Month: March 2016

Climate Change Impacts Human Rights, Says UN Special Rapporteur

4 March 2016: A global temperature increase of one or two degrees Celsius would adversely affect human rights, including the rights to life, development, food, water, health and housing, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, John Knox, told the Human Rights Council (HRC).

Knox stressed that human rights obligations with respect to climate change include decisions about how much climate protection to pursue, as well as the mitigation and adaptation measures through which protection is achieved.

In its resolution 29/15, the HRC requested the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a detailed 'Analytical study of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the relationship between climate change and the human right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (A/HRC/31/36).' The High Commissioner has asked for additional time and research, and will submit its report to the HRC at its 32nd session.


The Special Rapporteur shared an informal summary of inputs received on the 'Relationship between climate change and the human right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (A/HRC/31/CRP.4),' which is expected to inform OHCHR's final report. The informal summary notes, inter alia, that climate change: threatens to undermine the last half century of gains in development and global health; impacts physical and mental health in several ways; and disproportionately impacts the poor and other disadvantaged, marginalized and vulnerable groups.


According to the informal summary, respondents called for further integration of human rights in climate action at all levels of governance, as well as further analysis and study of the impacts of climate change on the right to health, among other recommendations.


During discussion, several delegations expressed support for protecting human rights in relation to climate adaptation and mitigation, including the European Union (EU) and Costa Rica. South Africa, on behalf of the African Group, supported enhanced, quick action to adapt to climate change to ensure the full realization of human rights, stressing that climate change threatens sustainable development. The Philippines called for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to keep temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and scaling up additional and predictable means of implementation. Brazil recognized the impacts of climate change on human rights, including economic, social and cultural rights. The EU asked how to better plan and manage urban areas to address synergies among climate change, sustainable development and urbanization.


The world does not need to wait until 2018 to start strengthening its efforts to address climate change and begin implementing the Paris Agreement on climate change, the Special Rapporteur reminded participants in his response, pointing to the use of renewable energy by Iceland, Morocco and Uruguay.


Knox presented on two aspects of his mandate, clarifying the human rights obligations relating to climate change, and on methods of implementing those obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, in Geneva, Switzerland, on 3 March 2016. [UNOG Press Release] [OHCHR Press Release] [A/HRC/31/36] [Special Rapporteur Website]



read more: http://larc.iisd.org/news/climate-change-impacts-human-rights-says-un-special-rapporteur/

 

Yes, Scientists Can Link Extreme Weather Events To Climate Change

When asked about a particular weather event’s link to climate change, scientists are typically cautious to make definitive statements — especially in the immediate aftermath, before they’ve had the chance to study the event.

But according to a new study, it’s getting easier for scientists to make the link between climate change and some forms of extreme weather. The study, published Friday by the National Academies Press, found that scientific advances over the past several years have helped scientists link increases in frequency and intensity of temperature and precipitation-related events like droughts and heat waves to climate change.

“In the past, a typical climate scientist’s response to questions about climate change’s role in any given extreme weather event was ‘we cannot attribute any single event to climate change,'” the report, completed by a committee of scientists, reads. “The science has advanced to the point that this is no longer true as an unqualified blanket statement. In many cases, it is now often possible to make and defend quantitative statements about the extent to which human-induced climate change (or another causal factor, such as a specific mode of natural variability) has influenced either the magnitude or the probability of occurrence of specific types of events or event classes.”

The report calls this branch of science, wherein researchers work to determine whether climate change contributed to a certain event, “event attribution.” To determine how and if climate change is linked to a certain event, scientists typically either reference the observational record of similar events — i.e. the recorded history of droughts leading back several decades — or use models to determine how likely a similar event would be in different warming scenarios. Most studies, the report states, use both of these tactics. More

 

Warming ocean water undercuts Antarctic ice shelves

“Upside-down rivers” of warm ocean water threaten the stability of floating ice shelves in Antarctica, according to a new study led by researchers at the National Snow and Ice Data Center published today in Nature Geoscience. The study highlights how parts of Antarctica’s ice sheet may be weakening due to contact with warm ocean water.

