Innholdsfortegnelse for 1/2017 i ASIAN Geographic

We closed the borders, folks, we nailed it. No trees, no plants, no immigrants. No foreign nurses, no Doctors; we smashed it. We took control of our affairs. No fresh air. No birds, no bees, no HIV, no Poles, no pollen. No pandas, no polar bears, no ice, no dice. No rainforests, no foraging, no France. No frogs, no golden toads, no Harlequins. No Greens, no Brussels, no vegetarians, no lesbians. No carbon curbed emissions, no CO2 questions. No lions, no tigers, no bears. No BBC picked audience. No loony lefties, please. No politically correct classes. No classes. No Guardian readers. No readers. No emus, no EUs, no Eco warriors, no Euros. No rhinos, no zebras, no burnt bras, no elephants. We shut it down! No immigrants, no immigrants. No…

Climate change in numbers measuring the impact of and regional responses to global warming in Asia-Pacific Vehicle ownership is doubling every five years in many Asian countries, with growth in urban areas even more rapid, often doubling every two to three years Decrease in fresh water availability could affect more than one billion by 2050 China is the largest source of the region’s greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for about 70 percent. Its per-capita emissions, however, are only about half of the developed world’s average China leads the world in renewable energy investment, spending more than the US, UK and Japan put together Developing countries in Asia are now responsible for 35% of worldwide energy-related CO2 emissions, compared to 17 percent in 1990 20 million Bangladeshis would be displaced by a…

The connection between gender and climate change is being more widely discussed as the issue comes to be addressed in relation to human rights. Women are affected first, and hit the hardest Climate change will affect all of humanity: men and women, young and old, rich and poor. If there’s one thing that looks past race, religion, age and income status, it’s the effects of climate change. Of course, let’s not overlook the other living organisms – all flora and fauna. The impact of our changing planet will affect them, too. But these effects will be felt quite differently by women – female food producers in particular. Due to traditional gender roles that enforce that women collect water, wood for fuel, and care for family members, women farmers have very…

The Purvis Street area is rich in history, a former hub for Hainanese immigrants who arrived in Singapore in the mid-1800s. Originally traders, the Hainanese eventually settled in this area, and the migrant community burgeoned. They were particularly well-known for their forays into the hospitality business, first working in, and then opening, their own hotels, restaurants, bakeries, and coffee shops – which led to the Hainanese being credited with the introduction of kopitiam culture. It is one such former bakery that now houses the refurbished and aptly-named Hotel NuVe Heritage, a boutique hotel that has retained its historic legacy and sense of local culture with the additions of modern luxuries. Built in 1910, this centrally-located shophouse boasts 19 rooms, including three signature suites, each of which has been decorated to…

Private entrepreneurs in Kathmandu have also developed a network of battery charging stations that successfully electrify hundreds of tuk-tuks Nepal offers an unusually positive example of a poor country whose strategies for development are simultaneously addressing climate change. It isn’t immediately obvious travelling through polluted Kathmandu, but a more careful look at the country as a whole reveals striking success at creating an all-renewable electricity system, a growing fleet of electric vehicles and motorbikes, renewable cooking systems, and a reforestation programme that is rapidly bringing forests back all across Nepal. Given all this, it is accurate to proclaim Nepal as a leader in the fight against climate change. For a country struggling with severe poverty and the lingering impacts of the severe 2015 earthquake, it is more than a little…

A minority of our population is consuming far beyond their basic needs, while the majority scramble to survive on the bare minimum What does the effect of over 7 billion people do to a little blue and green planet? OVER – a photo montage of the Earth as transformed by human numbers and behaviour, part of a larger campaign called Global Population Speak Out – was the answer As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone's greed.” The size of the human population – currently at an estimated 7.4 billion people – sets the scale of human behaviour and its concomitant environmental impact. According to a United Nations report, the human population could reach 9.7 billion by 2050, and over 11…

