Climate Witness - Asian Geographic Magazine Issue 3/2008

Environment Text NIGEL ALLAN

Climate Witness REVEALING THE IMPACT OF GLOBAL WARMING

A rice farmer in Japan struggles against a surge of destructive insects and increased temperatures. A mountain guide in Nepal watches with concern as glacial lakes grow and threaten villages with catastrophic flooding. In the Sundarbans delta of India, a family home is twice destroyed by coastal erosion. On Kabara, a remote Fijian island, villagers find it increasingly difficult to catch fish and grow food. The graphs of temperature rise and predictions of different climate change scenarios are now familiar thanks to the work of Al Gore, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and others, but on the ground – this is what climate change looks like. There are likely millions of stories like these throughout Asia; all with their own personal take on the impact of climate change and the efforts of people to adapt to an uncertain future. WWF, the global conservation organisation, is asking people to share their stories as part of its Climate Witness

Programme to reveal both the individual impact of climate change and the global scale of the threat. By linking directly to the realities of rapid climate change on everyday people, Climate Witness highlights the urgent need for governments to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide clean energy solutions. The work of Climate Witness is supported by over 100 scientists who provide scientific context to each of the individual testimonies. Climate Witnesses are also engaged in solutions to limit the impact of climate change and seek out opportunities that will have a positive result for the environment and their quality of life. In most cases, climate change is one stress amongst many. However, the impact of an unstable climate has consequences that are pervasive and complex, as these Climate Witness stories reveal:

WWF’s Climate Change Work in the Asia Pacific

Ben Tubby

WWF has a network of offices and field staff working with governments, businesses and communities on climate change and other issues across the Asia Pacific region. As the region will be at the front line of climate change impacts, WWF believes that Asia Pacific nations have a strong imperative to act decisively to avoid dangerous levels of warming and causing irreversible damage to ecosystems. Governments must limit global warming to well below two-degrees Celcius-above-preindustrial-levels if the worst impacts of climate change are to be avoided. WWF’s work on climate change, including the Climate Witness Programme is done in partnership with HP.

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ENVIRONMENT

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WWF-Japan

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WWF-Nepal

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When I was a child, I could easily cross the Ngusumba Glacier near Mt. Cho Oyu with our herd of yak. Today, the glacier has been transformed into innumerable small lakes...

In the coming decades, viable rice farming will probably be limited to Hokkaido, the northern Island of Japan. It is happening. I can see only bad things from the impact of climate change. This worries me...

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Katsuo Sasaki

Ang Tshering Sherpa

Nepal Ang Tshering Sherpa has noticed a significant decline in Himalayan glaciers in the 35 years that he has been a mountain guide. As warmer weather melts the glaciers, they create large glacial lakes that have the potential to burst and cause devastating floods. “When I was a child, I could easily cross the Ngusumba Glacier near Mt. Cho Oyu with our herd of yak. Today, the glacier has been transformed into innumerable small lakes,” explains Ang. “Over the years, I have seen new glacial lakes form, and their size has increased dangerously. Before 1960, Imja Lake did not even exist. It first appeared in 1962 as a small pond. Now, the lake is almost 1.6 kilometres long and could burst at any moment.” Imja Lake is around twice the size that Dig Cho Lake was when it burst in 1985, taking five lives and destroying villages and infrastructure. UNEP estimates that there are over 20 potentially dangerous glacial lakes in Nepal. Ang says, “A similar trend is seen on the Ngusumba Glacier and others throughout the Himalayan region. These small lakes will eventually follow Imja Lake’s example and grow into dangerously big lakes. I dread thinking about the calamities and human loss when these lakes burst.”

Katsuo Sasaki has been growing rice in Miyagi on the northern part of mainland Honshu, Japan for over 40 years, but like many farmers in the region, he is seeing a decline in rice yield. Warmer temperatures and increased bug infestations are the main culprits and both are linked to climate change. Katsuo says, “Deadly bugs have increased recently, especially shield bugs. These bugs cause black spots on rice, lessening the commercial value of the crops. Ten years ago, I rarely saw shield bugs, but they are increasingly found in most parts of Japan’s agriculture sector.” Miyagi is an important region for agricultural production in Japan, particularly for its high-grade rice, but Katsuo worries that the temperature increase will eventually make the area unsuitable for growing rice. Katsuo explains, “When the summer temperature is high, rice cannot be sold because of its poor quality. Most farmers around here, including myself, have been struggling, and this year, the prefecture government has instructed us to put off the timing of planting so that the rice would ripen in autumn, when the temperature is lower.” “In the coming decades, viable rice farming will probably be limited to Hokkaido, the northern Island of Japan. It is happening. I can see only bad things from the impact of climate change. This worries me.”

Kinori

McKay Savage

Japan

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Penina Moce

Jalaluddin Saha

WWF-India

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My ten neighbours and I were protected by a seven-metre-high earthen embankment. My house was about 10 metres inland from the embankment.

WWF-SPO

There have been a lot of changes in the sea, there’s virtually no fish there now. Honestly, not even the small fish can survive because the coral is so badly damaged. It’s been bleached white...

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Fiji Penina Moce lives on Kambara – a remote island of Fiji. Penina and her family rely almost exclusively on what they can grow or catch. Changes in sea temperature and rainfall patterns have made life difficult. Penina says, “There have been a lot of changes in the sea, there is virtually no fish there now. Honestly, not even the small fish can survive because the coral is so badly damaged. It has been bleached white.” Coral reefs are important nurseries for many fish, but as oceans warm the heat stress damages the tiny algae, which live inside the corals and supply them with food. Without the algae, corals die and become bleached. “In the past there were many people on the island. But the seafood was plentiful and rich. But now Kambara is empty. It is very difficult to find seafood. It is not that we have over fished. But we have noticed big changes in the climate. The sun is very hot and the sea waves kill the sea life we rely on. This is what I believe has caused the shortage of seafood.” For many, the struggle to maintain their lifestyle has proved too much and they have moved to the larger centres of Fiji. This is a scenario that is being repeated on other small islands in the Pacific.

In 1975, schoolteacher and farmer Jalaluddin Saha built a house on the western fringes of Mousuni Island in the Sundarbans Delta of West Bengal, India. Then 17 years later the earthen embankment, built to keep the sea out, gave away and Jalaluddin and about 100 other people lost their homes and land. “My ten neighbours and I were protected by a seven-metrehigh earthen embankment. My house was about 10 metres inland from the embankment. Gradually soil slipped away from below the trees along the outer side of the embankment and eventually the remaining trees were washed away around 1985 and the embankment started to erode.” “Since 1985, we have raised the height of the embankment but tidal waters keep rising. By 2005, we have raised the height of the embankment five times to 17 metres and it collapsed again in 2005, displacing 60 families. Either our island is sinking or the sea is rising.” Jalauddin grew up in the Sundarbans delta, which is spread across India and Bangladesh. The region is home to the largest mangrove forest in the world. Sea-level rise in this region threatens millions of people. ▪

WWF-India

WWF-SPO

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Are you a Climate Witness? If you are witnessing changes in your local environment that you suspect are climate change related, go to www.panda.org/climatewitness and tell us your story!

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