Scarcity of Water and Climate Change

Dr. Ahmed Djoghlaf

"Four out of 10 people in the world live in countries with a severe shortage of potable water"

According to a CIA report, the shortage of water will in the near future constitute one of the major sources of tension and armed conflict in the world. The scarcity of water and climate change will have far-reaching implications for human health.

Water is one of the most essential resource without it human life would cease to exist. The scarcity of drinking water will have a disastrous consequences on the acceleration of desertification particularly in Africa where it has attained alarming proportions.



Climate change is one of the main causes of the high increases in the number of infectious diseases. Since the temperature at the higher regions will rise so the ability of the disease to conquer at higher elevations also increased. Climate change is not only a security issue; it is also a moral issue. Those who have contributed the least to climate change will be the most at risk.

Climate Change Adaptation

by Juan Echanore

Adaptation is complex, since the severity of the impacts will vary considerably from region to another region. Concrete measures will range from the relatively inexpensive to the very costly, including the fields of agriculture, climate research, technological innovation and disaster preparedness. The involvement of all segments of society, business and the public is essential in the further development of adaptation strategies.


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Is Climate Change to blame?

by Sahlee Bugna-Barrer
  
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned that warming oceans could lead to the intensification of tropical cyclones. in a warmer climate, the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events become stronger and more frequent. their impact on the Asian monsoon could lead to high inter-annual variation in rainfall characteristics.

Tropical cyclones could become more intense. when combined with sea level rise, this would result in an enhanced risk of loss of life and property in coastal low-lying areas in cyclone prone regions.

Damages to livelihood and propetry can affect millions of already poor people and stress government resources necessary to help those in need.

The developing countries of Asia, where impacts of climate change are likely to be felt most severely because of resource and infrastructure constraints.

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More Perfect Storms

Climate change + Biodiversity loss = disaster in Asia

by Sahlee Bugna-Barrer

Meteorologist used the term the Perfect storm to describe a rare combination of two powerful weather fronts and a hurricane that created the storm of historic proportions that hit the US in 1991. Since then it has been used to describe weather so extreme that they wreak maximum damage on people and the environment.

Tropical cyclones could become more intense when combined with sea level rise, this would result in an enhanced risk of loss of life and property in coastal low-lying areas in cycline-prone regions.

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"We must kick the Carbon habit"

by Mr. Ban Ki-Moon
Asean Biodiversity
news Magazine

Addiction is a terrible thing. It consumes and controls us, make us deny important thruts and blinds us to the consequences of our actions.

Our dependence on carbon-based energy has caused a significant build-up of green house gases in the atmosphere. climate change is happening, and we know that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is the cause.

The cost will be borne by all. the poor will be hardest -hit by weather-related disasters.

We are all part of the solution.....

We must kick the carbon habit.....

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Ondoy and Climate Change

According to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), Ondoy brought Metro Manila its highest amount of rainfall in the last 42 years.
“In 1967, a typhoon brought Metro Manila 334 mm of rain in 24 hours,” said Pagasa spokesman Nathaniel Cruz in an interview. “Last Saturday’s storm brought us the 334 mm of rain in just six hours. ‘Ondoy’ brought us a total of 453 mm of rain in 24 hours.”
Cruz said it may have been “a manifestation of climate change.”
Climate change, however, is not the root: it is itself merely a manifestation of much worse things.
The Fourth Assessment Report of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released in 2007, states that human activities have contributed to climate change through increases in the emissions of four principal greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and halocarbons (a group of gases containing bromine, chlorine, and fluorine).
Carbon dioxide emissions increased from the use of fossil fuels (e.g. petroleum, coal, and natural gas) in the manufacture of cement and other goods, transportation, and building heating and cooling. Decaying plant matter also emits carbon dioxide.
Methane is emitted from landfills, as well as from natural gas distribution and a few activities related to agriculture.
Fossil fuel burning and fertilizer use cause the emission of nitrous oxide. But natural processes in soil and the oceans can contribute to nitrous oxide emission.
Among the principal halocarbons are the chlorofluorocarbons, which have historically been used as refrigeration agents and for other industrial purposes.
Based on the IPCC’s research, the emission of these gases have increased since 1750, or the start of the industrial age, and particularly in the previous century.
Changes in the emission of these principal greenhouse gases affect the presence and amounts of ozone, water vapor, and aerosols in the air.
The increased emissions of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen oxide have increased ozone in the troposphere, the atmosphere’s first layer, leading to increase in temperatures in a number of areas. On the other hand, high halocarbon emissions have depleted ozone in the stratosphere (the second atmospheric level), leading to cooling in some areas.
The amount of water vapor in the air is a significant determinant of the general warmth or coolness of an area; more water vapor means a warmer atmosphere. Methane undergoes chemical destruction when it reaches the stratosphere, thus producing water vapor.
Aerosols are small particles present in the atmosphere that vary in chemical composition, concentration, and size.
The burning of fossil fuels and biomass has increased the amount of aerosols with sulfur and organic compounds, as well as black carbon (or soot). Surface mining and some other industrial activities have increased dust in the atmosphere.
The IPCC further stated that carbon dioxide accounts for 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, mainly resulting from the burning of coal and crude oil.
Ninety percent of carbon dioxide emission is from countries within the Northern Hemisphere. The Group of Eight (G8) countries – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK, and the US – and several other European Union member-countries are historically responsible for 65 percent of carbon dioxide emissions, with the US accounting for 20 percent of emissions in 2003.

Ondoy (Ketsana) - Climate change impact in the Philippines 2

Ondoy Pushes Tens of Thousands of Families Into Severe Difficulty, Long-Term Poverty. The depletion of the world’s forests has also significantly affected climate change. The growth of forests causes the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and its absorption into leaves, soil, and wood. Based on data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), deforestation worldwide took place at the rate of 13 million hectares a year for the period 1990-2005 – with little signs of decrease over the years. As of 2005, 3.95 million hectares or only 30 percent of the planet’s total land area was covered with forests.
Based on the IPCC’s research, the increased carbon dioxide emissions have been the biggest contributor to what is now known as global warming. The increase in the emissions of other principal greenhouse gases have contributed to warming trends experienced in many parts of the world.
Global warming is a significant factor in the increasing frequency and intensity of typhoons.
Typhoons develop from the heat that dissipates when water vapor from warm sea surfaces condenses and forms cloud drops. The strength of typhoons increases when sea-surface temperatures are higher than 26°C, and goes down at sea-surface temperatures below 26°C.
Based on data from the socio-economic think-tank Ibon Foundation, the Asia-Pacific region has experienced in recent decades a general trend toward warming, which is consistent with global temperature patterns. Southeast Asia has warmed by 0.32°C over the past three decades.
“It is unfair that people in the Philippines should be the ones paying a greater price for the damage that developed countries have wrought on the environment,” said Amalie Obusan, Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner, in a statement.
“The plight of vulnerable developing countries such as ours should put forward a strong moral imperative for early and decisive action” Obusan also said. “The threat to our people’s survival is a harsh reality that should inform the actions of the industrialized world’s leaders.”
At the ongoing intercessional meeting of the United Nations Framework on Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) in Bangkok, UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said the floods wrought by Ondoy in the Philippines highlight the need for an international agreement on climate change. “One of the reasons why countries have gathered here is to ensure the frequency and severity of those kinds of extreme weather events decreases as a result of ambitious climate change policy,”

"We must therefore prepare for the next typhoon coz it might be as strong or even stronger than Ondoy"

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