Large tracts of the southern Sindh province are still inundated and some communities remain surrounded by floodwaters.

Even before the floods hit, about 85,000 children died from pneumonia each year in Pakistan. This winter millions of children will be forced to live in the open, or in tents, with little or no access to healthcare, and this could fuel the spread of pneumonia respiratory disease. In mountainous parts of northern Pakistan, hard hit by flooding, temperatures are already falling below freezing….

The flooding on the Kabul and Indus Rivers, seen from space on August 5

Climate science chief sees ‘huge gaps’ in research

Dawn via AP (Paksitan): From the methane-laden tundra of the far north to the depths of the oceans, world governments need to spend more on cutting-edge research to “get a handle” on how much and how quickly the world will warm in decades to come, says the head of the UN climate science network.

“There are huge gaps in the effort as far as scientific research is concerned,” Rajendra Pachauri told The Associated Press, pointing to concerns that the Arctic’s thawing permafrost is releasing powerful global warming gases, and the oceans might eventually turn from absorbing carbon dioxide to spewing it into the atmosphere.

...Describing areas where more intense research is needed, Pachauri spoke of the uncertain state of the Arctic tundra. Last year, he asked his scientific network to focus on possible “abrupt, irreversible climate change” from thawing permafrost, tundra soil frozen year-round, covering almost one-fifth of Earth’s land surface and running up to 600 meters (2,000 feet) deep.

…“It’s basically the fact that people have not carried out enough measurement so that we can get a handle on how this is going to change in the future, what sort of increase of temperature will occur with the melting of the permafrost,” Pachauri said.

Similarly, he said, “the oceans require a lot more concentrated attention.” Researchers are growing deeply worried about the growing acidification of the oceans, from their absorption of excess atmospheric carbon dioxide. More acidic waters make it more difficult for coral, oysters and other undersea life to produce their calcium carbonate shells, threatening to blow holes in the oceanic food chain….

Permafrost in the high Arctic, shot by Mila Zinkova, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

US to impart forest fire management training in Nepal

The Himalayan (Nepal): The United States is all set to impart a weeklong ‘train-the-trainers’ forest fire management course in Hetauda from December 5 to 9. According to the US embassy in Nepal, US Forest Service has shouldered the training responsibility at the behest of the Government of Nepal.

It is expected that about 25 participants from district forest offices, the Nepali Army and other relevant agencies will attend the programme. The training is part of the USFS’ Eastern Himalayas Forests and Climate Change Programme and was developed in consultation with Nepal’s Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation, said the embassy in a statement.

Visiting US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Alyssa Ayres, will launch the training programme in Hetauda…

On the banks of the Khosi River in Nepal, shot by Brian Dell Bdell555

At least 60 dead in Europe as snow, floods cause havoc

Terra Daily via AFP: A cold snap across Europe has claimed at least 60 lives, authorities said Friday, as snow disrupted transport in Britain and serious flooding forced thousands of people to be evacuated in the Balkans. Seventeen people died from the cold in Central Europe in the past 24 hours, bringing the total this week to 45. A further 11 died in Russia, plus three in France and one in Germany, according to local authorities.

At least 30 people, mainly homeless men, have died in Poland in the past week, and temperatures dropped to minus 15 degrees Celsius (five degrees Fahrenheit) overnight. Temperatures plunged to minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus four Fahrenheit) in Braemar, Scotland, while Britain struggled to get back to its feet after days of transport chaos caused by bad weather.

London's Gatwick airport reopened on Friday after a two-day shutdown due to snow, but other airports including London Heathrow and Glasgow warned of more cancellations and delays. Many trains were cancelled due to snow and travel by road was slow going, while around 2,000 schools remained closed.

Despite Gatwick finally clearing the runways, freezing fog meant flights would be limited and "delays and cancellations inevitable", Europe's eighth-busiest passenger airport said….

...Meanwhile in the Western Balkans, flooding caused by rivers swollen through heavy rainfall forced thousands of people from their homes in Albania, Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro on Friday, officials said. More than 7,000 people were moved to safer areas in Albania, where Prime Minister Sali Berisha described the situation as "very serious".

Thousands of houses were damaged and roads linking the capital Tirana to the north of the country were completely blocked, local authorities reported....

