Prince Charles Co-Authors Ladybird Climate Change Book

BBC

The cover of the book was based on an image of flooding in Uckfield, East Sussex. Penguin

Prince Charles has co-authored a Ladybird book on the challenges and possible solutions to climate change.

It is part of a series for adults written in the style of the well-known children's books that aims to clearly explain complicated subjects.
The 52-page guide has been co-authored by former Friends of the Earth director Tony Juniper and climate scientist Emily Shuckburgh.
Mr Juniper said he hoped the book would "stand the test of time".
Ladybird produced a series of books for children in the 1960s and 1970s and has recently found renewed success with a range of humorous books for adults.
Titles include the Ladybird Book of the Mid-Life Crisis and the Ladybird Book of the Hangover.
The latest series involves experts explaining complex subjects in simple form.
The prince previously co-authored a book with Mr Juniper and Ian Skelly called Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World. He also wrote a children's book entitled The Old Man of Lochnagar.

The full cover of the climate change book, which goes on sale later in January. Penguin

Mr Juniper told the Mail on Sunday: "His royal highness, Emily and I had to work very hard to make sure that each word did its job, while at the same time working with the pictures to deliver the points we needed to make.
"I hope we've managed to paint a vivid picture, and, like those iconic titles from the 60s and 70s, created a title that will stand the test of time."
A publishing director for Penguin, which produces Ladybird books, revealed Clarence House had put the latest idea to the publisher.
Rowland White told the Sunday Times: "It was a coincidence where we were thinking about a new series for adults after the huge success of the spoof books, but this time wanted some factual books by experts on science, history and arts subjects."
Penguin Books said the title, which will be released on 26 January, had been read and reviewed by figures within the environmental community.
The other books in the series are Quantum Mechanics by Jim Al-Khalili, and Evolution by Steve Jones.
Asked how the book might be received in the academic community, Dr Phillip Williamson, an associate fellow at the University of East Anglia's School of Environmental Sciences, said: "There's the obvious danger that this won't be taken seriously.
"But if the style is right, and the information is correct and understandable, the new Ladybird book with royal authorship could be just what is needed to get the message across that everyone needs to take action on climate change."

Ladybird Books has recently had renewed success with a range of humorous books for adults. Ladybird

Links

• Prince Charles pens Ladybird book on climate change
• Ladybird Books
• What Prince Charles gets wrong – and right – about climate change and conflict in Syria
• ‘Unprecedented level of cooperation’ needed to tackle climate change, says Prince Charles

Climate Change Fallout in Bangladesh: 9.6m people to migrate by 2050

Daily Star - Staff Correspondent

Increased natural disasters and loss of livelihoods due to climatic factors are forcing people to migrate internally, according to a study of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
Costal districts are very vulnerable to cyclones, storm surges, tidal floods, salinity intrusion and sea level rise, while drought, flash floods and riverine floods have made public life very difficult in the north and northeast region of Bangladesh, it says.
The IOM yesterday shared the information at a Regional Dissemination Meeting of “Assessing the Climate Change, Environmental Degradation and Migration Nexus in South Asia” jointly organised by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in the capital's Bangabandhu International Conference Centre.
The IOM conducted the study in Bangladesh, the Maldives and Nepal. In Bangladesh, the research was carried out among 320 households in four upazilas of Khulna, Patuakhali, Rajshahi and Sunamganj.
Around 9.6 million people in Bangladesh, excluding temporary and seasonal migrants, will migrate internally due to climatic factors between 2011 and 2050, says the IOM in its study referring to a report of the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) done in 2015.
Referring to another report of Displacement Solutions, an international organisation dedicated to resolving cases of forced displacement throughout the world, the IOM also mentioned that around six million people have been displaced from their houses due to climate change effects in Bangladesh.
Increased temperatures and variations in rainfall are the most prevalent climate change elements affecting the lives and livelihoods of people in Bangladesh in recent years, it mentioned.
Golam Rabbani, a leading consultant at Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, led the team for conducting the study in Bangladesh.
As he was presenting his research findings, he said 92 percent respondents felt that the impacts of internal migration had made women more vulnerable as men could go for work in another district.
Referring to the IDMC report, he said more than 19 million people across the world were displaced internally in 2015 due to sudden-onset of disasters.
Of the global total, 7.9 million or 41 percent were from South Asia, he added.
Bangladesh and Nepal are the countries of origin of many less skilled international migrants, while the Maldives is identified as the destination of many migrants from both Bangladesh and Nepal. However, all three countries are also destination for skilled migrants originating from within the region.
Prof Ainun Nishat, an eminent expert on climate change issues and former vice-chancellor of BRAC University, however, said it was essential to ensure alternative livelihoods for the affected people instead of encouraging them in migration.
Environment and Forests Ministry Secretary Istiaque Ahmad and Chief of Mission of IOM Bangladesh Sarat Dash, among others, spoke on the occasion.