INDIA 1998 Gujarat Cyclone Deaths: More than 10,000 Max wind speed: 165km/h Damages USD258 million INDIA 1999 Odisha Cyclone Deaths: More than 10,000 Max wind speed: 260km/h Damages USD4.4 billion BANGLADESH 1991 Cyclone Gorky Deaths: More than 135,000 Max wind speed: 193km/h Damages USD1.7 billion INDIA, BANGLADESH, SRI LANKA, MYANMAR 1998 Cyclone Nargis Deaths: More than 130,000 Max wind speed: 213km/h Damages USD10 billion VIETNAM, CAMBODIA 1997 Typhoon Linda Deaths: More than 3,700 Max wind speed: 120km/h Damages USD385 million JAPAN 1961 Typhoon Nancy Deaths: More than 175 Max wind speed: 306–343km/h Damages USD500 million CHINA 1975 Typhoon Nina Deaths: More than 100,000 Max wind speed: 250km/h Damages USD1.2 billion PHILIPPINES 1991 Tropical Storm Thelma Deaths: More than 5,000 Max wind speed: 85km/h Damages USD27 million PHILIPPINES 2013 Typhoon Haiyan…

“There is no separation between humans and Nature. We are Earth citizens. What we do to the Earth determines our wellbeing”– Dr Vandana Shiva In 1984, Dr Vandana Shiva witnessed the Bhopal disaster, the leakage of a pesticide plant that led to over 3,000 deaths. In the same year, in Punjab, farmers rose in revolt against chemical farming in a movement known as the “green revolution”. The uprising ended in 30,000 deaths with the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, assassinated. The unrest drove Dr Shiva to write her book The Violence of the Green Revolution in 1989, inquiring into the chaos that the Green Revolution generated. It was around this time that she made a commitment to practising safe and non-violent agriculture, and promoting environmental activism. She started what would become…

Climate change is the defining challenge of our time. Our ability to rise to this challenge is only as good as our knowledge of the science of the situation. Here are the essentials that you need to know. The planet is undergoing unexpected and complicated – but understandable – changes. Sunlight penetrating the Earth’s atmosphere is being trapped, and the world is storing heat energy more than it used to. Why is this change occurring? It is primarily caused by rising levels of several greenhouse gases – primarily carbon dioxide (CO2), followed by methane, which are part of the atmosphere shrouding the planet. The more of these gases (and water vapour) are in the atmosphere, the more efficiently the sun’s heat is captured. These gases are important parts of…

A Buddhist temple stands on the frontlines of climate change, weathering the destruction caused by rising water levels. For one monk, it’s sink or swim As the Paris Agreement on climate change comes into effect, many people are left wondering if it’s already too late to save many of the world’s vulnerable low-lying coastal communities. The science shows that sea levels worldwide have been rising at a rate of 3.5 millimetres per year since the early 1990s. This rising sea level is directly linked to global climate change due to three important factors: the warming of the oceans, or thermal expansion; the melting of glaciers; and ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica. A recent study from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that the oceans will have risen…

Pesticide use, habitat loss, diseases, parasites and global warming are plunging the honeybee population into decline, so much so that fruit farmers in China and elsewhere are doing the work of bees. Why? Because you have a bee to thank for every one in three bites of food you ingest DOING THE WORK OF BEES In China’s mountainous Maoxian region in Sichuan Province, there are almost 6,500 hectares of pear and apple orchards. Every year, villagers descend on the farmlands to begin the monumental task of pollinating every single fruit blossom – by hand. Apple production in the Maoxian Valley began in 1946 with 400 trees. By the 1980s, the region had over 200,000 trees, with apples being the county’s leading crop yield. By the late 1990s, Maoxian was producing…

The baby orangutan grabs his mother’s limp body, shaking it with both hands, before taking off. We follow at full speed, aware of the need to catch him by hand – darting an animal this young could kill it. Just as he dashes up a nearby tree, Dr Laura Benedict grabs him by the legs. The orangutan – eyes bulging in terror, mouth stretched to capacity – begins to scream; terrible, brain-piercing shrieks. Dr Benedict asks me to take over as she prepares the sedative. I grab the orangutan under his arms and struggle to contain the terrified, writhing ape, just about keeping his sharp canines away from Dr Benedict, as she administers the injection. “It’s OK darling, it’s OK, it’s OK,” reassures the vet, rubbing his belly as the…

The fascinating thing about mangrove trees is that they can actually sequester five times as much CO2 as rainforests In 1947, Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl sailed 8,000 kilometres from Peru to French Polynesia on a balsa wood raft. He, his raft – the Kon-Tiki – and his book of the same name inspired a generation to consider long-distance travel and voyages of discovery. But although Heyerdahl was triumphant that he had demonstrated, with tangible proof, that this was how Polynesia had first been populated, his other discoveries shocked him: He saw firsthand the impact of rising sea levels on island ecosystems, and was one of the first scientists to express concern about global warming. He dedicated the rest of his life to this cause. It is a fitting legacy, then,…

