GLOBAL: What we are doing about climate change

Photo: UN Library

Years of poorly regulated emissions have made the earth warmer

JOHANNESBURG, 5 August 2008 (IRIN) - In developing countries, where survival is often a daily struggle, people cannot afford to wait for their government to bail them out. Many are living in the grip of climate change, coping with frequent droughts, heavy flooding, intense cyclones and other extreme weather events, and have found ways to adapt:

- In Bangladesh, women farmers faced with frequent floods are building 'floating gardens' — hyacinth rafts on which to grow vegetables in flood-prone areas.

- In Sri Lanka, farmers are experimenting with rice varieties that can cope with less water and higher levels of salinity in the water.

- In Malawi, some small-scale farmers dependent on rain-fed agriculture have begun planting faster maturing maize to cope with more frequent droughts.

But, on a global scale governments continue to be deadlocked on the issue of reducing the emission of dangerous greenhouse gases, such as water vapour, carbon dioxide, ozone and methane, which are making the earth warmer. According to the UN World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), the decade from 1998 to 2007 was the warmest on record.More >>>