scholarly journals Bearing Witness: A Pacific Climate Crisis Documentary and Journalism Development Project

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Robie ◽  
Jim Marbrook
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Bearing Witness ◽  
Delta Area ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Climate Research ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Main Component ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
The Impact

A three-year Pacific climate research and storytelling documentary and journalism project has contributed to a disruption and renewal theme in Pacific Island Countries development. Focused initially on Fiji, the project has involved three pairs of postgraduate students engaging with climate crisis challenges. Responding originally to the devastation and tragedy wrought in Fiji by Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston in 2016, the Pacific Media Centre embarked on the Bearing Witness journalism project by sending two postgraduate students to Viti Levu to document and report on the impact of climate change (Robie & Chand, 2017). Their main component was a multimedia report on Daku village in the Rewa River delta area. This was followed in 2017 with a series of reports leading to a multimedia package on the relocation of the remote inland village of Tukuraki (Robie, 2018). The third episode focused far more strongly on documentary with reports on waka navigation and climate change, the ‘ghost village’ of Vunidogoloa and a ‘homecoming’ short feature about the Banaban people of Rabi and the impact on them caused by climate change. The project explores Friere’s notions of ‘critical consciousness’ as they might relate to teaching documentary-making and also draw on the concept of talanoa journalism.

scholarly journals Bearing Witness 2017: Year 2 of a Pacific climate change storytelling project

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Robie
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Regional Environment ◽  
Bearing Witness ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact

In 2016, the Pacific Media Centre responded to the devastation and tragedy wrought in Fiji by Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston by initiating the Bearing Witness journalism project and dispatching two postgraduate students to Viti Levu to document and report on the impact of climate change (Robie & Chand, 2017). This was followed up in 2017 in a second phase of what was hoped would become a five-year mission and expanded in future years to include other parts of the Asia-Pacific region. This project is timely, given the new 10-year Strategic Plan 2017-2026 launched by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) in March and the co-hosting by Fiji of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP23) climate change conference in Bonn, Germany, during November. The students dispatched in 2017 on the  ‘bearing witness’ journalism experiential assignment to work in collaboration with the Pacific Centre for the Environment and Sustainable Development (PaCE-SD) and the Regional Journalism Programme at the University of the South Pacific included a report about the relocation of a remote inland village of Tukuraki. They won the 2017 media and trauma prize of the Asia-Pacific Dart Centre, an agency affiliated with the Columbia School of Journalism. This article is a case study assessing the progress with this second year of the journalism project and exploring the strategic initiatives under way for more nuanced and constructive Asia-Pacific media storytelling in response to climate change.

Impact of Climate Change on Rural Livelihood: A Case Study of Central Rajasthan

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 19-27
Author(s):  
Saifuddin Soz ◽  
Dhananjay Mankar
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Impact Of Climate Change ◽  
The People ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
Rural Livelihood ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Impact

Climate change is already bringing tremendous influence on people’s lives, particularly the underprivileged. It’s already visible in a variety of ways. In recent decades, Asia and the Pacific have seen consistent warming trends as well as more frequent and powerful extreme weather events such as droughts, cyclones, floods, and hailstorms. This study was done in Ajmer District of Rajasthan, to find out the climate variation in the last 10 years. The study describes the effects due to climate change on the livelihoods of the people, so a descriptive research design was used for the study to find out the impact of climate change on rural livelihood in central Rajasthan. The study is based on a large representative of sample, quantitative data was collected to gain an idea of the impact on the livelihoods due to climate change at the household level. It shows the negative impact of climate change on rural livelihood which forced the people to change their livelihood directly or indirectly. It was found that climate change had an impact on people’s lives and people do understand the variation in climate change in terms of changes in the weather, unseasonal rain, and drought.