A changing climate means a changing world. The living creatures of Earth, ourselves included, can only thrive – and survive – in certain temperature ranges. On a warming planet, species are threatened by temperature changes that they cannot adapt to or escape from. Here are some of the changes and challenges that we can expect: Extreme Events An overall temperature change means extreme weather events. Heat waves and severe storms are predicted to increase in frequency Unpredictable Weather The reliability of rainfall and freshwater stores will be affected as local weather patterns change Melting Ice Caps Much of the world’s water is locked into ice in the polar ice caps and mountain glaciers. These are melting into the ocean and raising sea levels Rising Sea Levels Global climate change is…

In Manila, communities rely on the city’s abundant supply of waste to survive, living in – and depending on – pollution The 70 or so pesos that they bring in once every three days, split three ways, is used to buy food In many countries, particularly in the developed world, climate change as a result of man-made pollution exists as little more than a frightening prospect, even while widely acknowledged as an accepted fact, empirically proven by modern science. And yet, in many ways for some, it still seems remote, abstract even – something that people hear about and talk about, but which cannot be seen or fully grasped in our daily lives. It’s out of sight, and out of mind. But in Tondo, northwest of the city of Manila…

ENVIRONMENT The Hong Kong government’s web page on climate change details its initiatives in this area and lists ways individuals can take action, such as recycling. At no point is there any mention of meat. And yet, the livestock sector accounts for a hefty 15 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – more than the emissions from all cars, planes, trains and ships combined – says the United Nation’s Food and Agricultural Organization. Eating less beef offers an easy way to reduce one’s carbon footprint: One study showed producing one kilogram of beef represents driving a distance of about 160 kilometres. Given that Hong Kong has the world’s highest meat – and beef – consumption per capita (significantly topping Australia, Argentina and the United States), the casual omission of…

Covering over 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, oceans are essential to life. Undoubtedly, our oceans are changing in response to climate change. What does this mean for our liquid planet? The oceans are crucial to regulating climate and act as “the lungs of the Earth”, with algae and cyanobacteria in seawater providing up to 80 percent of the atmospheric oxygen which we rely on to breathe. The oceans also house over 230,000 marine species, with estimates that there are between one and 10 million species still undiscovered. Alongside their own intrinsic value, many of these marine species provide important goods and services. Collectively, ocean-related services and business are estimated to contribute over USD500 billion to the world’s economy. Our survival is undeniably dependent on a healthy ocean. However, climate…

Up to 650 million people live in areas that will be submerged or exposed to chronic flooding by the year 2100 Nearly 15 million people worldwide – approximately the population of Cambodia – were forced from their homes in 2015 by weather-related disasters, including violent storms, floods and landslides. As climate change intensifies, those numbers will rise. Not everyone will end up resettling elsewhere, but a large, undetermined number of displaced people are already becoming environmental migrants, defined by the International Organization for Migration as people who are obliged or choose to leave home due to sudden or progressive environmental changes that adversely affect their lives. Climate change is one factor in the rising numbers of these displaced people, but the associated crisis is where many of these people live.…

The TAO Music and Underwater Festival programme leads with a guiding principle: “Treat the Earth well: It was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” This wisdom, proffered by the Lakota people, imparts our duty to protect our one and only Earth. The TAO Festival has translated this message through the most universal of languages: music. In the build-up to ADEX Singapore – confronting climate change and running from April 7–9, 2017 – the TAO Festival in magnificent Koh Tao, Thailand, is leading the way in creating awareness about climate change through their vibrant artist lineup, and green, eco-conscious festival vibes. Before and during the committed ecological…

WHEN The best time to visit is in winter (November to February) as it’s dry and not too hot. If you don’t mind rain, the autumn is attractive too, as the landscapes are lush. The only time to avoid is March to May, when temperatures and humidity soar WHERE The Thor Heyerdahl Climate Park is in Pathein on the coast in the southwestern part of Myanmar. From here you can easily explore the Irrawaddy River Delta and the wonderful coastal beaches and resorts which line the Bay of Bengal HOW From Yangon, travel can still be a little challenging if you’re an independent visitor, so get help from a destination specialist such as Indus Experiences (www.indusexperiences.co.uk)…