Rashid's Blog: A Place for Inquisitive Souls

Session:
Public Art and Accountability: Whose Art for Whose City?

Convenors:

January 11, 2013 – BANGLADESH– A cold snap which saw temperatures drop on Thursday to their lowest point in Bangladesh’s post-independence history has killed around 80 people, officials said. The weather office said the lowest temperature was recorded at 3ºC in the northern town of Syedpur and the Red Crescent said hospitals were packed with patients suffering respiratory illness. Shah Alam, deputy head of the weather office, said the last time the temperature had dropped below 3ºC was in February 1968 when Bangladesh was still part of Pakistan. “Thetemperature is the lowest in Bangladesh’s history” he said. The Red Crescent Society said impoverished rural areas had been worst hit as many people could not afford warm clothing or heating. “They are not prepared for such extreme weather. Many could not even go to work,” the society’s general-secretary Abu Bakar said. “According to the reports of our…

Exploring future impacts of environmental constraints on human development(37 page pdf, Barry B. Hughes, Mohammod T. Irfan, Jonathan D. Moyer, Dale S. Rothman and José R. Solórzano, Sustainability, May 10, 2012)

Today we review a look at the long term impact of climate change on human development for the next century where the policy choices made to deal with climate change on the one hand (example carbon taxes applied globally) are combined in a model with varying degrees of possible environmental scenarios. Not surprisingly, the results do not produce a future or futures with a lot of hope and the road to global disaster “has a low probability”. The impacts on the economy, well-being and the environment,  particularly for developing countries could be very useful in preparing the world for what lies ahead.

To see Key Quotes and Links to key reports about this post, click HERE