Effective disaster reduction steps for Pakistan

Dawn (Pakistan): International aid agency Oxfam has said that an effective disaster reduction mechanism could have prevented the effects of fresh flooding in southern areas of Pakistan. It urged the government to urgently spend at least two per cent of its district budget on disaster risk reduction measures. “Failure to develop and implement effective disaster reduction relief measures after the lessons learnt from mega floods of 2010 will keep crippling country’s economy,” Oxfam said in a statement issued here on Thursday to mark the World Humanitarian Day.



The new flooding has put an additional stress on the government’s limited resources at a time when even a year after the 2010 floods many reconstruction and rehabilitation needs are still unmet, including the repair of embankments. This has particularly put the flood-prone areas at greater risk as the monsoon rains intensify. The fresh flooding has increased the number of those needing shelter, making 60,000 people homeless together with 800,000 people who are still without proper homes after the 2010 floods.



“Humanitarian assistance provides valuable and life-saving assistance to those in need during crises. However, it is the communities that face and cope with the first wave of disaster themselves before the government and aid workers can start their rescue and relief operations.



“Therefore, it is extremely important to ensure that communities are better prepared for disasters so that they are less reliant on outside assistance and can help themselves by mitigating losses at an early stage of disaster,” said Neva Khan, head of Oxfam in Pakistan. She said: “It is unfortunate that despite being a disaster-prone country people still continue to suffer year after year, and absence of effective disaster reduction relief measures is the main reason....

Global warming could deliver a jolt to coffee lovers

Josh Rubin in the Toronto Star: Global warming could deliver a jolt to coffee lovers – and not the kind they’ve come to crave first thing in the morning. Up to 60 per cent of the world’s coffee-growing regions will no longer be viable by 2050 thanks to climate change, according to a recent estimate from the Global Coffee Quality Research Initiative.



And that, says Trillium Asset Management researcher Jonas Kron, represents a major financial risk for companies who count on coffee for their profits. Trillium and Calvert Investment Management, Inc. called on U.S. consumer products giant Smucker’s to produce detailed disclosure of climate-related risks as part of its financial statements. “I’m not prone to hyperbole, but climate change is going to be the biggest financial issue for the next generation,” said Kron, adding that Smucker’s got 40 per cent of its revenues and 48 per cent of its earnings from coffee last year.



Calling for that kind of detailed disclosure is one sign among many that concern over global warming has shifted from protesters and activists to the board room. Experts say changing weather patterns will have an effect on everything from the size of ships that can ply the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River to the long-term viability of grain farming on the North American prairies.



Even financial regulators are adding to the concern, acknowledging climate change is a “material risk” for many companies. Last year, both the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Canadian Securities Administrators unveiled new guidelines for how companies should disclose the risks they face from environmental change...



Coffee beans shot by Aaron Logan, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license