The faces fighting climate chaos
Giuseppe Miranti, an Italian beekeeper and climate witness
© WWF-Italy/Claudia AMICO
In a world of growing disquiet about environmental pressures, an Italian beekeeper, a Tuvaluan community worker and a Queensland farmer have much in common. Not only are they witnesses to climate change and erratic animal behaviour, but they believe if the future is man made, they will do something about it.
Tides of change in Tuvalu
The dynamic coordinator of the TANGO, the Tuvalu Association of Non Government Organisations, Annie Homasi saw the highest ever king tides wash in over her island this January. She is undaunted by the media speculation about Tuvaluans' estimated time of departure from their atoll home.
Tuvalu has become a cause célèbre for a niche of 'seagull' journalism where errant scribes land on a place, pronounce it benighted or doomed because of climate change, and fly off again. It is true a mean sea-level rise in Tuvalu of just 20 to 40 cm in the next hundred years would significantly increase the frequency and depth of saltwater flooding and accelerate coastal erosion. It would poison the pits where they grow giant swamp taro plants and undermine buildings. It will make the country uninhabitable within three decades and may disappear altogether by the end of the century. But Tuvaluans are not standing still.
"I think awareness raising is the most important thing that needs to happen", says Annie. "A lot of people still believe that God will save us from the big flood, because of God's covenant with Noah. Secondly, there is an urgent need for adaptation projects. The seawall at the wharf in Betio in Kiribati has been working well for the last 50 years. We should learn from its design."
TANGO is helping island community's address coastal erosion by encouraging them to adopt a coastal tree each, and protect it and is also working with the National Council of Women on a mangrove replanting project.
Australian farmers witness climate chaos
In 2004, Queensland farmers and local scientists were asked to join WWF's Climate Witness Project documenting farmers and landholders' observations of changes to the climate and the responses they have made to those changes in the Border Rivers Region in New South Wales and Queensland.
More than 80% of the 60 farmers interviewed observed changes to the climate and 80% of these have made changes to management practices in response to these climatic changes. The farmer's found that rainfall patterns were skewed and timing of rainfall, stream flows, temperature and timing of first and last frost were changing.
Jean Harslett, a Stanthorpe octogenarian and keen observer of the natural world, always kept excellent records of the bird, insect and plant life that surrounded her. In a rapidly changing world, these notes are an increasingly valuable resource.
Jean has noticed disruptions to cycles, increased competition between species, the disappearance of a number of species of Jewel Beetles, along with Malaleuca trees and found that while crayfish used to be plentiful in the creeks but they are now difficult to find."The parrots nested absolutely everywhere last year and when the dollar birds arrived from way up north, their usual hollow was taken - there was a terrible fuss for a few days," Jean says.
Italian beekeepers speak out on climate change
Bees are changing their behaviour in response to the warmer climate
© WWF-Canon/Anton VORAUER
Giuseppe Miranti is a 27 year-old native of Piacenza, a province in the north of Italy. He's the owner of a bio-agricultural company producing organic cereal and livestock farming. He's also a bee-keeper.
"Honey always had its place in an Italian buffet: it's sweet and delicious. But over the last years something has changed," says Guiseppe, who was chosen by his province to speak about climate change in international forums.
Due to warmer temperatures flowers are blooming at unusual times, which makes the bees change their behaviour. Today, bee parasites live longer and are more persistent because of the warmer climate.
"Over the centuries bees have instinctively learnt to adapt to changes in their natural environment, but I have my doubts that they will we able adapt to man-made climate change."
Guisseppe says Italian bee-keepers find it very difficult to deal with the changes, but they keep trying to compensate for the recent imbalances in the bees' ecosystem by adjusting for better nutrition so bees are in good condition when the flowers bloom. It's not an ideal solution.
But for Guisseppe, larger solutions must be pushed from all levels. As a board member of Italy's largest farmer's association, Coldiretti, he is speaking out about climate change whenever he has the opportunity.
"I have my doubts that bees will be able to adapt to man made climate change."
He puts it this way: "Let's remember what Albert Einstein once said, "Should the honey bee ever disappear, mankind would only survive a few years beyond it".
What's with the weather?
In May 2006 a leaked report from the world's most distinguished atmospheric chemists, physicists and climatologists confirmed, again, what we already know to be true:
The weather isn't like it used to be.
A draft copy of a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that global average temperatures this century will rise by between 2°C and 4.5°C as a result of the doubling of carbon dioxide levels caused by man-made emissions. These temperatures could increase by a further 1.5°C as a result of 'positive' feedbacks in the climate resulting from the melting of sea ice, thawing permafrost and the acidification of the oceans.
In the same week, the world's long list of species soon to be missing-in-action, the World Conservation Union's famed Red List, was also released.
Polar bears, hippopotamuses and several species of Saharan gazelle have joined the list. In Australia, the hairy-nosed wombat and southern bluefin tuna are among the animals on the way out.
More than 16,000 species, a very conservative round-up, are threatened with extinction, including one in three amphibians, a quarter of the world's coniferous trees, one in eight birds and one in four mammals.
But many of us already know something is up.