“We found that warm ocean water is carving these ‘upside-down rivers,’ or basal channels, into the undersides of ice shelves all around the Antarctic continent. In at least some cases these channels weaken the ice shelves, making them more vulnerable to disintegration,” said Karen Alley, a graduate research assistant at NSIDC and lead author of the study. Alley is also a Ph.D. student in the University of Colorado Boulder’s Department of Geological Sciences.

Ice shelves are thick floating plates of ice that have flowed off the Antarctic continent and spread out onto the ocean. As ice shelves flow out to sea, they push against islands, peninsulas, and bedrock bumps known as “pinning points.” Contact with these features slows the flow of grounded ice off the continent. While ice shelves take thousands of years to grow, previous work has shown that they can disintegrate in a matter of weeks. If more ice shelves disintegrate in the future, loss of contact with pinning points will allow ice to flow more rapidly into the ocean, increasing the rate of sea level rise.

“Ice shelves are really vulnerable parts of the ice sheet, because climate change hits them from above and below,” said Ted Scambos, NSIDC lead scientist and study co-author. “They are really important in braking the ice flow to the ocean.”

The features form as buoyant plumes of warm and fresh water rise and flow along the underside of an ice shelf, carving channels much like upside-down rivers. The channels can be tens of miles long, and up to 800 feet “deep.”

When a channel is carved into the base of an ice shelf, the top of the ice shelf sags, leaving a visible depression in the relatively smooth ice surface. Alley and her colleagues mapped the locations of these depressions all around the Antarctic continent using satellite imagery, as well as radar data that images the channels through the ice, mapping the shape of the ice-ocean boundary.

The team also used satellite laser altimetry, which measures the height of an ice shelf surface with high accuracy, to document how quickly some of the channels were growing. The data show that growing channels on the rapidly melting Getz Ice Shelf in West Antarctica can bore into the ice shelf base at rates of approximately 10 meters (33 feet) each year.

The mapping shows that basal channels have a tendency to form along the edges of islands and peninsulas, which are already weak areas on ice shelves. The team observed two locations where ice shelves are fracturing along basal channels, clear evidence that basal channel presence can weaken ice shelves to the point of breaking in vulnerable areas.

While no ice shelves have completely disintegrated due to carving by basal channels, the study points to the need for more observation and study of these features, said co-author Helen Amanda Fricker of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. “It's feasible that as ocean temperatures around Antarctica continue to rise, melting in basal channels could contribute to increased erosion of ice shelves from below.”

The study, “Impacts of warm water on Antarctic ice shelf stability through basal channel formation,” was led by University of Colorado Boulder Ph.D. student Karen Alley, who worked with coauthors Ted Scambos of NSIDC and Matthew Siegfried and Helen Amanda Fricker of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego. Their work was funded in part by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey. More

Contacts

Jane Beitler,Communications, National Snow and Ice Data Center, press@nsidc.org, +1-303-492-1497
Brittany Hook, Communications Coordinator, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, scrippsnews@ucsd.edu, 858-534-3624

 

Permaculture Design for International Development

Here is the announcement for Quail Springs permaculture design certification (PDC). course for International Development at Quail Springs this May.

We just heard there is a chance that Steve Gliessman, the grandfather of Agroecology, may be able to teach. We will get confirmation in April as to whether he will be able teach here this year.

www.quailsprings.org

Permaculture Design Course for International Development

Quail Springs Permaculture

Southern California, USA

May 9-22, 2016

For More Information

Caribbean Economies: Mixed Fortunes; Topsy-Turvy External Environment

caribbeanclimate

warren_smith9

St Kitts and Nevis, Grenada and the Turks and Caicos Islands showed 4 percent growth, due to improved tourism arrivals and increased tourism related construction, while the region’s economic powerhouse Trinidad and Tobago grew by just 0.2 percent due to weaker oil and gas prices.

That’s according to the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB)’s Economic Review for 2015 and Outlook for 2016, delivered on Wednesday at its headquarters in Barbados.

The report struck familiar themes and again pressed for urgent, meaningful policy reform in the region that includes labour market reform, private sector led-growth, deeper regional integration and governments to act primarily as efficient regulators.

