Asian Geographic Magazines

As the Paris Agreement on climate change comes into effect, many people are left wondering if it’s already too late to save many of the world’s vulnerable low-lying coastal communities. The science shows that sea levels worldwide have been rising at a rate of 3.5 millimetres per year since the early 1990s. This rising sea level is directly linked to global climate change due to three important factors: the warming of the oceans, or thermal expansion; the melting of glaciers; and ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica.

The planet is undergoing unexpected and complicated – but understandable – changes. Sunlight penetrating the Earth’s atmosphere is being trapped, and the world is storing heat energy more than it used to. Why is this change occurring?

The Hong Kong government’s web page on climate change details its initiatives in this area and lists ways individuals can take action, such as recycling. At no point is there any mention of meat. And yet, the livestock sector accounts for a hefty 15 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – more than the emissions from all cars, planes, trains and ships combined – says the United Nation’s Food and Agricultural Organization.

Nepal offers an unusually positive example of a poor country whose strategies for development are simultaneously addressing climate change. It isn’t immediately obvious travelling through polluted Kathmandu, but a more careful look at the country as a whole reveals striking success at creating an all-renewable electricity system, a growing fleet of electric vehicles and motorbikes, renewable cooking systems, and a reforestation programme that is rapidly bringing forests back all across Nepal.

The baby orangutan grabs his mother’s limp body, shaking it with both hands, before taking off. We follow at full speed, aware of the need to catch him by hand – darting an animal this young could kill it. Just as he dashes up a nearby tree, Dr Laura Benedict grabs him by the legs. The orangutan – eyes bulging in terror, mouth stretched to capacity – begins to scream; terrible, brain-piercing shrieks.

In China’s mountainous Maoxian region in Sichuan Province, there are almost 6,500 hectares of pear and apple orchards. Every year, villagers descend on the farmlands to begin the monumental task of pollinating every single fruit blossom – by hand.

Working with Pathein University and the Myanmar Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry, Worldview International Foundation (www.wif.care) was asked to restore acres of barren forest, and by the end of 2015 they had rescued and planted no fewer than 2.5 million trees. The site was completely transformed, and it is now known as the Thor Heyerdahl Climate Park.

In many countries, particularly in the developed world, climate change as a result of man-made pollution exists as little more than a frightening prospect, even while widely acknowledged as an accepted fact, empirically proven by modern science. But in Tondo, northwest of the city of Manila in the Philippines, climate change and rampant pollution are realities that residents live with every day.