Climate Change and Us | Warm Heart Worldwide

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WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE FOR US?

CLIMATE CHANGE PRIMER FOR SMALL FARMERS

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This series of PowerPoints is intended for use by trainers working in small, rural villages.

It is meant to be simple but accurate and informative.

Climate Change Primer is part of Warm Heart’s larger Educational Program for Small Farmers, a program that begins from the assumption that rural people are not only interested in the big issues affecting their lives, but want to understand them.

CLIMATE CHANGE PRIMERFOR SMALL FARMERS


They made the problem but today we help

Today we are the first to suffer the worst!

CLIMATE CHANGE IS NOT JUST FOR RICH COUNTRIES


And this was the start of all the problems… The sun shines on the earth but most of the heat from the sun just reflects off

WE USED TO CALL IT “GLOBAL WARMING”


If it were not, we would all be dead because the atmosphere contains the oxygen we need to breathe

LUCKILY THE EARTH IS SURROUNDEDBY THE ATMOSPHERE


Without the atmosphere we would die of cold because too much of the sun’s heat would reflect off into space

The atmosphere is like a greenhouse, capturing some of the sun’s warmth to keep us just the right temperature

THE ATMOSPHERE ALSO KEEPS US WARM IN GREENHOUSE EARTH


If it is cold in the spring where you live you may have a greenhouse or use a piece of plastic to keep your seedlings warm.

GREENHOUSE EARTH IS JUST LIKE YOUR GREENHOUSE


What happens if you leave your plants in the greenhouse when it is really sunny?

The greenhouse gets very, very hot and the plants die.

What is our problem?Too much of the sun’s heat is being

trapped inside our greenhouse making greenhouse earth too hot.

The earth is dying.

BUT TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING CAN BE BAD


Sun heat in, some heat kept inside and some reflected back?

REMEMBER OUR HAPPY BALANCE?


This is the picture today.

NO MORE…

WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?

“Greenhouse gases” and smoke (they call it “carbon black”)

“Greenhouse gases” like carbon dioxide and methane and NO2 and SO2 go high up into the atmosphere and act like the glass or plastic in a greenhouse – they keep the heat of the sun in. That’s why we call them “greenhouse gases.”

Smoke does not go far up into the atmosphere, but because it is black, it soaks up a lot of heat and makes the earth hotter. (Have you ever picked up a piece of black iron that has been sitting in the sun and burned your hand?)

CLICK TO EDIT MASTER TITLE STYLEGREENHOUSE GASES AND SMOKE UPSET THE BALANCE

SMOKE

GREENHOUSE GASES

WHERE DO GREENHOUSE GASES COME FROM?

People make the ones we worry about.

Greenhouse gases come largely from burning coal, gas and oil

Cars, trucks, tractors, airplanes, power plants, steel mills

They also come from all of the things made with oil

Fertilizer, plastics, paints

You use these and contribute to greenhouse gas production even if your production is only a very small part of the world total.


People, again, are causing the problem.

Every process that makes greenhouse gases also produces smoke.

…And then of course there are fires. You contribute a lot to fires

WHAT ABOUT SMOKE (CARBON BLACK)?


“This is not our problem! We are not to blame! It’s their fault!”We do not have lots of cars and trucks.We do not use lots of electricity.We do not have big factories.We cannot afford any of the things that produce most

greenhouse gases and smoke in the world.

“Let them worry about it in New York.”

Why should we care?

BUT DOES CLIMATE CHANGE MATTER TO US?


Because of global warming, the climate of the entire world is changing Around the world temperatures are changing, rain and storm

patterns are changing, animal, fish and plant species are moving or dying.

But things are worse for us and we do not have the same money and knowledge to respond that the rich countries do.

GOOD LUCK! THEY MADE IT. WE SUFFER IT

HIGHEST TEMPERATURES EVER RECORDED

WARMER AND WARMER, 1979-20122014 WAS THE HOTTEST YEAR ON RECORD – UNTIL 2015! WHAT WILL 2016 BRING?

CLICK TO EDIT MASTER TITLE STYLESO MANY PEOPLE AFFECTED THAT THAILAND’S FLOODS WERE NOT BIG ENOUGH TO GET COUNTED!


Climate change will affect us the three big ways in then next 25 years:

It will affect our ability to produce food;

It will increase our exposure to disease; and

It will cause the ocean to flood many heavily populated and very productive coastal areas

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM CLIMATE CHANGE?

CLIMATE CHANGE AND FOOD SECURITY

Climate change is all bad for food securityRising temperatures lower yieldsLess certain rainfall less certain cropsMore storms less certain cropsLower yields and higher uncertainty higher prices

FOOD PRICES UP OVER NEXT 20 YEARS

THAILAND:5-25% LOSS OF TOTAL RICE PRODUCTION

PRICE INCREASES:PROCESSED RICE, PADDY RICE, CORN


There are more and more people to feed in the world – most of them in the poor world.

In countries like ours, we must double production of basic crops like corn and rice by 2050 – that’s only 35 years – just to continue to eat as much as we are eating now.

Can you double your production?

LET’S NOT FORGET POPULATION GROWTH

CLIMATE CHANGE AND DISEASE

We are already experiencing the health impact of climate change as Thailand’s growing warmth has dramatically spread mosquito infestations and lengthened the mosquito season

Dengue fever has spread into areas that were once safe because they were cool

Malaria is becoming more common and is now a problem all year around in areas where it was once only a rainy season disease

Japanese encephalitis, once controlled, is now expanding again

DENGUE RASH AND DENGUE’S GROWING REACH

CLICK TO EDIT MASTER TITLE STYLECLIMATE CHANGE AND HUMAN HEALTH

CLIMATE CHANGE AND FLOODING

BLUE = UNDER WATER BY 2050

What are we going to lose? Bangkok and all of the port facilities Songkla and all of the shrimp farms Phuket, Krabi and all of the hotels and resorts

CLICK TO EDIT MASTER TITLE STYLEARE WE SCREWED?



More than 150 developed and developing countries met in Paris in December 2015 to agree on global plans to reduce the production of greenhouse gases

The agreement they signed promises to stop global warming by 2050 before it reaches a disaster point.

It requires tremendous faith in the “it-has-never-happened-before-but-somehow-it-will-happen-this-time” to believe that this agreement will save us – as opposed to the developed world – from these problems

CLIMATE CHANGE IS ALREADY HERE

CLICK TO EDIT MASTER TITLE STYLESHOULD WE GIVE UP?



You can do a lot to help yourself and to help others.

Next time: How we can reduce climate change risk?

After that: What we can do to slow climate change?

WE ARE NOT HELPLESS OBSERVERS

CLIMATE CHANGE PRIMER FOR SMALL FARMERS

This PowerPoint is brought to you by Warm Heart Publications.

Warm Heart is a grassroots community development organization serving the world’s 2.5 billion poorest people – rural small farmers.

In addition to publications such as this one for developed world audiences, Warm Heart Publications’ Educational Program publishes a wide range of simple but accurate materials for small, rural farmers. This program begins from the assumption that rural people are interested in the big issues affecting their lives and want to understand them.

Publications in the Warm Heart Educational Program for Small Farmers cover issues as diverse as the basics of soil health and plant nutrition to mitigating the consequences of climate change and how biochar works.

All Warm Heart Publications are in the public domain. If you use our material, please source it to www.warmheartworldwide.org.

WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE FOR US?

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Climate Change and Us | Warm Heart Worldwide