Promoting Peace Through Climate Change Adaptation

2019 ◽  
pp. 462-488
Author(s):  
Peni Hausia Havea
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Pacific Island ◽  
Island Region ◽  
Impact Of Climate Change ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Impact

Climate change has affected people's peace in the form of impact on livelihoods, health, and/or well-being. Most of these peace impacts, however, are felt significantly by people who are living in the low-lying communities in the Pacific, who are within and/or close to the Ring of Fire. This chapter is based on a study of peace and climate change adaptation that was conducted in the Pacific island region in 2016. It took place in five communities in Suva, Fiji: Vatuwaqa, Raiwaqa, Raiwai, Samabula, and Toorak. It highlights the impact of climate change on peace, and then it indicated how peace can be promoted in the form of climate change adaptation for these communities. Based on the results of this research, the author recommends that peace should be incorporated into the Pacific islands national adaptation plan.

scholarly journals SolarSPELL Assessment: Impact of a Solar-Powered Digital Library as a Teaching-Learning Resource on Climate Change

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (16) ◽  
pp. 6636
Author(s):  
Laura Hosman ◽  
Marcela Georgina Gómez Zermeño ◽  
Lorena Alemán de la Garza
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Digital Library ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Educational Innovation ◽  
Sustainable Community Development ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Solar Powered ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
The Impact

Inclusive and quality education can provide nations with the tools to solve global problems. However, some barriers prevent equal access to this education. These obstacles include the lack of basic resources such as electricity and internet availability, which prevents appropriate training in the skills necessary for sustainable community development. Therefore, we have responded with the Solar-Powered Educational Learning Library (SolarSPELL) initiative, which offers a solar-powered digital library and provides an internet-like experience through its offline WiFi network. This educational innovation has been implemented in rural schools across the Pacific Islands, including in some of the more remote islands of Fiji, an area strongly affected by climate change. The objective of the study was to understand the impact of SolarSPELL on teaching and learning about climate change in the schools where it was implemented. This research used a case study method in which quantitative tools were applied to understand the characteristics of the schools and the impact of this educational innovation. The results showed that the SolarSPELL library was an impactful pedagogical resource in the schools where it was implemented. It served as support for teachers and motivated the students, promoted the democratization of knowledge in vulnerable areas, and provided appropriate educational resources to generate knowledge about problem-solving actions that can respond to climate change. The importance of this educational innovation lies in presenting strategies and best practices that help improve the quality of education, making it more inclusive and eliminating barriers to the acquisition of knowledge.

Sparking a Movement for a Healthy Climate Through Leadership Development

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 216-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Kerr ◽  
Julia Frost Nerbonne ◽  
Teddie Potter
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Leadership Development ◽  
Health Professional ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Change Leadership ◽  
Leadership Development Programs ◽  
Mitigate Climate Change ◽  
The Impact

Climate change is increasingly impacting health, and health care is contributing to climate change through carbon emissions. Nurses can help mitigate climate change and its effects through leadership development initiatives to expand the impact of the efforts of a single person by activating others. This article describes one such nurse-led leadership development project. The intervention adapted a workshop series curriculum for faith community audiences to a health professional audience. The program gave participants the ability to assess their assets, understand the psychology of communication of climate change, and design appropriately-scaled actions to help mitigate climate change. The program consisted of three in-person workshop sessions plus bi-weekly individual consultations with participants. The seven participants included physicians, nurses, physician and nurse educators, a public health professional, and a veterinary medicine student. The workshops included content on communicating about climate change, crafting a public narrative/storytelling, and tools and methods for organizing in the climate movement. Participants completed action plans including a broad range of leadership efforts as part of the intervention; all participants completed at least the first step of their action plan during the program period. Qualitative interviews highlighted facets of participants' experiences. Nurses and other health professionals are leading the way in mitigating climate change; leadership development programs such as this are one way of taking effective climate action.

scholarly journals 3.E. Workshop: The Role of Digital Public Health in the European Climate Pact and Green deal

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (Supplement_3) ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Digital Systems ◽  
World Health ◽  
Director General ◽  
European Climate ◽  
The World ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
The Impact