A Sitka Spruce branch in the now at Eglinton Country Park, Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotland. Shot by Rosser1954 Roger Griffith

Climate change insurance alert

Richard J. Berrow and Ron Ezekiel of Fasken Martineau (a law firm) in Lexology.com: …If the scientific global climate models are accurate, the present problems will be magnified in the near future. These models suggest that we should expect: increase in the frequency and severity of heat waves, droughts, bush fires, tropical and extra tropical cyclones, tornados, hailstorms, floods and storm surges in many parts of the world; new exposures (like hurricanes in the South Atlantic); and more extensive damage, economic, social, and environmental impacts from weather-related disasters."

…Although no one has yet successfully sued a company for climate change damage allegedly caused by greenhouse gas ("GHG") emissions, lawsuits blaming industrial emitters for global warming, extreme weather events and other natural disasters are pending in Alaska, Washington, D.C., California and Louisiana. Shareholder resolutions to force companies to limit their carbon emissions are becoming commonplace, and corporate executives and risk managers are becoming ever increasingly concerned about business risks related to climate change. Our previous update, reviewed some of these risks.

Although climate change issues and claims are still relatively novel concepts,this overview highlights the extent to which such risks may be covered under a corporate policyholder's insurance program. In particular, we discuss the policies that most businesses already should have in their portfolios: comprehensive general liability, directors and officers liability, and first-party property damage and business interruption policies.. Our discussion is, of course, necessarily general in approach. In every case, the specific language of each policy will ultimately determine whether coverage exists.

Accordingly, we recommend that risk managers, with the assistance of insurance counsel, carefully review their potential GHG exposures and assess the adequacy of their existing or proposed coverage programs….

A courtroom in Brockville, Ontario, shot by P199, under the Creative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Alaska acknowledges climate change effects

Dan Joling in the Anchorage Daily Press via AP: Alaska's fish and wildlife managers have released a state plan anticipating effects on Arctic bodies of waters, fishing industries and wildlife resources brought on by climate change. The state is suing to overturn the federal listing of polar bears as a threatened species because of declining sea ice habitat, but the 19-page report released this week begins by acknowledging that scientific and traditional evidence increasingly shows climate changing at unprecedented rates throughout the Arctic.

"We have to take a look at what could possibly occur," said Doug Vincent-Lang, endangered species coordinator for the Department of Fish and Game. The report, called "Climate Change Strategy," noted warming temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, altered stream flows, loss of sea ice, increased wildfire patterns, thawing permafrost and coastal erosion.

Warming and precipitation changes were expected to affect freshwater quantity and quality throughout Alaska and likely will affect wetlands, rivers and lakes, especially shallow lakes maintained by permafrost, the report said.

The report anticipated that access by anglers to water bodies may change, as could subsistence opportunities. Distribution of fish may be altered, with a shift to species tolerant of warmer waters, it said. Changes in fire patterns will hurt some terrestrial species and help others, the report said. For example, moose could benefit in some areas that experience more fires, whereas woodpeckers or other species dependent on old-growth forest could suffer. Distribution of seal species could change as a result of altered sea ice conditions, the report said. Ocean acidification has the potential to alter the marine food web, affecting commercially targeted fish.

The report is an outgrowth of an effort launched by former Gov. Sarah Palin, who formed a climate change task force to prepare a climate change strategy for Alaska….

Fur Seal, Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, shot by Vernon Byrd of the US Fish and Wildlife Service

Funding gaps for climate change adaptation a threat to food supplies

Food and Agriculture Organization Media Centre: Floods and droughts in major grain producing countries this year have triggered a sharp increase in food prices, highlighting the vulnerability of the world's food production systems and agricultural markets. Such developments are likely to reoccur more frequently and with greater intensity in the decades to come due to climate change.

Yet while there are many examples of how the agricultural sector can both become more resilient to climate change and reduce its own sizeable carbon emissions (as detailed here), mechanisms for funding such efforts are lacking.

"Available financing, both current and projected, are substantially insufficient to meet the climate change and food security challenges faced by the agriculture sector," said Peter Holmgren, Director of FAO's Climate, Energy and Tenure Division.

