Friday, January 30, 2009

Education Week in the Marshall Islands

The Marshall Islands Ministry of Education holds "Education Week" every year around February, and this year they have chosen CLIMATE CHANGE as its theme. The following are my notes from a recent brainstorming meeting that took at The Flame Tree Restaurant and Bar, one of my old Majuro favorites. One of the folks in attendance at the brainstorming meeting is pictured here...


...and his name is La-Dean. Although not "indigenous," he has been helping spread the word about compost and corals for years. Incidentally, he is co-teaching a University of Washington course taking place at the College of the Marshall Islands this summer entitled Corals, Climate, and Culture. The course, led by another adopted son of the Marshall Islands, UW climate researcher La-Julian, filled up within a matter of weeks.


Brainstorming Discussion for Education Week Theme "CLIMATE CHANGE" January 27, 2009 @ Flame Tree 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM Lunch courtesy Education Week Planning Committee

Everyone introduced themselves and provided background on their respective offices and roles.
- Dean Jacobson is an instructor of 7 years at the CMI Marine Science Department. He has conducted numerous marine surveys throughout RMI, and particularly around heavily populated Majuro Atoll. He offered to help Eunice secure compost for the Delap Elementary School garden.
- Eunice Borero is a member of the MOE School Enrichment Program, which currently administers various projects including after-school, clean up, sports, and gardening projects. She highlighted volunteer Tomasi Sali who is currently overseeing gardening projects.
- Kanji Hosia is the MOE Asst. Secretary for Early Childhood & Elementary Education. He has been involved in numerous cross-sectoral projects like this one as a representative of MOE, and is Co-Chair for this year's Education Week along with Allison Nashon.
- Albon Ishoda is the MIMRA Integrated Marine Resource Manager. He articulated the issues related to school involvement in climate change projects extremely well, and explained how existing programs like the Micronesian Challenge aim to (among other things) increase awareness about climate change and biodiversity through traditional resource management practices. He added that although Micronesian Challenge was targeting specific locations for program implementation, projects that support these same objectives but are based in other locations in the RMI will also be supported.
- Joe Lomai is a Micronesian Challenge intern at the MOE who recently conducted a very successful clean up effort by 8th graders across multiple schools.
- Mark Stege is a local consultant supporting efforts in the RMI and for the RMI. His focus is on climate change and the energy sector.
- Several people weren't able to attend but remain for comment and suggestions, including Rais Aho, Allison Nashon, and Franco Matieriti.

Several ideas for the EDU Week (Feb. 23-28) were "floated."
- Parade with individual students dressed up as a specific type of fish, the students could walk alongside a vehicle designed as a coral head, or not. Perhaps a single school would build the float and the fish costumes (or rather, just the costumes), since it would take a lot of creativity and organization management for this to be done among two or more different schools.
- Tree planting project aligned with Majuro agroforestry and climate change mitigation/adaptation strategies. The ocean side of MIHS was identified as a good site, and others also need to be identified. There was much discussion on the importance of compost to a successful tree planting project. Some compost sources include: 1) algae mixed with ashes, based on work conducted by Franco Matieriti in Enewetak Atoll; algae aggregates naturally and is available for collection on oceanside of Riwut Corner and in Laura, among others, depending on the weather; 2) copra cake from Tobolar; 3) piles of leaves and other organic waste collected around people's houses; 3) Majuro Atoll Waste Corporation, though we would need to advocate for more consistent mulching operations and remove coconut fronds; 4) pig pens contain compost as well, with proven results in Kiribati and other Pacific island farms.
- Essay contests and other types of contests; prizes and T-shirts

These and any other project ideas need to be tied to a learning outcome that is related to our theme. For example,
- Parade: corals are like the polar bear in that they are both endangered species due to ocean acidification, and the more number of fish and coral species that we have on our reefs, the more resilient our reefs will be to climate change; biodiversity!
- Tree planting: there are certain species of plant life that help an island grow because they a) hold sand already in place, and 2) capture sand and rocks carried to shore by waves. When planted along our coastline, these trees can help act as stabilizers against soil erosion from sea level rise.
- Essay contest: Student learning will depend on essay topic. Since the two ideas above (Parade and Tree planting) address ocean acidification and sea level rise, perhaps the essay contest could address another predicted impact of climate change, such as more frequent/intense El Nino events and salt water intrusion into fresh water lens.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Food Security in the Islands

Today I talked with Franko Mateariki who has spent his entire career farming in the atolls of the Marshall Islands, most significantly in the dryer northern atoll of former US nuclear testing site Enewetak. For the past decade at least, this guy has been coming up with trade secrets left and right on how to grow food in arid, salty climates. Amazing stuff. He's going to be issuing a paper soon, and asked me to review it. And the best part is, he works two doors down from where I'm currently holed up in the "Energy Division" of the Ministry of Resources and Development.

Surely, some interesting R&D being conducted on food security, energy, and other matters relevant to climate change in the Marshall Islands. Its going to be a busy and fun 2009!

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Meanwhile in Reno, NV...


Meanwhile, Juliana Jibo Neni Luther and her baba Lakkun experienced minor flooding in their home in Reno, NV. Reports are all are safe and sound.

Low Pressure = High Waves

Low pressure in the atmosphere above traditional Marshallese voyaging port Enen Kio resulted in high waves around the holidays.


According to oceanographer Julian Sachs, low pressure in the atmosphere results in HIGH sea level below it because there is less weight of the atmosphere on top of the ocean. That is an important contributor to "storm surges" when high seas push onshore during hurricanes and tropical storms. Winds in the latter case are also a major factor of course, he explains.

Luckily sea levels in the Marshall Islands were lower than usual when the "first wave" of high waves began rolling in. If they had been higher, the impact on this densely populated community would have likely been much worse. There were no deaths from the flooding.


Check out Yokwe Online for more indigenous voices and photos on the flooding event. And here is an article sent to me by buddy Dan that describes how "severe flooding forced more than 600 people from their homes."