“We could say that 13 of the 19 borrowing member countries (BMCs), we would expect them to grow faster in 2016 than in 2015, but two of our stronger credits Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname will experience negative growth in 2016. Interestingly all of the service…

View original post 316 more words

Saint Lucia Keeps COP21 Momentum Going

caribbeanclimate

North of Saint Lucia during 2015 drought. Islands are bracing for prolonged droughts and more intense storms. North of Saint Lucia during 2015 drought. Islands are bracing for prolonged droughts and more intense storms. | Photo: teleSUR

Saint Lucia is one of many Caribbean countries building on the 2015 Paris Climate Talks by promoting climate change adaptation and mitigation, in a disaster-prone region.

The small island nations of the Eastern Caribbean are already reeling from the impacts of climate change. In recent years, the countries have experienced more intense storms, longer and harsher droughts, and more frequent floods—disasters that claim lives and take a toll on their economies.

Sustainable development officials are hoping to build on the buzz created from the 2015 Paris Climate Talks and are taking the climate change message to communities across the country.

RELATED: Young People at Heart of Caribbean Development Strategy

They want young people in particular to take up the mantle. Youth leader Snaliah Mahal says the youth of the Caribbean…

View original post 326 more words

Panos Caribbean launches new ‘1.5 To Stay Alive’ album

caribbeanclimate

Caribbean audiences are up for a musical treat, thanks to a new album set for release later today, under the ‘1.5 to Stay Alive’ campaign.

The campaign — the work of Panos Caribbean; the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre; the Saint Lucia Ministry of Sustainable Development, Energy, Science and Technology;the Caribbean Development Bank, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States; the Regional Council of Martinique — has supported the region’s negotiating positions prior to and during the recent climate change talks held in Paris in December.

Throughout, the focus has been on ensuring that global temperatures are limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, given the catastrophic climate risks  — including sea level rise and extreme weather events — to the small island developing states of the region.

With Caribbean players succeeding in having the 1.5 capturedas one element of the target in the outcome document from Paris, the ongoing…

View original post 239 more words

5C’s featured in T&T press

caribbeanclimate

Through its role as a Centre of Excellence, the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) supports the people of the Caribbean as they address the impact of climate variability and change on all aspects of economic development through the provision of timely forecasts and analyses of potentially hazardous impacts of both natural and human-induced climatic changes on the environment, and the development of special programmes which create opportunities for sustainable development.

The Five C’s, as the Centre is called, coordinates the Caribbean region’s response to climate change. Officially opened in August 2005, the Centre, based in Belize, is the key node for information on climate change issues and on the region’s response to managing and adapting to climate change in the Caribbean.

It is the official repository and clearing house for regional climate change data, providing climate change-related policy advice and guidelines to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Member States through…

View original post 383 more words

IICA Climate Smart Competition Launched

caribbeanclimate

IICA climate smart competition launched

The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) Tuesday announced that it has launched a competition that seeks to identify successful cases of climate-smart practices in the Eastern Caribbean.

It said the “Climate Smart Agriculture: Stories from Farmers in the Eastern Caribbean States,” is open to organizations in Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

IICA said that participating stories must demonstrate their contribution to the three objectives of climate-smart agriculture: increasing productivity and food security, fostering processes for adapting to climate change, and reducing agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions.

“Entries should focus on the resilience aspect of their stories and should document the benefits of increasing the productivity of agricultural systems and of mitigating gas emissions.

“The objective of this competition is to document and disseminate success stories, particularly those at the farm level, which have the potential of being…

View original post 312 more words

IDB Group to hold annual meeting in The Bahamas

caribbeanclimate

The Inter-American Development Bank Group will hold its annual meeting in Nassau, The Bahamas, on April 7-10. Economic and financial leaders from its 48 member countries will discuss key development challenges for Latin America and the Caribbean on issues ranging from the global economic slowdown, private sector investments, energy sector diversification, sustainable urban development, the potential of creative industries, and natural capital as a line of defense against climate change, among others.

iadb_logo.jpg

Representatives of other development agencies, commercial banks, companies and civil society organizations will also attend the gathering. The event will mark the 57th annual meeting of the IDB Group’s Board of Governors, the Bank’s top decision-making body. Most governors are ministers of finance or the economy, or central bank presidents.

The IDB Group is made up of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC) and the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF). All of the IDB’s private…

View original post 249 more words