Framework for developing a municipal adaptation plan This article originally appeared in Tiempo Issue 87 April 2008 By Pierre Mukheibir and Gina Ziervogel Introduction In recent years, reducing vulnerability to climate change has become an urgent issue in low- and middle-income countries, and is at the forefront of any sustainable development policy agenda. Adaptation to climate change is a process whereby individuals and communities seek to respond to ‘actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects’. National Adaptation Plans of Action (NAPA) have been developed recently under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for Least Developed Countries (LDCs). This article presents an overarching framework developed for a municipal level approach to adapting sectors to climate impacts Towards a framework for adaptation to climate change at municipal level These principles should continually be reflected on to ensure adaptation activities are achieving their desired goals. Conclusion Note: Contact: gina@csag.uct.ac.za
The climate has always changed. What do you conclude? Probably everyone has heard this argument, presented as objection against the findings of climate scientists on global warming: “The climate has always changed!” And it is true: climate has changed even before humans began to burn fossil fuels. So what can we conclude from that? A quick quiz Do you conclude… (1) that humans cannot change the climate? (2) that we do not know whether humans are to blame for global warming? (3) that global warming will not have any severe consequences? (4) that we cannot stop global warming? The answer Not one of these answers is correct. (1) The opposite conclusion is correct: if the climate had hardly changed during the course of the Earth’s history (despite variable incoming solar radiation and changing amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere), then we would conclude that there are strong stabilizing feedbacks in the climate system. Paleoclimatologists determine the climate sensitivity from data from the Earth’s history. (2) Imagine there has been a forest fire.
15 Global Challenges The 15 Global Challenges updated annually continue to be the best introduction by far to the key issues of the early 21st century. -- Michael Marien, editor, Future Survey 15 Global Challenges facing humanity The 15 Global Challenges provide a framework to assess the global and local prospects for humanity. Their description, with a range of views and actions to addressed each, enriched with regional views and progress assessments are updated each year, since 1996. A short overview is published in the annual State of the Future,while continuous updates and details are available on the Global Futures Intelligence System website: The 15 Global Challenges are a result of continuous research, Delphi studies, interviews, and participantion of over 4,000 experts from around the world, since 1996 -- see a short history. The Global Challenges are transnational in nature and transinstitutional in solution. The 15 Global Challenges: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.
Verso il 2020 senza illusioni Riflessioni sul nostro futuro partendo dal fallimento della COP25. Di Luca Pardi Il fallimento della COP25 non è arrivato, almeno per me, come una sorpresa. Da anni, e in modo accelerato in questi ultimi mesi, si sente parlare di transizione energetica, verde, ecologica, sostenibile ecc. Tutte formule che finora si sono rivelate vuote. Per mettere in crisi la posizione negazionista basta evocare il tema dell’esaurimento delle risorse non rinnovabili: minerali ed energetiche. «La produzione globale di petrolio convenzionale ha superato il picco nel 2008 a 69,5 milioni di barili al giorno e da allora è diminuita di circa 2,5 milioni di barili al giorno.» Il picco produttivo globale della categoria di petrolio più conveniente, il convenzionale appunto, è avvenuto nel primo decennio del secolo (come previsto, peraltro, da Colin Campbell e Jean Laherrere) e questo segna il passaggio allo sfruttamento di categorie di petrolio più difficili e costose da estrarre. "Mi piace":
Biochar | Biochar Farms In physical terms, biochar is simply the charred remains is formed when plant material is heated in an oxygen free environment–a process scientists call “pyrolysis.” Unlike charcoal which is very similar, biochar is created specifically to improve soil structure and ehnance crop productivity. “Net energy,” or the total amount of energy yielded from the process, is positive meaning it generates more energy than it consumes. Because not all of the carbon is combusted (approximately 10-50 percent of the total carbon is retained as biochar), significant carbon can be returned to the soils and therefore the process is considered to be “carbon negative.” Unlike other biofuels and bioenergy platforms, biochar does not necessitate using valuable agricultural lands or deforesting already vulnerable ecosystems as many other bioenergy systems would required. On one hand biochar is fairly simple. Microscopic picture of biochar (Courtesy of Iowa State Biorenewable Center) Scientific Papers:
Will the Collapse of Civilization Begin With Global Corporatist Totalitarianism? I‘ve just finished reading Dmitry Orlov’s new book The Five Stages of Collapse. It made me realize that I have probably been making two fundamental errors in my thinking about how our civilization culture will collapse, and what we should do to become more resilient in the face of that collapse (taking steps like learning new personal and collective capacities, and re-learning how to create communities). My two errors were the failure to recognize: The Need to Stop Collapse at Stage 3: I have been thinking that there is only one type of collapse, one ‘end game’, though there are many different scenarios about how it will play out. But let me take a step back and start with a brief overview of The Five Stages of Collapse. If you look at the Signs of Collapse in the table above, it is not hard to conclude that the first three stages — Financial, Commercial, and Political Collapse — are already upon us, and we just haven’t recognized them yet. After us, the dragons.
