“Climate Mainstreaming” – The New Must for Planning

These tiny communities plan for and anticipate higher-than-usual tides and water levels. They know that climate cycles will have direct and immediate impact on their lives, so they integrate awareness of climate change into their everyday planning.

Sooner or later, Shea said, that same thinking must happen for all of us.

“We have to build resilient communities, communities that are aware, engaged, informed, empowered, responsive, prepared, adaptive and sustainable,” she said.

Nowhere is this more immediately obvious than in our use of water, Shea said.

“We’re going to feel the impact of global warming on rainfall and water resource long before other impacts.

“If we don’t solve the water problem, we won’t be able to even think about anything else.

“So it’s important for us to think about water resources and integrate planning for water resources now, not 20 years from now,” she said.

Planning for global climate change can and should involve mitigation measures, such as conservation, renewable energy, reforestation and basic changes to lifestyles, Shea acknowledged.

But realistically, it also means getting ready for changes soon to come, no matter what we do today.

“Even if every nation was in compliance with decreasing greenhouse emissions by 60 percent (not 6 percent as called for in the Kyoto climate treaty), we would still be in for a century of climate change,” Shea said.

“Changing climate affects real people in real places,” she concluded. “In partnership among ourselves, our families, communities and nations, we have to establish a new relationship with the Earth’s climate system.

“A human-climate partnership.”

The EAST-WEST CENTER is an education and research organization established by the U.S. Congress in 1960 to strengthen relations and understanding among the peoples and nations of Asia, the Pacific, and the United States. The Center contributes to a peaceful, prosperous and just Asia Pacific community by serving as a vigorous hub for cooperative research, education and dialogue on critical issues of common concern to the Asia Pacific region and the United States. Funding for the Center comes from the U.S. government, with additional support provided by private agencies, individuals, foundations, corporations and the governments of the region.

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