Correspondent's Notebook
Lights Off – Awareness On
20 June 2008
This weekend, Radio Australia is taking part in a unique regional event, involving broadcasters from across Asia and the Pacific.
Deborah Steele, Radio Australia’s Chief Editor, highlights “Lights off – Awareness On” – the name of a campaign that aims to promote awareness of climate change and help build empathy with those in the region who are likely to be hardest hit.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, there is unequivocal evidence of climate change: increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising sea levels.
It says freshwater availability in Central, South, East and South-East Asia, particularly in large river basins, is projected to decrease by 2050.
It says coastal areas, especially heavily populated megadelta regions in South, East and South-East Asia, will be at greatest risk due to increased flooding from the sea and, in some megadeltas, flooding from the rivers.
Climate change is projected to compound the pressures on natural resources and the environment
associated with rapid urbanisation, industrialisation and economic development.
Endemic morbidity and mortality due to diarrhoeal disease primarily associated with floods and droughts is expected to rise in East, South and South-East Asia.
Meanwhile, in the Pacific, sea level rises are expected to exacerbate inundation, storm surge, erosion and other coastal hazards, threatening infrastructure, settlements and facilities that support the livelihood of island communities.
Deterioration in coastal conditions, for example through erosion of beaches and coral bleaching, is expected to affect local resources.
And by mid-century, climate change is expected to reduce water resources in many small islands, to the point where they become insufficient to meet demand during low-rainfall.
The case for action could not be clearer.
Broadcasters joining Radio Australia and the ABU in the Lights Off campaign include Tokyo Broadcasting Systems in Japan, Radio Television Hong Kong, China National Radio, Korea Broadcasting Systems, Radio Republik Indonesia, Radio Nepal and the Maharajah Broadcasting Corporation in Sri Lanka.
Our team at Radio Australia has taken the opportunity to highlight some of the issues associated with climate change to our audiences in Indonesia, East Timor, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Papua New Guinea and right across the Pacific.
And on our website – radioaustralia.net.au – you will find information about the impact of climate change in the region and what can be done to help turn the situation around, including stories that show how authorities in two of the fastest growing economies in the world – China and India – are working to curb the impact of development on the environment.
That’s at radioaustralia.net.au – just go to the features section on the home page, to LIGHTS OFF, AWARENESS ON.
So this weekend, turn your lights off for one or two hours or more…and think about our friends on islands such as Kiribati and the Cataret group in Papua New Guinea, where rising sea levels are polluting ground water and killing food crops…resulting in the world’s first climate change refugees…. …to those in southeast and northeast Asia, where’s there’s concern about increasing numbers of typhoons….to our friends in India, Pakistan and China…concerned about reduced river flows from a shrinking ice fields. Think about farmers everywhere…who don’t know what to expect from one season to the next… to those who live in coastal areas, who don’t know whether a cliff fall or a disappearing patch of beach amounts to one-off incident , or a more ominous sign of what’s to come .
The effects of climate change amount to one of the biggest challenges to ever face our region….and we need to acknowledge what it means for us…and our neighbours.