Clean Development Mechanism | General Knowledge Today Out of the three mechanisms under the Kyoto Mechanisms, the Clean Development Mechanism is most popular. It is defined by the Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol. Objectives: There are two broad objectives of the CDM as follows: To help the Non-Annex parties in achieving sustainable development and in contributing to the ultimate objective of the UNFCCC, i.e. to prevent the climate change. Benefits The benefits of the CDM are shown in the following graphics: Process: The Process is shown in the following simple graphics: The above graphics presents the classical structure of the CDM which uses project-by-project process for registering and verifying projects. The countries which are less developed or least developed and the small island states where average project sizes and the scale of national markets tend to be smaller, the relative transaction costs are higher. To address this problem, the CDM Executive Board launched the Programme of Activities (PoA) modality. Programme of Activities (PoA)
The Collapse of the Modern Western Empire. What Future for Humankind? These notes are not supposed to disparage nor to exalt an entity that has a history that goes back to at least a couple of millennia ago. Like all Empires, past and present, the Modern World Empire went through its parable of growth and glory and it is now starting its decline. There is not much that we can do about it, we have to accept that this is the way the universe works. On this subject, see also a previous post of mine "Why Europe Conquered the World " For everything that exists, there is a reason and that's true also for that gigantic thing that we call sometimes "The West" or perhaps "The American Empire," or maybe "Globalization." As someone might have said (and maybe someone did, but it might be an original concept of mine), "geography is the mother of Empires." Like all empires, though, the Roman one carried inside the seeds of its own destruction. In this way, the Europeans created a gentle and sophisticated civilization. But things never stand still.
Corinair CORINAIR - The New Family Of Software Tools Air Emission Data Exchange Module - project Within the framework of the Corinair - CORe INventory AIR emissions, the European Environment Agency (EEA) and its European Topic Centre on Air and Climate Change (ETC-ACC) have developed a set of software tools to support European countries in compiling annual air emission inventories. These tools allow for a transparent and standardized, hence consistent and comparable data collecting and emissions reporting procedure in accordance with the requirements of international conventions and protocols and EU legislation. Background EEA and ETC-AE The EEA (European Environment Agency) was established in Copenhagen (Denmark) by the European Union to provide “timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information to policy makers and to the public” [1]. In 2001 ETC/AE distributed modified and improved versions of software tools upgraded under EEA TERESA project. Reporting of inventories How to find the tools?
