MAINSTREAMING CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION IN AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION
While the number of disasters is increasing – some of which might be linked to
Climate Change (CC) – the majority of these are primarily due to underlying
factors such as increasing population, environmental degradation, disease, etc.
and are NOT directly attributable to CC.
Climate models are used to make predictions as to how the climate of the future
will act. But different climate models make different predictions.
SLIDE – Climate projections
• A great deal of uncertainty exists in the projections.
• Models agree that Climate change is a multiplier of risk
• Climate change is not a unique hazard but will interact with
many of the underlying drivers of risk resulting in complex,
dynamic situations
Greatest impacts will be on livelihoods. Thus we need to understand livelihoods
– what makes one livelihood strategy vulnerable and another less so.
SLIDE – Impact on livelihoods
• Potential decrease in crop yields, increase in water scarcity,
biodiversity loss
• New patterns of vector-borne diseases, increase in respiratory
diseases
• In countries with weaker risk-reducing capacities, underlying
risk drivers such as poor urban governance, vulnerable rural
livelihoods and ecosystem decline will be exacerbated by a
rapid expansion of weather-related risk.
While it is certain that the earth‟s atmosphere is warming, the other effects of
warming are less certain. While predictions of what lies ahead are uncertain,
warming is likely to have profound, as yet unknown effects, previously not
experienced. New diseases and ecological change driven by the climate
changing faster than the ability of many natural processes to adapt.
A Training Manual on Use of Climate Information and Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment for
Agricultural Extension Staff in Zimbabwe
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