350 Marshallese style

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Youth to Youth in Health organized a rally that "was really great," according to one of the main organizers Benedict Yamamura. "It started from the 'spoon' [in Rita village and went] all the way to the former weather station [in Delap Village]," he says, effectively covering the most populated areas of Majuro Atoll, the capital of the Marshall Islands.

"Rosalie from V7AB was able to broadcast the rally and we were told to lead the whole parade," said Yamamura, pictured above. "I described what's 350," he said, as in parts per million, the level scientists have identified as the safe upper limit for CO2 concentration in our atmosphere. For more information, visit www.350.org

water water water!

Since January 2009, I've participated in a cross-regional dialog at the invitation of Cheryl Anderson at the University of Hawaii Urban and Regional Planning Department. The dialog is held over video teleconference (VTC), and the overall theme for all of the VTC sessions is “Climate Change, Water Impacts, and Indigenous People.” According nto Cheryl:

"It started w/some funding from the National Integrated Drought Information System through the RISA programs in a program called “coping w/drought.” For the places in our regions, drought is important, but water availability was the way that it manifests. For Alaska, water quality is problematic because of the global pollutants that work their way into the ice/ecosystems, and drought in islands happens a lot but the US was less aware because it does not have the extensive crop impacts like on the US mainland…One of the original intents of this project was to make sure that local and indigenous knowledge and approaches for dealing w/climate change are brought to the forefront and that US federal agencies are aware about how critical climate issues are. We wanted to provide a way to get 'voice' from remote, rural, and indigenous communities into policy development….

The theme areas were broad so that we could look at different elements in each dialogue. The November 2008 dialogue focused on drought and water availability specifically, with thoughts on how this will play out w/CC. The April dialogue focused more on climate change adaptation strategies.

Below is a link to a presentation I gave with colleagues Terry Keju, Moriana Philips, and Ingrid Ahlgren at the April session on Climate Change and Water Resources: The Marshall Islands. We didn't cover nearly all we wanted to, but it was a good start. You will also see some maps that indicate all participants of this unique cross-regional dialog on climate change among indigenous peoples.

http://www.uaf.edu/accap/cross_region_dialogue.htm

Education Week update

After assessing a coastline most appropriate for this project at the Marshall Islands High School, Phase I and Phase II were identified. See diagram. Note the MIHS garden, which is of paramount concern for this project.


So this past Thursday over 150 students and 30 volunteers planted 20 "large" trees and over 60 bush-type trees. Altogether, they are intended to protect the other plant life growing in the garden from salt spray and wind damage. Some of the trees planted also provide medicinal uses, such as the wop which is good for fish poisoning and armwe for burns and skin abrasions, as well as fishing line and rope making.


Here are members of the sophomore class who planted two wop trees and protected them using woven coconut fronds. The five of the brush-type trees you see in front of them will grow into a thick wind breaker. In the background is one of the school buildings, and just of to the right of it is the location for Phase 2 of this "Planting Resilience to Climate Change" project.

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.

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!

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."