Etica della reciprocità L'etica della reciprocità o regola d'oro è un valore morale fondamentale che "si riferisce all'equilibrio in un sistema interattivo tale che ciascuna parte ha diritti e doveri; la norma secondaria della complementarità afferma che i diritti di ciascuno sono un dovere per l'altro"[1]. Essenzialmente si tratta di un codice etico in base al quale ciascuno ha diritto a un trattamento giusto e il dovere e la responsabilità di assicurare la giustizia agli altri. L'etica della reciprocità tra individui è il fondamento della dignità, della convivenza pacifica, della legittimità, della giustizia, del riconoscimento e del rispetto tra individui, delle religioni civili. La "reciprocità" sintetizza con viva autenticità in sé le parole "libertà" e "uguaglianza". La regola d`oro ha radici in molte culture diverse. Filosofia greca antica[modifica | modifica wikitesto] La regola d'oro, nella sua forma negativa, era un principio comune nella filosofia dell'Antica Grecia. ^ Marc H.
Taiwan into United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC) Actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are significantly less costly than the potentially catastrophic consequences of inaction. Furthermore, the transition to a low-carbon economy will provide enormous opportunities for technological innovation, economic growth, and job creation, while improving energy security. In order to promote sustainable development and to maintain abundant natural ecosystems in Taiwan, the government has already started to address climate change and to fulfill its duty as a member of the global village. The following policies and measures have been implemented to reduce GHG emissions: Taiwan’s GHG Reduction Act On 4 February 2008, the Executive Yuan (the executive branch of the ROC Government) passed the draft GHG Reduction Act (“Bill”), which was then submitted to the Legislative Yuan for deliberation. Before the Bill takes effect, voluntary agreements with industries and incentives for early action are being promoted. GHG Emission Permits: Policy Principles
If we want to stop the climate breakdown, we need new words to communicate it - Kinder World The end of the year is a popular time to give to charity. Historically, Americans have made 30% of their annual donations in December. Many of them get a head start on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving during the global online fundraising campaign known as Giving Tuesday. But no matter what time of year it is, donors want help deciding which charity to support. Because I conduct research about nonprofit evaluation methods, I’ve been studying the approach of ranking charities depending on how much of their budgets they spend on everything from paperclips to insurance. A dangerous obsession Known as the overhead ratio, this metric encompasses expenditures that might appear to be unrelated to work that advances a charity’s mission. Nonprofits typically have overhead ratios of around 20%, meaning that they spend about 1 out of every 5 dollars on fundraising expenses, accounting, publicity and everything else needed to operate. Fortunately, five large foundations have realized this.
A framework to diagnose barriers to climate change adaptation In the first decade of the 21st century, adaptation to climate change has risen sharply as a topic of scientific inquiry, in local to international policy and planning, in the media, and in public awareness ( 1 – 3 ). Adaptation researchers have generally assumed lower vulnerability and greater adaptive capacity in developed countries than in developing countries and thus have focused more research in the latter ( 1 , 4 ). Yet climatic events in Europe, the United States, and Australia in recent years have also led to critical questioning of richer nations’ ability to adapt to climate change ( 3 , 5 , 6 ). The examination of developed nations’ adaptive capacity, and the persistent “adaptation deficit” in developing nations ( 7 ), has led to focused research on barriers and limits to adaptation. Defining Adaptation Adaptation has a long and multidisciplinary history of investigation. Fig. 1. Defining Barriers to Adaptation Results Three key components underlie the diagnostic framework.
Natural Language – George Monbiot If we want people to engage with the living world, we should stop using such constipated terms to describe our relationship to it. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 9th August 2017 If Moses had promised the Israelites a land flowing with mammary secretions and insect vomit, would they have followed him into Canaan? Though this means milk and honey, I doubt it. So why do we use such language to describe the natural wonders of the world? Even the term “reserve” is cold and alienating – think of what we mean when we use that word about a person. Our assaults on life and beauty are also sanitised and disguised by the words we use. Words possess a remarkable power to shape our perceptions. Words encode values, that are subconsciously triggered when we hear them. The catastrophic failure by ecologists to listen to what cognitive linguists and social psychologists have been telling them has led to the worst framing of all: “natural capital”. Those who name it own it. www.monbiot.com