“Kusum Athukorala, one of the country’s leading experts on water management, agrees that women are key to adapting effective measures to deal with water challenges and changing climate patterns.
“Women are the foot soldiers of climate change adaptation,” said Athukorala who heads the Network of Women Water Professionals, Sri Lanka (NetWwater) and the Women for Water Partnership…
However, despite their importance, women are still being largely left out of the decision making, according to a new report by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI). The report - The Challenges of Securing Women’s Tenure and Leadership for Forest Management: The Asian Experience - found that gender discrimination is still rampant.
Arvind Khare, RRI’s senior director of country and regional programmes, said that women’s roles should not only be recognized but should also be enforced. He took the case of land rights in rural China, where women often find themselves losing land, due to cultural and social norms, despite laws that are gender neutral on paper.
“How can we look at climate adaptation and food security when those who do most of the work at ground level have no say?” he asked.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will address the plenary meeting at Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at 10:30 am EDT. Watch live broadcast here.
erina asked: I just finished reading a paper by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development called Business Solutions to Enable Energy Access for All (tumblr won't let me link to it). There's a short paragraph that mentions adaptation financing and how it could support access to energy objectives. Do you know anything about/ have any opinions on adaptation financing & how it could be used in conjunction with energy access? (sorry for the long question, love your blog!)
Solid question. To be clear to my readers, adapting to climate change really has nothing to do with reducing carbon emissions (e.g., mitigation). Adaptation is (mostly) about dealing with disasters, like floods, drought, famine, crop failure, infestations, infrastructure, etc. True, there’s some overlap between mitigation and adaptation, but not much.
So, your question about energy might confuse some people. What you’re asking about is increasing access to places that will need more electricity because the climate is changing. Since some communities will be, say, hotter, they’ll need new pumps for clean water, newer A/Cs for hospitals, better roads for ex/importing materials and food, etc. These projects need money and political will.
The high-level sources for adaptation finance for dev projects is the Adaptation Fund, USAID, and the World Bank. Much of these things will, sorry to say, be boondoggles for corrupt politicians. They love to misdirect econ-dev funds towards “local employers,” for instance.
By the way, I skimmed the WBCSD report. Good stuff! I especially like the highlight on page 10 that makes the case that hydro-electric dams will need to adapt to increased flows from climate impacts (floods/rains). Since there will be more turbidity, hydro-operators will need to update their turbines to withstand higher levels of abrasion. MY HEAD EXPLODED!
Not sure if that helped at all. Hit me up if you need narrower details.
On Wednesday 20 June, 2012 17-year-old Brittany Trilford of Wellington, New Zealand addressed 130 heads of state at the opening plenary of the Rio+20 UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This is her speech.
How did we get from 1992 to 2012? What are the countries discussing? Why is this a necessary forum?
The United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe provides this infographic to explain Rio+20 Sustainable Development Conference currently happening in Rio de Janeiro.
Ahead of the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development now getting underway in Brazil, we shared your questions about the Future We Want with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and we sat down with him in his office so he could respond to your questions on video.
David from Mexico wants to know:
“How can we convince everyone to use energy more efficiently when in many countries people don’t face energy shortages and are wasteful?”
Kim from Liberia asks,
“I’ve just graduated and I’m worried about looking for a job in the midst of the economic recession. What would you say to young people like me just entering the job market?”
“Do you believe that there will be a time in the near future where we will have an adequate and available water supply for the entire global community?”
The fact remains that oil will continue to play a major role in the overall energy mix for many decades. It is clear that a petroleum-free transportation system is decades away. And if you look at the vast range of products derived from crude oil, everything from lubricants to asphalt, medicines to plastics, it is clear petroleum is here to stay.
I see renewable energy sources as supplementing existing sources, helping to prolong our continued export of crude oil. And this is why we are investing in solar energy, which we also have in abundance. The Kingdom experiences roughly 3,000 hours of sunshine per year, emitting about 7,000 watts of energy per square metre. Saudi Arabia also features empty stretches of desert that can host solar arrays and it is blessed with deposits of quartz that can be used in the manufacture of silicon photovoltaic cells.
Al-Naimi, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (from his sick bed). The speech was delivered at the Middle East and North Africa Energy 2012 conference at Chatham House.
“On November 1st, several UN entities issued a “Blueprint for Ocean and Coastal Sustainability,” which highlights the role of oceans in sustainable development and offers recommendations ahead of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development.
The Blueprint provides an overview of the threats faced by the oceans, including unsustainable use, deforestation of mangroves, disappearance of coral reefs, ocean acidification, and climate change. It also highlights the role of oceans in regulating the climate, contributing to food security, and sustaining livelihoods.
Among the measures proposed by the Blueprint are:
Creating a global blue carbon market as a way of creating direct economic gain through habitat protection
Promoting research on ocean acidification
Increasing institutional capacity for scientific monitoring of oceans and coastal areas
Reforming and reinforcing regional ocean management organizations
Promoting responsible fisheries and aquaculture
Strengthening legal frameworks to address aquatic invasive species
Enhancing coordination, coherence and effectiveness of the UN system on ocean issues.”
Cities that have stood the test of time have more than just the scars of history; they show the influence — positive and negative — of human civilization. The oldest cities in the world boast beautiful architecture and amazing stories, yet remarkably few ancient cities stand today. There is some disagreement about the historical record, so we’ve added a few cities to this list because of the area’s religious or cultural significance. Here’s our list of the 12 oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. (Text: Bryan Nelson)
Look at the below FAIL. To be sure, the notion of Smart Cities is (sort of) catching steam. But, as the below announcement demonstrates, promoters and sponsors have some serious PR issues to the point of cognitive dissonance.