Abstract   Europe is facing two major structural changes: the climate crisis, having a significant impact on public health, and digitalization of the economy, that could play a role in mitigating climate change and its impacts on public health. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected our lives in many ways including how we see public health, the climate change and has created the conditions for the almost exponential growth for telemedicine and digitalization in healthcare. Underlining that the world is facing an increasing innovation and integration of digital tools to address public health and environmental problems, as the UN Secretary-General and the Director-General of the World Health Organization both declared that we are currently fighting a climate “pandemic” in the same way as we are fighting COVID-19. Digital solutions have been implemented to address COVID-19 and impacted by reducing CO2 emissions and improving quality of life. Digital systems, including Artificial Intelligence, robots and drones, are now changing the paradigm of public health and environment management. Due to the complex nature of the information ecosystem our societies and communities live in, a digital public health approach can be managed to reduce harm to individual, community and population health, support social cohesion and trust in emergency response and interventions to deal with climate change. Digital health could, within 10 years establish a new paradigm in public and environmental health. Public health professionals need urgently to tackle digital health to bridge the gap with others areas of healthcare. During the COVID-19 crisis, national public health authorities have been challenged in the way they communicate with the public, engage with communities in collecting data to improve response, providing the scientific evidence, the day-to-day facts and figures. Likewise, The European Climate Pact provides a space for collectively develop and implement climate solutions. The Climate Pact is an open, inclusive and evolving initiative for climate action through an online platform and citizen dialogues and exchanges, it will foster the link between the digital and green transition. This workshop aims to share the experiences of digital public health interventions with significant impact on climate change mitigation during the pandemic. It will be organised as a round table, starting by setting the scene with an introduction to key digital health concepts and challenges. Each speaker will give a short pitch on how they have experienced the challenge of using digital systems in public health and how they approached its management during the crisis. This will be followed by a panel discussion. Participants will have ample time to ask questions to the panellists. The workshop will end with a summary of a selection of tools participants can use in their own environmental management activities and key take home messages from the panellist will be provided as a conclusion. Key messages Digital Public Health has been establishing evidence on interventions with significant effects on reducing the impact of climate crisis. A Partnership is needed across the health system and society to manage this crisis. European Green Deal and Climate Pact could be used as a roadmap in digital public health.

scholarly journals Pacific Journalism Monographs No 3: Kiribati media, science and politics

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taberannang Korauaba
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
The Public ◽  
Impact Of Climate Change ◽  
The People ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Local Media ◽  
Science And Politics ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Impact

By Taberannang Korauaba Although the Pacific nation of Kiribati has been identified as one of the most vulnerable countries to the impact of climate change, little is known about the attitudes of the local media and the public toward this issue. This is in contrast to empirical study findings which have shown that the public and the media were aware of the threats posed by climate change. This monograph extracted from the author’s thesis argues that the people of Kiribati are not united over climate change. Browse the author's MCS thesis on Kiribati

scholarly journals Climate Change as a Threat to Regional Peace and Security and the Role of the UNSC: An India-EU Perspective in Context

Politeja ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (4(73)) ◽  
pp. 123-144
Author(s):  
Sujata Arya ◽  
Aparajita Mohanty ◽  
Sayantan Bhattacharyya
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
The United States ◽  
United Nations Security Council ◽  
Security Threat ◽  
Legal Principles ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu

Climate change has increasingly come to be viewed as a security threat, as well as a ‘threat multiplier’. The impact of this has become a cause for major international concern, especially in light of national contributions to climate change, by virtue of heavy industrial dependence on polluting processes. To address this issue, certain national lobbies have suggested that the United Nations Security Council should be made legislate on the issue, given its bearing on international security. This approach has been supported by nations and blocs like the United States, the EU, the Pacific Islands, etc. An alternate lobby, comprising states like India, have argued against this approach due to the UNSC’s fractured mandate, and expressed their wish to keep deliberations more representative. This paper shall evaluate the context of climate change, the legal principles underlying it, and argue in favor of the Indian stand that the UNSC is not the appropriate institution to make policy decisions on this matter.

