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Urgent Challenge and Adaptation Considerations for Thailand and Mekong Region (A View from a Climate Generalist). Anond Snidvongs Southeast Asia Regional Center for Global Change S ys T em for A nalysis, R esearch and T raining (START) Chulalongkorn University
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Urgent Challenge and Adaptation Considerations for Thailand and Mekong Region(A View from a Climate Generalist) Anond Snidvongs Southeast Asia Regional Center for Global Change SysTem for Analysis, Research and Training (START) Chulalongkorn University (www.start.or.th, www.start.org)
An Urgent Challenge for Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation How can we ensure that precise information about climate science, climate risk, and vulnerability are communicated to appropriate recipients in the right time, right format, and right context
Some Practical Considerations for Appropriate Adaptations • Various misconceptions about climate, climate change and risks • Roles of the information providers • Information relay and recipients • Some formal and informal capacity building initiatives in Thailand
Some Misconceptions On climate science principles • Differentiation and relation between climate and weather • Focus only on climate means and less on extremes, ranges and frequencies • Globally (including GHG) forcing versus locally/regionally driven climate change/variability On ways to address the climate problem • Climate change to be addressed as its own domain • Climate change is an ‘environmental’ problem • Global warming can be ‘solved’ by mitigation
Changes in Weather Statistics Climate change may be of any of these combinations
Some Locally/Regionally Driven Changes Land use/cover changes and impacts on regional weather and water balance Aerosol effects on air quality, rainfall, etc. Urban heat island effects Adelaide AVHRR and TRMM Bangkok MODIS Some of these local/regional forcings may be related to GHG driven global warming
Example: Coastal Sea Level in the Upper Gulf of Thailand 2030 EXTREME RISK FOR COINCIDENCES HISTORICAL EXTREME COINCIDENCES Episodic Extremes Storm surge 1.0 m Episodic Extremes Buoyancy effect 0.5 m NE monsoon effect 0.5 m Annual Events Spring tide 1.0 m Mean sea level rise 0.3 m Land subsidence 0.3 m 2.3 m dike
Misinformation from Sources • Lack of local data, local agenda, or local context • Internet is not always a good source of reliable information, lack of quality control • Discipline oriented perspectives • Time and space scale problems • Hidden/preoccupied agenda • Lack of communication skill
Information Recipients • Wrong/incomplete communication, misquotations • False security on engineering/technical solutions • ‘Mean’ Climate change signals are smaller than natural variabilities/extremes • Unwilling to change/adapt (behavior, lifestyle, consumption, etc.) • Consider climate change/global warming as an isolated ‘environment’ agenda rather than an integrated ‘development’ agenda
Formal Education • M.A., Ph.D. in Environment, Development and Sustainability (A cooperative postgraduate program of Chulalongkorn University) • Core Courses • Understanding Environment, Development and Sustainability • Sustainable Resource Management • Society, Politics and Social Changes • Advanced Issue in Environment, Development and Sustainability • Selected Electives • Earth’s Climate System • Energy, Environment and Climate Change • Climate Science, Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation • Managing Biodiversity in a Changing Climate • Adaptation Policy Framework - Climate Change Impacts • Vulnerability Science for Sustainable Development Planning • Climate and Human Settlement • Urban Climate • Communication in Bargaining and Negotiation • Advanced Presentation Skills • Studies in Persuasion and Attitude Change
Informal Education • Books • Internet • Public/special seminars • Media workshops • Dialogues • Student camps
Thank You http://research.start.or.th/climate/ Climate change Future climate threat Risk Vulnerability Adaptation