Citizen Urbanism. Ecological Design. Urban Planning. Open Data and Collaboration for the Future of Cities.
Launching Q1, 2011. For more information: info {at} opensourcecities.org
This is one example of an upstart launch FAIL by something called Open Source Cities. As a citizen, you should question everything and be empowered with knowledge before committing to this crap. Here’s how I questioned this project:
The Open Source Cities website is “Launching Q1, 2011.” Click the link to see. Now, how many citizens know what “Q1” is? Not many. Nor, I assure you, do citizens give a spinning shit. Why do the proprietors of this website not know this? Because they didn’t bother to talk to any citizens.
Also, the notion of “open source” is citizen driven. It’s by the people. It’s not sponsor driven. It’s not a for-profit endeavor. So why is this project edited by liberal elitists, and sponsored by some greenwashed server-hosting bs company, and NOT by actual citizens?? Again, click the link to see the sponsors. What gives?
(Note: I’m not criticizing liberal elites per se. I’m pointing out that you cannot have “open source” anything run by backslapping journalists and designers with no clue as to actual city planning. Nor can you run an “open source” project by a for-profit corporate sponsor who is obviously trolling to expand its customer base. To put in plainly, it’s not credible.).
Before I discuss property rights, let me rant about this this Q1 business. If, as these insiders assume, citizens care and even understand municipal fiscal clocks, by whose “Q1” clock are they referring to?? New York State’s fiscal year starts April 1st and ends March 31st. New York City’s starts and ends July 1-June 30. If you’re a regional planning agency, how do you square those two clocks with Brooklyn’s 2012-2015 fiscal planning clock? How do citizens interested in city planning understand and navigate these fiscal clocks? And why is this important? Open Source is silent.
There are 10,000 municipalities in the US, add thousands of counties operating under various state mandates, and all use different fiscal clocks. So, “by whose Q1?” is pretty solid question. There is a NYTimes reporter on this project, is this going by the NYTimes fiscal Q1 clock? Why? Why are they even using Q1? This shuts down conversation. Especially if you’re supposed to be ushering Joe and Jane citizens - who are hella busy - to get involved with city planning and economic development.
You cannot subsume knowledge on behalf of half-interested citizens. Not to mention there are hundreds (perhaps thousands?) of regional, quasi-public/private, private, not-for-profit, planning, housing and economic development agencies and organizations who also use different fiscal clocks. And on and on. You cannot use ‘Q1’ and escape being called out on weaselly designery elitism.
Finally, where, of their sponsors, is Joe and Jane “citizen” in their “Citizen Urbanism” moniker? Architectural firms?! Pssssshh. I can’t even… I. I, I don’t… ARRGG!!
This isn’t open source, nor is it citizen driven. It’s privatized, for-profit city consulting. Private organizations are grabbing tax payer dollars to ‘consult’ with cities for unproven economic development.
And don’t get me started on demographics - as in how are they going to represent my grandmother, who has no access to a computer? Or immigrants? Or the poor? Or expats? Or single moms? Or the creative class? Or 18 year old college freshman? These clowns have no demonstrable experience in city planning.
Why am I ranting? Because these crack pots are fucking with people’s property rights. These people are going to try to change zoning regulations and building codes and do so at tax payer expense and ride into the sunset with your money. It’s serious business. People’s property isn’t some fucking techie toy. Cities are not sand boxes to experiment in.
If they were, then these sponsoring organizations should take full responsibility for any economic failures they usher into fruition. They should contractually sign away liability, be immune to quasi-sovereign immunity claims, openly report under SEC rules, and be open to all causes of action. By taking responsibility for outcomes, their work becomes truly open and more carefully crafted. Importantly, they don’t leave citizens holding the short end of the stick, especially if a select few vote to change their neighbors’ vested property interests and investment-backed expectations based on something that comes out of this ill-conceived project.
With such high stakes, to hide these things behind a mask of friendly assistance is pure bullshit to me.
How to produce more wealth with less resources? Some argue it’s through technology and newer regulations. The simple concepts in this video show how technology can (or at least should) be able to help cities become more sustainable. Stick with it.
“Design Matters: Doing Better with Less” is a short but powerful animated story about using design to create sustainable wealth, and it provides essential insights into the future of business and innovation.
This is a good one. Rare. Rarer that the deadline is May 1st. Go for it!
Apply now for Columbia University’s M.S. in Sustainability Management developed by the Earth Institute and School of Continuing Education. To learn more about the program, the May 1st deadline, and to fill out an electronic application, please visit: http://ce.columbia.edu/Sustainability-Management.
An excellent TED highlighting every Environmentalist’s Moral Dilemma. Whenever I have long conversations with my fellow enviros, I try to push the idea of equal access. Shouldn’t all people own a computer? Shouldn’t all people have a new cell phone? And access to X-rays and aspirin? A Whole Foods and a Walmart?
The answers (which I believe are “yes”) are partially why I’m in the field of ethical urban planning, where “saving the world” is not the goal - adapting to reality is the goal. Admittedly, I straddle the line between real-estate development and environmental activism. It’s a process of transition, from one way of designing cities to a new one - sort of like enabling the older folks with different ideals to pass the baton without pissing them off. And I find it invigorating as I get pushed and pulled from many sides.
Paul Higgins: Hans skewers some people in the environment movement while talking about technology and what people want and does it with great story telling
A blog about the interactions between the built environment, people, and nature.
I'm a climate change consultant specializing in climate adaptation, environmental law, and urban planning based in the U.S. In addition to traveling and hiking, I research, publish, and lecture on how cities can adapt to climate change.
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