This is one of the key messages that FAO is stressing during the annual meeting of the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico (29 Nov. - 10 Dec.)…

Image by Olivier Thullier from the FAO website

Heat waves may “become norm” by 2100

Environmental Research Web: Extreme weather like the heat waves in Russia this year, and in Europe in 2003, will make the impacts of climate change clear to humanity, according to David Easterling. In part that's because by the end of the 21st century the events that are currently considered heat waves will become commonplace, warns the chief of the scientific services division at the US National Climatic Data Center (NCDC).

“We're finding that the length of the heat waves gets to the point where it almost becomes the norm in model situations towards the end of the 21st century,” Easterling explained. “In a lot of places the temperatures warm up to that point just about every day.”

These interim results from Easterling's latest research typify his keen interest in extreme climate events. Given the high profile of such phenomena, he is used to fielding questions about whether climate change has caused an individual event. While the stock answer is: “no, but it increases the chances”, he wants to try to pin down more direct relationships. “We want to be a little more specific and ask 'Can we say anything about the heat waves in Russia?', for example,” Easterling told environmentalresearchweb.

A group at the NCDC's parent organisation, the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is helping address this question. The researchers use models to study an event and look for signals to indicate that climate change has raised the temperature during a heat wave. “It's a tough nut to crack,” Easterling admitted. “You have to use both observations and model simulations to see how much of that heat wave was due to climate change rather than just chance or circulation of the atmosphere.”…

A bimetal thermometer, shot by 1-1111, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Effects of El Niño land South Pacific reef fish in hot water

University of Bristol press release: Unseasonal warm temperatures caused by El Niño have a profound effect on the fish populations of coral reefs in the South Pacific, scientists have found. An international team of biologists studied the arrival of young fish to the atoll of Rangiroa in French Polynesia for four years and compared their results with satellite and oceanographic data. They found that the El Niño event caused a sudden collapse in the plankton community and this led to a near absence of the young fish that are required to replenish adult stocks.

Coral reef fishes are bad parents. Rather than caring for their young, they disperse them into the open waters off the reef where they drift with the currents while they grow and develop into small juveniles, at which point they make their way back again to the reef. This process allows these baby fish to feed on plankton and escape the predators that would consume them if they had to grow up on the reef with adults. But in a changing climate, this dispersal into the haven of open water could now become an Achilles’ heel for coral reef fishes.

…Climate scientist Elodie Martinez from France and marine biologists Dr Steve Simpson and Dr Mark Meekan then analysed the data, the longest time-series of its kind, to detect and explain the worrying trends. The paper is published in the journal Global Change Biology.

Dr Steve Simpson from the University of Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences said: “Near to the equator, fish arrive throughout the year to replenish adult populations. In contrast, during the El Niño event at Rangiroa, when temperatures climbed up to 3.5°C above the seasonal average, we found that the young fish virtually disappeared.

“Analysis of satellite images around Rangiroa suggested that plankton, the food supply for many baby and adult reef fishes, declined dramatically during the warm waters of El Niño. As a consequence, adults struggled to produce offspring and young fishes were likely to starve when in open waters off reefs. Just 1-2 months after the onset of the warm conditions, the next generation of young fish stopped arriving so that adult stocks were no longer being re-supplied.”

Dr Meekan said: “The events we witnessed during El Niño are a worrying sign for the future when climate change is predicted to warm ocean temperatures and may even increase the frequency of the El Niño phenomenon”….

A NASA image of Rangiroa Atoll, Tuamotu Archipelago, French Polynesia

British agriculture faces water shortages

Evesham Journal (UK): Agricultural businesses could face damaging water shortages as a result of climate change and adaptation is needed to meet the impending challenge. That was the conclusion of a report commissioned by the Royal Agricultural Society of England (RASE) and carried out by scientists from the Walker Institute for Climate System Research and the School of Agriculture, both at the University of Reading.

The report, Water for Agriculture – Implications for Future Policy & Practice, makes it clear that higher temperatures and lower rainfall in summer are likely to reduce river flow and so reduce the amount of water available for agriculture. It also shows a clear risk from more frequent extremes of drought and flooding.

“This is a challenge for plant breeders, policy makers and planners as well as farmers,” said Ian Smith, agri-science director of RASE. “Plant breeders will need to incorporate drought resistance and waterlogging tolerance into new varieties, water policy will have to reflect the need to conserve and perhaps even redistribute water and planners must be flexible in allowing farms to build reservoirs so they can conserve winter rainfall for summer irrigation….

