Welcome to SEARCA Knowledge Center on Climate Change Adaptation in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management in Southeast Asia (KC3)

Global

Published on 3 August 2017
Fifty years on, climate change has emerged as the defining challenge for human society around the globe, and conservation of the world’s tropical forests is essential to stabilizing the atmosphere. Standing forests provide safe-keeping for the carbon embodied in leaves, branches, trunks, roots, and soil. Forests are also the only technology for carbon capture and storage to date that is safe, natural, proven, and cheap…
Published on 2 August 2017
They were launched from Korou, in French Guiana, at 10:56 pm (0136 GMT). The Vegetation and Environment monitoring on a New Micro Satellite — or Venus — is a joint effort between France’s National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) and Israel’s space agency. Venus will photograph 110 specific sites across the world every two days for two-and-a-half years, charting the impact of climate change on…
Published on 28 July 2017
More than 10,000 people had to flee raging fires in southern France this week, and several villages were evacuated in Portugal just weeks after another blaze killed more than 60 people there. In South Africa in June, nine people died and some 10,000 people were evacuated from their homes as fires raged through the drought-stricken Western Cape region, while this month some 40,000 people have…
Published on 25 July 2017
Several weeks later, across the Himalayas in South China, over 12 million people were forced to flee their homes as flood waters rose for yet another year. In China's southeastern Jiangxi province alone, flooding this year has so far caused $430 million in damages and economic losses. In neighboring Hunan province, 53,000 homes have been destroyed -- and the flooding…
Published on 24 July 2017
As destructive as climate change will be to the world through the destruction of natural habitats, flooding of low lying coastal regions, and extreme weather conditions, there will still be people who find ways to profit. These could be as simple as the air-conditioning industry, which will benefit from warmer temperatures. Or the more complicated impact of the agricultural Biotech industry, which will benefit via…
Published on 24 July 2017
The plan, Water: 2120, is the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (ABCWUA) in New Mexico’s blueprint to direct water procurement, protection and use for the next century. “This really came out of eight to 10 of us sitting around in a room every Wednesday morning and talking this through,” said Katherine Yuhas, water resources manager at ABCWUA and one of the lead planners on…
Published on 21 July 2017
Trees are important because they absorb lots of carbon dioxide, which is a by-product of fossil fuel burning and is the primary of driver of global warming. The analysis of a system called “Payments for Ecosystems” in Uganda showed its benefits to the environment were 2.4 times as large as the program costs, said the study in the journal Science. “The payments changed people’s behavior…
Published on 17 July 2017
As a part of the Integrating Agriculture in National Adaptation Plans program, the guidelines support the mainstreaming of climate change adaptation into agricultural policies, plans, and programs in several countries throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The guidelines aim to help each country’s governments assess climate change impacts on their unique agricultural systems, identify adaptation options, and support farmers—especially women—in adopting best practices in climate…
Published on 14 July 2017
The Royal Academy of Engineering report says, however, that some biofuels, such as diesel made from food crops, have led to more emissions than those produced by the fossil fuels they were meant to replace. Instead, the report says, rising biofuel production should make more use of waste, such as used cooking oil and timber. Ten years ago biofuels were seen as ideal, low-carbon, replacements…
Published on 14 July 2017
BANGKOK - A new report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) outlines the dramatic changes Asia-Pacific nations would face if measures to curb climate change and adapt to its effects are too slow and unambitious to keep global warming within agreed limits. If the world carries on emitting greenhouse gases as now, and international cooperation to…
Published on 12 July 2017
How Well Do Countries Show Commitment to Climate Action in Context of Sustainable Development? Many VNRs focus on the six goals out of the 17 SDGs that are slated for discussion: SDG 1: eradicate poverty SDG 2: eliminate hunger SDG 3: enable healthy lives SDG 5: bring about gender equality SDG 9: encourage sustainable industry, infrastructure, and innovation SDG 14: preserve coastal and marine…
Published on 12 July 2017
The article asks us to peer beyond scientific reticence into a doomsday future. The accounts of mass heat deaths in cities and praying for cornfields in the tundra is disturbing, but they’re familiar. It’s the same frame for how we talk about a much more immediate climate change disaster – US communities at risk to sea level rise today. We’ve labeled Shishmaref, Alaska, a…
Published on 10 July 2017
To reduce the loss of lives associated with tsunamis, support from Japan will enable UNDP to help strengthen early warning and disaster preparedness in 18 countries included in UNDP’s ‘5-10-50’ initiative: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor Leste, Tonga, Vanuatu and Viet Nam. The 18-month project will see evacuation drills carried out…
Published on 9 July 2017
After the US president decided last month to pull out of the hard-fought deal to combat global warming, climate change was always going to be center-stage at this week's gathering of the G20 – major economies that are together responsible for the vast majority of harmful emissions. Ultimately, the final joint statement after the summit in Hamburg underlined that the 2015 Paris deal is "irreversible,"…
Published on 6 July 2017
Well-timed hatching is crucial Therefore, good timing is crucial when the insects hatch. This is particularly true in early spring when there is the risk that no plants are available to the bee if it has emerged from hibernation too early. As global warming may have a different impact on the time when different species emerge in spring, temporal mismatches may occur between bee…
Published on 5 July 2017
"Mollusc shells are viewed by the aquaculture and seafood industries as 'nuisance waste' and largely disposed of in landfills," says Dr Morris. "Not only is this an expensive and ecologically harmful practice, it is a colossal waste of potentially useful biomaterials." One of the most exciting applications proposed by Dr Morris is the use of discarded shells to restore damaged oyster reefs and cultivate…
Published on 28 June 2017
New figures obtained by the Guardian reveal the surge in usage of plastic bottles, more than half a trillion of which will be sold annually by the end of the decade. The demand, equivalent to about 20,000 bottles being bought every second, is driven by an apparently insatiable desire for bottled water and the spread of a western, urbanised “on the go” culture to…
Published on 27 June 2017
The impact of climate change on food security was also in the spotlight in Asia. The issue was the focus of an FAO publication and event. FAO and the World Food Programme (WFP) released a report titled ‘FAO/WFP Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission to Sri Lanka,’ which stresses the urgency of addressing the impacts of climate change on food. The report discusses how severe…
Published on 26 June 2017
These difficulties are tackled by oceanographers, and a significant advancement was presented in a paper just published in the journal Climate Dynamics. That paper, which I was fortunate to be involved with, looked at three different ocean temperature measurements made by three different groups. We found that regardless of whose data was used or where the data was gathered, the oceans are warming. Ocean heat…
Published on 25 June 2017
No revelation None of this should be any great surprise. Agriculture must feed 7bn people, and to do this already emits somewhere between 25% and 33% of all greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, to drive global warming and put future food supplies at hazard. Agriculture exploits 40% of the land, and accounts for 70% of freshwater withdrawal. By 2050 farmers will have to feed an…
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