Links

• International Organization for Migration
• The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre
• Climate change influencing migration flows in Bangladesh: IOM
• IOM: Bangladesh likely to see hike in climate migration
• Climate change will cost Bangladesh $121 billion

Climate Change: 90% Of Rural Australians Say Their Lives Are Already Affected

The Guardian - Calla Wahlquist

Overwhelming majority believe they are living with the effects of warming and 46% say coal-fired power should be phased out

The Climate Institute says 82% of poll respondents in rural and regional Australia and 81% of those in capital cities were concerned about increased droughts as a result of climate change. Photograph: kristianbell/Getty Images/RooM RF

Ninety per cent of people living in rural and regional Australia believe they are already experiencing the impacts of climate change and 46% believe coal-fired power stations should be phased out, according to a new study.
A poll of 2,000 people conducted by the Climate Institute found that 82% of respondents in rural and regional Australia and 81% of those in capital cities were concerned about increased droughts, flooding and destruction of the Great Barrier Reef due to climate change, and 78% of all respondents were concerned there would be more bushfires.
About three quarters of all respondents – 76% in capital cities and 74% in rural or regional areas – said ignoring climate change would make the situation worse and about two-thirds said they believed the federal government should take a leading role.

Level of concern for the effect of climate change on scenarios for capital city population compared to regional and rural

Guardian graphic | Source: Climate Media Centre

However, only a third of respondents said the federal government should be contributing to action on climate change.
Instead, two-thirds, (67% in capital cities and 71% in regional areas) said individuals should be contributing to action on climate change and about half said state and local governments and businesses should be contributing to action on climate change.
The majority of people – 59% in capital cities and 53% in regional areas – said solar was their preferred energy source, followed by wind and hydro.
Only 3% of respondents in the city and 4% in regional areas said coal was their preferred energy source.
Nicky Ison, the director of the Community Power Agency, which represents 80 grassroots groups, said the results showed that concern about climate change was not limited to inner-city suburbs.
“I think there’s a misconception that concern is mainly held in the city and I think there are some strong voices, particularly in rural and regional Australia, that have exaggerated or stoked that misconception,” Ison said.
“A vocal minority gets a lot of traction, probably because they have a greater access to megaphones.”

Most preferred energy source for capital city population compared to regional and rural

Guardian graphic | Source: Climate Media Centre

Matthew Charles-Jones is a co-president of Totally Renewable Yackandandah, a community-run initiative that aims to make the small town, 300km north-east of Melbourne, entirely run on renewable power by 2022.
Charles-Jones said the group was motivated by energy security and rising electricity costs but members were also concerned about the effects of climate change.
“We have been threatened by bushfire roughly every three years for the last decade,” he said.
The last bushfire was in December 2015. “It’s very real for us in Yackandandah,” Charles-Jones said.

Links

• Farmers want action on climate change, new survey shows
• NFF modernises climate change thinking
• Farmer survey reveals concern, shifting attitudes on climate change
• Betting the Farm: Farmers confront climate change
• Adani coalmine activists gear up to fight: ‘This will dwarf the Franklin blockade’