How climate change affects us

Climate change affects each and every one of us, whether we live in an urban or rural setting. Communities adapt in the wake of climate change and traditional agricultural practices persist, but as the impacts and severity of climate change increase, we need innovative methods to build resilience and mitigate those impacts.

Rising sea levels and erratic rainfall patterns, flooding and drought brought on by rising temperatures are all examples of the effects of climate change. In turn, these lead to loss of land mass, reduced yields of agricultural crops and disrupted crop cycles. Fishing activities can be affected by changes in sea temperatures, which can limit the availability of local fish species.

Groundwater is overdrawn for agriculture and potable water for households. In the event of natural disasters, this can lead to saline water intrusion.

Source: Srivastava, R., & Kachchh, M. (2016, 19 November). Weather forecasting and sustainable agriculture [PowerPoint presentation]. SlideShare. https://www.slideshare.net/KiritShelat/entalkweatherforecastingagriculture Licence: Open access

The diagram above shows how agriculture is affected by climate change:

• Soil and water degradation refers to soil and water sources being polluted and soil fertility reduced.
• Agriculture inputs refers to seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, veterinary drugs, equipment, animal feed and energy (electricity/other power to run farm machinery).
• Influence on productivity refers to agricultural yields being reduced.
• Declination of farmers’ income refers to drops in farmers’ incomes.
• Food security refers to reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable and nutritious food.
• Disaster/catastrophe refers to typhoons, earthquakes, flooding, tsunami, extreme drought and other extreme natural events.
• Crop pattern refers to the proportion of an area in which various crops are being grown at a given point of time.
• Evaporation refers to water from soil surfaces and water bodies turning to water vapour, which results in water loss.

What is innovation in response to climate change?

Households and communities can change:

• the way their local products are made or grown,
• the processes involved in producing goods, and
• the services they provide to generate income.

These changes — or new practices or new methods — are innovations.

In light of the impacts of climate change, communities can make changes to the ways they produce, package, transport and supply food produce such as grains, vegetables, fruits, meat and fodder for domestic animals.

Innovation is a way to help communities and households to improve their livelihoods when their income-generating activities are affected by the impacts of climate change.

Here are some examples of innovation or new ideas:

• new crops (e.g., plant lotus in waterlogged areas as a new source of food and fibre)
• new methods (e.g., post-harvest techniques using local nipah or edible palm leaves to wrap raw food to keep it fresh for longer)
• new products (e.g., handicrafts made from widely available raw materials such as reeds/wetland plants or screw pine trees in waterlogged soil)