PrintWhether through reactive or anticipatory measures, communities around the world are already responding to the impacts of climate change. Let's highlight just a few examples.
These short video clips, produced by the Global Commission on Adaptation (we'll read something from this organization this week, too), give you a glimpse into some adaptation measures and perspectives of the people on the front lines of climate change impacts from around the world. Take a look (all fair game for upcoming quizzes and exam). The New York City example feels distinctly different than the first three, doesn't it? What's different about it? Think about what surprised you the most from the videos (I can pinpoint the biggest shock to me, and I'll share it with you later in the week.)
LIZ LEVY: I'm Liz Levy. I'm from Jamaica. And I farm hot peppers, specifically scotch Bonnet peppers, which is what Jamaica is known for. If the last four years are anything to go by, climate change is real. And it's here to stay.
What is normal now? Is it the years when we have four months of back-to-back rains? Or is normal half the amount of rainfall? What is normal? I don't know. I'm still trying to figure it out. It's affected me to the point where I've had to relocate my whole farm from one area of the island to another.
It's a really neat little thing. You enter the district that you're farming in, and he has a tailor-made, custom-made weather outlook for you for the next day or two. I know that I use it about 7:00 so I can make last-minute calls to my workers as to whether or not there are going to be any changes in what we do with the farming. There are not huge margins in farming. And anything that can help you to avoid wasting money and help the whole planning process to maximize what you want to get out of your crop.
When it comes to climate change, the first thing is just to accept that it's real. It's not a fluke. It's not an odd year. Then it's very liberating. You can start looking for help. And you'll be surprised to know how much help there is out there.
Archana: My name is Archana Ramesh Bhosale. I have five acres of land and I live with my family in Maharashtra, India.
Words on Screen: Climate Crisis in Maharashtra. Rainfall down 31%, rising temperature up to 2-4 degrees Celsius, food production projected down 22%.
Archana: 20 years ago, when I was a child, there was a lot of water here, around 20 feet deep and we would swim and enjoy it but now the kids can’t experience it because the river is dry and the rains have decreased.
Before, the monsoons used to arrive on time and there would be 3 seasons: summer, monsoon and winter. But now, it’s uncertain when it will rain, when it will get hot and when temperatures will drop. It’s sometimes too hot, too cold or too windy. All these are changes in the climate.
When we were young, there were rivers and when we dug a pit the water was at five feet which could be used for drinking or for the household. Now, even at 1,000 feet, there’s no water in the borewells.
Words on Screen: Adaption in action, new water storage, empowering women farmers, diversifying food crops.
Archana: The water you can see here comes because during the rainy season we recharge the water sources and the farm looks lush and green because we grow crops requiring less water and we use sprinklers. We used to use water-intensive and cash-intensive crops which used chemical fertilizers. Now, we farm using organic fertilizers and have diversified to crops which use less water and require less investment which improves the health of the children, family, soil and the environment. We have made changes in our life and work and taken up livelihoods that adapt to environmental change. We have change to organic farming systems, we are developing allied businesses and we are diversifying crops so we can preserve and protect our soil, our environment and our wellbeing.
Luis: My name is Luis Angel Anchila Rojas. I live in Hojancha, Guanacaste, Costa Rica. I grow coffee and citrus fruits. And right now, I have five hectares of coffee.
Words on screen: Costa Rican coffee, more than 43,000 coffee growers. Exports worth $314 million in 2017 – 2018 but global competition means critically low prices and now climate change has hit harvest yields.
Luis: Here we can see what climate change, this phenomenon that’s weighing on us, is doing. This branch should be full of coffee cherries up to here, but it doesn’t have any. Why? Because it doesn’t rain enough and so this is what happens. Bare branches, no beans, no harvest.
Words on screen: Guanacaste’s coffee crisis, many farmers face heavy losses and huge debts, leaf ‘rust’ fungus devastates harvests, climate change threatens long term future.
Luis: It’s a plant that needs to have moisture in the soil permanently and the soil dried out because the high temperatures take away the moisture and this is what climate change has brought. The climate is unpredictable. When it needs to rain March, it doesn’t come until April or May and when it does rain, it rains too hard.
Words on screen: How growers adapt to climate change. Tree planting for shade, increased irrigation, switching coffee varieties and growing new and different crops.
Luis: Due to all the problems with coffee, we have come up with a good alternative-the idea of growing citrus trees. At first, there was some doubt, but now it’s become a profitable product and so we are diversifying to coffee and citrus. It’s resilient, it blossoms really well. There isn’t a lot of loss of the fruit. There are diseases that affect it but they’re much more manageable. I see it as a solution. It’s another door to open. There are ways we can offer a good environment for plants, for coffee or citrus, or whatever crop and that is to have care and be conscious of what you’re doing and act with love and excellence. You can do it.
JAINEY BAVISHI: My name is Jainey Bavishi, and I'm the director of the New York City Mayor's Office of Resiliency. I'm responsible for helping to prepare the city for the unprecedented challenge of climate change.
We're facing more extreme coastal weather events, coastal storm events, such as Hurricane Sandy, and we expect those kinds of storms to continue to become more frequent and more intense.
Lower Manhattan is the economic hub of not only the city, but also the country. By 2100, we expect 50% of lower Manhattan to be at risk to coastal storms, storm surge from coastal storms. And also by 2100, we expect 20% of the streets of lower Manhattan to be subject to daily tidal inundation.
The city is implementing a $20 billion resiliency and adaptations strategy citywide. This work is focused on adapting to the risks of sea level rise, storm surge, extreme heat, and intense precipitation.
I'm standing here on a sand dune on Rockaway Beach. The city actually built this dune after Sandy to provide protection for the Rockaway community. It's just one of the layers of protection in our multilayer strategy. We've also put more sand on the beach, so the beach is wider than it's ever been before. And we've rebuilt the Rockaway boardwalk. It's now 5.5 miles of steel-reinforced concrete.
Here in New York City, we expect temperatures to rise by 4.1 to 5.7 degrees Fahrenheit, and the number of days above 90 degrees Fahrenheit to triple by the 2050s.
The Cool Roofs program is focused on painting rooftops with a special white reflective coating that keeps buildings cooler, but also reduces ambient temperatures in the neighborhood when we can do them in clusters.
We've painted 10 million square feet of rooftops white so far, and we aim to paint at least one million square feet a year.
The way I see building resilience of the city is sort of like strengthening your immune system. We know that there will be more extreme weather that the city has to deal with, just like you know that you're going to get a cold. You can't stop it. But you want to make sure that you're preparing your body to weather that cold and recover as quickly as possible. In the same way, we're preparing the city to bounce back from extreme weather events as quickly as possible.