Are recent floods a sign of global warming?
The standard response from climate scientists until very recently has been that we cannot attribute single weather events to climate change, but with continued global warming, we can expect intensity of flood and drought cycles to increase.
Are recent floods a sign of global warming?
The standard response from climate scientists until very recently has been that we cannot attribute single weather events to climate change, but with continued global warming, we can expect intensity of flood and drought cycles to increase.
This has perhaps left people somewhat confused, as it can give the impression that people’s experiences of changes in extreme weather events is just normal climate variability. However, earlier this year the UK’s Met Office issued a report that does attribute some recent extreme weather events to human-induced climate change.
On the one hand the report stresses that many events such as last year's floods in Thailand were caused by non-climatic factors, including poor water and land management practices. However, it also concluded that the 2011 drought in Texas was 20 times more likely to occur now than in the 1960s because of human-induced climate change.
This means that we should expect better information in coming years that examines the link between climate change and extreme weather events. See the report at http://bitly.com/O0KCd4.
Ruth Kruger reports on local climate tricks
If ever I thought that somebody up in the clouds was playing a trick on us lowly humans, it was last week. You see, it was just so ironic. On 24-25 October, the One Million Climate Jobs Campaign (OMCJC) was holding a workshop at Rhodes University. Participants came to discuss climate issues from all over the Eastern Cape – and almost could not make it here because of the issue that we had with our climate last weekend!
Nevertheless, the intrepid climate job campaigners battled their way here to take part in a two-day workshop about threats to both the social and natural environment. The thinking behind the campaign is that we face crises in both unemployment and the climate, and the only way to deal with these effectively is to see them as two different manifestations of the same problem: our over-consumptive economic system.
The OMCJC seeks to address this problem with climate jobs. These are jobs that promote sustainable livelihoods and cut back on carbon emissions. They are based on the realisation that a low-carbon economy needs to rest on low-carbon employment.
The workshop spent some time dealing with the theory behind climate jobs, before hearing talks by both visitors and native Grahamstonians.
Ayanda Kota spoke about the Unemployed People's Movement. Rhodes environmental society RU Green representatives spoke on the particular situation in Grahamstown and what is being done here to create climate jobs. The workshop culminated on the second day with break-away groups that discussed core climate issues such as land, urban life and energy, and came up with ideas about how employment could be generated in these areas. Participants resolved to take the campaign further, taking what they had learnt back to their home towns where they could spread the climate job gospel.
So despite the rocky start, the workshop was a great success. It may have been hard, or well-nigh impossible for everyone to get to Grahamstown, but it was worth it. I think we showed the Eastern Cape climate who's boss.
More info at http://climatejobs.org.za.
Ruth Kruger is the outgoing Environmental representative on the Rhodes University Student Representative Council.
Clip the rhino trade – a personal appeal
Please find the following link to local artist Mark Wilby's YouTube video, 'Sorry China', and its accompanying statement at http://youtu.be/clp4elVlcHw. His appeal was made in support of all the individuals and NGOs actively working to save the rhino (and other animals endangered by poaching and illicit trade).
It differs simply in that it hopes to present each concerned individual with the means to send their own message of outrage directly to those with the real power to effect change. I know that work is being done internationally, but perhaps this needs to be helped by popular action to be much more forceful, much more public and much more urgent, Wilby said.
I made my message mute (no letter of explanation) to echo my sense of powerlessness. The project seems to be getting enough media coverage for its meaning to emerge.
I did however include my return address to acknowledge responsibility. But that much is for you to decide.
Poetry for the rhino
An international poetry anthology italFor Rhino in a Shrinking World/ital to raise funds to aid rhinos will be launched in Grahamstown before Christmas, although the date is yet to be confirmed. Please feel free to contact Harry Owen at italheo@hotmail.co.uk/ital for more details or see the official blog at http://rhinoanthology.wordpress.com/.
Wessa wins relay race
The annual Rhodes University Department of Environmental Science relay race raised R1 211 to be donated to a local environmental organisation. The organisation selected in a random draw from Mike Powell’s hat was the Grahamstown branch of Wildlife and Environment Society of SA (Wessa). The money was handed over to Wessa on Friday and it will be put to good use in local environmental initiatives.
Contacts for Makana Enviro-News:
Nikki Köhly: n.kohly@ru.ac.za, 046 603 7205 / Jenny Gon: j-gon@intekom.co.za, 046 622 5822 / Nick Hamer: n.hamer@ru.ac.za, 084 722 3458 / Nick James: nickjames@intekom.co.za, 082 575 9781 / Lawrence Sisitka: heilaw@imaginet.co.za, 046 622 8595 / Strato Copteros:strato@iafrica.com, 082 785 6403
