reporting : In country features :
Colombia’s Indian communities join forces to beat drought
No commentsColombia’s indigenous peoples are working together to create an adaptation plan against climate change, which will bring together their own traditional knowledge with outside help from other agencies.
“It is better to die fighting in a war than to die from thirst”, says Walter Peña as he walks on the stones at the bottom of a dry stream after six rainless months in the department of Cauca, part of the Macizo Colombiano, a mountainous region in Colombia’s south-west.
First comes the gun, then the choking air
No commentsImagine a scenario where the threat to the inhabitants of conflict-torn Kashmir won’t be the gun, but the quality of their air. The pollution trends in this part of the globe suggest that it has almost reached that point.
Dying marine life spells woe for Namibian economy
No commentsThe Benguela is lauded as the current of plenty but the future of its rich marine ecosystem is uncertain. Scientists fear warming seas will spell disaster for the economy of the region where the Atlantic, Indian and Southern oceans meet.
The glacier that buried a village
1 commentScientists fear mountain glaciers are melting faster than ever as a result of rising temperatures, leading to fears that glacial lakes are becoming dangerously unstable. For Chitral village in Pakistan’s Hindu Kush mountain range this has already spelled disaster.
Adaptation in the Third Pole
No commentsIt was pouring in Kathmandu when my plane landed in September – the runway had cracked due to the torrential rains (the monsoon had arrived late this year) and the city was muddy, crowded and clogged with traffic. I had been expecting a cross between Hunza and Chitral – instead I felt I was in Rawalpindi! The mountains were far away in the distance and Kathmandu was full of precarious-looking concrete buildings (this is, after all, an earthquake zone).
Curbing climate change: what’s in it for China?
No commentsChina’s stance is seen as key to the success of a post-Kyoto climate change agreement. Ke Xu explores some of its carbon-cutting options.
In the Bali roadmap, agreed at the 2007 negotiations of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, member states agreed to intensify national and international action to reduce the effects of climate change.
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Nigeria tries to save its dry north
No commentsIt is only eight o’clock in the morning, and Nigerian farmer Hamisu Abdulahi is already exhausted. Under the intense heat, Abdulahi, a resident of Birnin Gaye village in Bauchi state in Northern Nigeria, groans as he prepares the land.
He has worked on the farm for barely an hour and yet he feels like retiring for the day. He has to clear this previously uncultivated stretch of land, because of the desert’s constant encroachment on the traditional farmland.
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Adaptation pleas fall on deaf ears
No commentsSierra Leone’s coastal residents are being flooded year-on-year. How can this poor country afford to pay for climate change adaptation?
For the industrialised nations which are the main producers of greenhouse gases, climate change means reducing emissions so as to mitigate their effects. There is plenty of funding and the technology to help to achieve this.
Adapting to the inevitable effects of change is the other prong of the industrial world’s response. But for least developed countries (LDCs) with negligible greenhouse gas emissions, tackling climate change can be achieved only through adaptation. And that poses a dilemma for vulnerable countries like Sierra Leone.
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Climate change: a cold front in Jamaica
No commentsJamaica’s farmers are worried about the weather. High winds, frosts in August and dryer conditions on the tropical island are making it harder to grow crops. All of which poses a threat to their livelihoods and the economy.
Deleen Powell explores what measures are being put in place to ensure the survival of Jamaica’s farming sector.
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Uganda’s search for eco-friendly fuel
4 commentsUgandans are looking for alternative fuel. Currently, firewood and wood-based-charcoal are the most popular household fuels. But wood for charcoal is becoming scarcer and demand for it has led to soaring prices and created environmental destruction.
Now a new form of household fuel is being developed to encourage people to stop relying on their forests for energy. Wambi Michael reports.
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