scholarly journals Postglacial migration across a large dispersal barrier outpaces regional expansion from glacial refugia: evidence from two conifers in the Pacific Northwest

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
MC Fernandez ◽  
FS Hu ◽  
DG Gavin ◽  
G deLafontaine ◽  
KD Heath
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Pacific Northwest ◽  
Glacial Refugia ◽  
Conifer Species ◽  
Changing Climate ◽  
Modern Species ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Postglacial Migration ◽  
The Impact

AbstractUnderstanding how climate refugia and migration over great distances have facilitated species survival during periods of past climate change is crucial for evaluating contemporary threats to biodiversity. In addition to tracking a changing climate, extant species must face complex, anthropogenically fragmented landscapes. The dominant conifer species in the mesic temperate forests of the Pacific Northwest are split by the arid rain-shadow of the Cascade Range into coastal and interior distributions, with continued debate over the origins of the interior populations. If the Last Glacial Maximum extirpated populations in the interior then postglacial migration across the arid divide would have been necessary to create the current distribution, whereas interior refugial persistence could have locally repopulated the disjunction. These alternative scenarios have significant implications for the postglacial development of the Pacific Northwest mesic forests and the impact of dispersal barriers during periods of climate change. Here we use genotyping-by-sequencing (ddRADseq) and phylogeographical modeling to show that the postglacial expansion of both mountain hemlock and western redcedar consisted largely of long-distance spread inland in the direction of dominant winds, with limited expansion from an interior redcedar refugium. Our results for these two key mesic conifers, along with fossil pollen data, address the longstanding question on the development of the Pacific Northwest mesic forests and contrast with many recent studies emphasizing the role of cryptic refugia in colonizing modern species ranges.Statement of SignificanceUnderstanding whether habitat fragmentation hinders range shifts as species track a changing climate presents a pressing challenge for biologists. Species with disjunct distributions provide a natural laboratory for studying the effects of fragmentation during past periods of climate change. We find that dispersal across a 50-200-km inhospitable barrier characterized the expansion of two conifer species since the last ice age. The importance of migration, and minimal contribution of more local glacial refugia, contrasts with many recent studies emphasizing the role of microrefugia in populating modern species distributions. Our results address a longstanding question on the development of the disjunct mesic conifer forests of the Pacific Northwest and offer new insights into the spatiotemporal patterns of refugial populations and postglacial vegetation development previously unresolved despite decades of paleoecological studies.

scholarly journals Bearing Witness 2016: A Fiji climate change journalism case study

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 186 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Robie ◽  
Sarika Chand
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Tropical Storm ◽  
Pacific Island ◽  
Regional Environment ◽  
Bearing Witness ◽  
Fiji Islands ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The University ◽  
Environment Programme

In February 2016, the Fiji Islands were devastated by Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston, the strongest recorded tropical storm in the Southern Hemisphere. The category 5 storm with wind gusts reaching 300 kilometres an hour, left 44 people dead, 45,000 people displaced, 350,000 indirectly affected, and $650 million worth of damage (Climate Council, 2016). In March 2017, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) launched a new 10-year Strategic Plan 2017-2026, which regards climate change as a ‘deeply troubling issue for the environmental, economic, and social viability of Pacific island countries and territories’. In November, Fiji will co-host the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP23) climate change conference in Bonn, Germany. Against this background, the Pacific Media Centre despatched two neophyte journalists to Fiji for a two-week field trip in April 2016 on a ‘bearing witness’ journalism experiential assignment to work in collaboration with the Pacific Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development (PaCE-SD) and the Regional Journalism Programme at the University of the South Pacific. This paper is a case study assessing this climate change journalism project and arguing for the initiative to be funded for a multiple-year period in future and to cover additional Pacific countries, especially those so-called ‘frontline’ climate change states. 

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