Climate Change & Disappearing Glaciers,  Looking Back at the United States

Pres. Obama, Where Is Your Commitment to Climate Change Adaptation?

2009/03/18 /

“There is still time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, if we act now and act internationally”
–Lord Stern

 

Spent a few hours this morning at a group meeting with Mr. Robin Gwynn, the U.K’s newly appointed special envoy on climate change for vulnerable countries. He came to Lima with spokesperson Kirsty Lewis of the Hadley Center to talk about Peru, climate change and the U.K.’s commitment to helping threatened countries adapt to the environmental crisis. (The image above shows children in Puno being treated for respiratory illnesses in 2008 when record colds induced by climate change led to a rash of mortalities.)

FYI: Peru is one of three countries in the world most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Bangladesh and Honduras round out the trio.

Sitting in the conference room filled with officials, activists and journalists, I felt singularly aware of my American-ness and of my home country’s disastrous record on climate change. The United States has no office on climate change, let alone a special envoy to help developing countries cope with the unfolding catastrophe. While Britain and the E.U. were formulating targets to cut greenhouse emissions in the early 2000s, the Bush administration was busy censoring climate scientists whose work shows that rising greenhouse gas emissions are largely due to human activity.

Obama may be promising to create green jobs in the U.S., but he’s inherited a country some of whose citizens are still deeply skeptical of the science of climate change.  Many more are apathetic on the issue and believe that it’s largely media hype. In fact, a recent Gallop poll showed that 41 percent of those polled believe the media “greatly exaggerates” the seriousness of global warming, up from 35% in 2008 and 30% in 2007.

The message that climate change is accelerating and growing more serious seems to be lost on many Americans.

Despite these figures, it is imperative that President Obama and his staff move forward with addressing the real threats that climate change poses to the U.S. and the world.

He could start by addressing the nation on the issue, as Jeremy Hance advocated yesterday on Mongabay. Creating an office on climate change would be a logical next step. Most importantly, notes Denmark’s climate change minister, Obama must pass climate change laws ahead of the Copenhagen summit in December. Doing so would set an example to developing nations that would pave the road for success at Cophenhagen — progress that is imperative for humanity’s survival.

If that were to happen, this expat would begin to feel proud to be an American in Lima.

–Barbara R. Drake

I am an American writer who lived in Lima for seven years (2007-2014), where I covered Andean traditions, melting glaciers and daily life in the capital for Miami Herald, MSNBC and Huffington Post. I now live and work in northern Florida where I champion climate change advocacy and compassionate, affordable eldercare.

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7 Comments

  • Lillie Langtry

    2009/03/19 at 2:14 am

    That’s a fascinating stat about Peru being one of the three countries in the world most vulnerable to climate change. Bangladesh doesn’t surprise me since it’s well known that it suffers from devastating floods already. I’m assuming that Peru’s problems will be connected to water supply. Will it suffer more than Ecuador or Chile though? I’m intrigued. I did a google search and Peru is mentioned but so are many other countries. Do you have a source where I can learn more? 😉

  • Barb

    2009/03/19 at 12:30 pm

    Hi, Lillie Langtry (one of my favorite figures of the Edwardian era) —

    Yes, Peru’s vulnerability stems from its lack of water supplies and from the interplay between its terrain and extreme weather events. Celcius, summarizing a Friends of the Earth report on climate change and vulnerable countries, noted that:
    “Because of the diversity of its terrain, stronger El Niño winds, melting glaciers and extreme weather are already taking a toll. And with 40% of Peru’s power from hydroelectric, loss of water supply will have double the impact.”
    http://www.celsias.com/article/voices-from-communities-affected-by-climate-change/

    Another problem is that Peru depends on glacial meltwater for 80% of its water needs (for use at home, in agriculture, and in hydroelectricity). Since nearly all of Peru’s glacier’s will be gone by 2050, that means Peru will not have enough water for its people unless other solutions are devised. Currently, Lima has only a one-year supply of water.

    Another problem is that of flash flooding caused by extreme weather events, which wipe out towns and kill about 52 out of every 100,000 Peruvians per year. This Tyndall Centre report (it’s 100-pp long!) contains that and other figures: http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:ov9HfFvAFAsJ:www.tyndall.ac.uk/publications/working_papers/wp63.pdf+tyndall+centre+peru+bangaldesh+honduras+climate+change&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk

    As far as the ranking: In the early 2000s, the Tyndall Centre on Climate Change, in the UK, rated countries on their vulnerability to climate change risks and rated Bangladesh No. 1, Honduras No. 2 and Peru No. 3.

    Since that report was issued, Peru’s No. 3 ranking has remained unchallenged but much more information has appeared on risks to other countries.

    For more sources, try the Tyndall Centre online. Warning: their working papers are huge and will require a lot of hunting. They have methods to assess and rank risks, which might be useful for understanding why those climatologists singled out Peru above Ecuador, Chile, etc.

    http://www.tyndall.ac.uk

    This pdf report by CONAM (2004) gives an overview of what makes Peru so ill-equipped to cope with climate change.http://unfccc.int/files/meetings/cop_10/at_the_kiosk/15_dec_wednesday/application/pdf/041215cigaran.pdf

    Here is an overview on climate change and Andean countries, from Comunidad Andina:
    http://www.comunidadandina.org/INGLES/desarrollo/climate_change.htm

  • Barb

    2009/03/20 at 9:45 am

    Thanks, Maireid. 🙂

    Lillie — yeah, only about 500 pp. 🙂
    That is the challenge with researching climate change issues. The official reports and scientific papers are incredibly long and detailed. I think the IPCC reports run more than 1,000 pp. Hard for journalists to do a quick scan, which is partly why some newspapers in the US have bungled the facts. News institutes are catching on in recent years and offering training seminars for journalists new to the science beat, to explain how to report on climate change accurately and fairly, translating scientific debate into terms the general public understands.