Street Farm Oast, Frittenden, Kent, Great Britain. Shot by Val Vannet, Wikimedia Commons via Geograph UK, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

Pakistan's flood aid 'unspent and mismanaged'

Terra Daily via AFP: Mismanagement and misuse of cash are hampering relief efforts for Pakistan's flood victims with nearly 60 million dollars in a prime minister's fund still unspent, officials say. Catastrophic monsoon rains that swept north to south in July and August affected 21 million people, consumed entire villages, wiped out agricultural land and destroyed industries in the country's worst ever natural disaster.

Foreign donors have stumped up just half of a UN appeal target of 1.93 billion dollars, sparking fears for 6.8 million who need emergency shelter as winter sets in, while farmland could remain flooded for another six months.

But officials say efforts to rebuild 1.6 million homes are being compromised by infighting between federal and provincial authorities, and express amazement that a 58.5 million dollar prime minister's fund remains entirely unspent.

Shabbir Anwar, a spokesman for Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, said plans for the money were still being finalised as part of a national recovery plan. "The government has prepared a national strategy for rehabilitation and reconstruction. The details are being finalised by the financial division," he told AFP.

But a top Pakistani official said "malaise" at the heart of government was to blame for inaction, as thousands of families remain camped out on roadsides in makeshift tents. "Once a decision is taken at the highest level it must be done -- but it doesn't get done," he told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Huge swaths of Sindh province in the south remain underwater. From the air all that can be seen in the worst-affected parts of Dadu province are the tips of trees jutting above inland lakes….

Climate change seen costing Central America billions of dollars

Anastasia Moloney in Relief Web via AlertNet: Climate change could cost Central America at least half its gross domestic product by the end of this century as more extreme weather, lower crop yields and water shortages are forecast in a region already prone to natural disasters, a recent United Nations report warns.

Increasing global average temperatures, rising sea levels, changes in rainfall and more frequent storms and droughts linked to climate change are already taking a heavy toll on government finances and poor rural communities across the seven countries that make up Central America.

Based on economic modelling, the study carried out by the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) aims to put a price tag on the impact of global warming in the region, based on development and carbon emissions scenarios for agriculture, water resources, intensity of hurricanes and floods, and biodiversity.

"While uncertainties exist, initial estimates for only four sectors suggest that climate change might cost the region the equivalent 54 percent of its GDP based on 2008 figures - the equivalent of $73 billion - accumulated over 90 years, from now until 2100," Julie Lennox, climate change expert and ECLAC project coordinator, told AlertNet in an interview from Mexico City.

The study estimates the potential cost for Central American governments of doing nothing or little to address the effects of climate change – the "business as usual" approach – as well as costs if governments do implement strategies to tackle the problem. The report concludes it would be more "cost effective" for states to address climate change by focusing on disaster prevention and adaptation sooner rather than later….

ICRISAT devolops climate change-ready cultivars

Commodity Online: India-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has developed climate change-ready cultivars of dry land crops. ICRISAT Director General William Dar affirms, “ICRISAT is well placed to respond to the climate challenge. Along with our partners, we recognize the importance of the issue and firmly believe that our new strategy, following the inclusive market-oriented development approach, will benefit the livelihoods of communities who are the most vulnerable to climate change.” ICRISAT reported.

ICRISAT’s research is focused on crops that are important to the livelihoods of the people of the dryland tropics. These are pearl millet, sorghum, chickpea, pigeonpea and groundnut. These crops have several natural evolutionary advantages to withstand global warming.

Both pearl millet and sorghum have high levels of salinity tolerance, so are better adapted to areas that are becoming saline due to global warming. Some of the pearl millet varieties and hybrids, developed from ICRISAT’s germplasm are able to flower and set seed at temperatures more than 42 degrees centigrade in areas such as Western Rajasthan and Gujarat in India.

...Modeling studies carried out at ICRISAT show that there will be a drop in agricultural productivity with climate change in the dryland tropics. However, with a combination of climate change-ready varieties plus improved agronomic practices, dryland farmers will be able to overcome the adverse impacts of a warmer world....

Pearl millet used for forage, shot by Jwilson