Vietnam is in record heat again
May 19, 2012 – Rully Prayoga
Vietnam is in record heat again
by Hong Hoang, 350.org Vietnam
The year 2010 was the world’s warmest year on record, when the temperature in Vietnam also reached a record level. In the capital city of Hanoi, the outside temperature in June 2010 sometimes went up to 44-45oC (111-113oF).
And in April and early May this year, the Vietnamese people experienced the record heat again. People in many cities and provinces coped with the worst heat, totally unusual for early summer. Highest temperatures were recorded in many provinces in North and Central Vietnam (Lao Cai, Cao Bang, Hoa Binh, Bac Kan, Nghe An…), which broke all the previous records made in these provinces for the last 30-60 years. Although the announced temperatures were around 40-41oC (104-105.8oF), the actual outside temperatures usually went up to 45-46oC (113-114.8oF), because the heat was added up by the blazing sun rays, the gas emission, an other factors related to urban heat island.
The fierce heat could be the main reason that caused dozens of forest fires throughout Vietnam in the past month. The worst one was the fire in Hai Van Special Use Forest in Central Vietnam on 2 May, that burned down 100 hectares of primitive forests and plantation forests. With more similar heat waves expected to come from now until July, many forests are in high risk to catch fire.
Fighting hard with the horrible heat, volunteers of 350.org in Ho Chi Minh City decided to do anything to cool the city down. As part of Connect the Dots campaign, they took on the mission to plant 1.000 trees in District 12, Ho Chi Minh City, where people do not only suffer from the heat, but also from the frequent inundations caused by high tides, that have constantly made new height records for the past 4 years, which was determined by the local meteorologists to be the consequence of the sea level rise. In addition to that, the volunteers will also help the local residents to reinforce the dykes that were broken during the recent floods, and clear up water hyacinth along the river branches that go around the villages, which will help to ensure easier water flows and therefore prevent the water from overflowing into the houses.
“I was born and grew up in this city and I love it,” said Mai Khanh Vo, volunteer leader of Connect the Dots HCMC. “We are all aware that global climate change has something to do with the recent weather extremes. For the first time in my life, I experience a bad storm that attacked HCMC in early April, which according to scientists was a very unusual for this season and for this region. I have friends from various provinces, and they all tell me about the unusual weather events that recently caused damages to their families. And even in HCMC, the most developed city of Vietnam, we have to live with tide-caused inundations every month. While we cannot do anything to immediately stop the floods, we can do something to reduce the impacts, and to prevent the water from going up even higher in the future.”
For more information please contact Hong Hoang hong@350.org
The story behind a powerful image
May 17, 2012 – Juliana Russar
We asked our organizers in Salvador, Brazil, to tell us more about the story behind one of the most iconic images of Climate Impacts Day. Below you can read the whole story:
The picture above is part of an action carried out by 350.org volunteers from the city of Salvador, Brazil, during Climate Impacts Day (5/5). It may even seem an exaggerated situation, but it highlights what is going to happen – in fact, already happening – in the lives of people living in coastal areas. It is estimated that over 600 million of people live in areas at risk with sea level rise. Only in Brazil, they are 42 million – a quarter of the entire population!
During a 350.org workshop, the group came out with the idea of organizing an action that could draw people’s attention to the danger we are facing as extreme weather get more frequent and extreme. However, for one person in special, what happened in that scene was not something new. This person was Raphael Gomes, the volunteers’ coordinator of Salvador group.
Raphael and his family lived in a city in the countryside of Bahia where they struggled during the droughts season year after year. When he moved to the capital, Salvador, his family faced floods. Thus, when he stood there watching the little Naira Cerqueira, 7, in the scene in which the sea water floods her residence, Raphael was reliving his own childhood. “Those were tough times, because for a kid to wake up and witness all of his possessions being damaged by the rain is something that takes time to be overcome – although we never forget it.”, he says.
Fortunately, the life’s difficulties would not dishearten him. On the contrary, they served as an incentive for Raphael to move towards a path of solidarity and much engagement and commitment to causes related to environment protection. “I believe that everything that happened in my life brought me closer to environmental issues. Not in a passive way, but it has created in me a truly need to motivate and mobilize people to comprehend the causes and consequences of climate change. In fact, it is more than that: it is also about showing them what the solutions are and who are the responsible for making them true”, he says.
Today, it has been three years since Raphael is leading the group and, despite the young age, 21, he is sure about what he wants: “We want to build a movement in which people can be empowered to make a difference. The picture we took at the beach is a small sample of this – but we want and need to do much more. We are very pleased with the photo’s repercussion, and we want more and more to engage the media and the society”, he states.
Text and Featured Image: Diêgo Lôbo
In Gunma, in Japan
May 14, 2012 – Bill McKibben
they picked up trash that washed down the rivers during recent floods.
In central Japan, we’re having hotter summers, colder winters and more
unpredictable and severe weather in between. This spring sudden
downpours damaged crops, and washed garbage down river (which we did our
best to pick up). This particular “dot” we labeled. It was nothing to
the freak tornado that devastated part of Tsukuba, the hail storms
(marbles and golf balls), and the killer lightening storms that plowed through three prefectures just afterwards,
From Daegu in South Korea
May 14, 2012 – Bill McKibben
Here’s the note they sent: With the rising cost of rice due to increase rain, in the future, many of these
people may have to forgo traditional lunches of duboki and kimbap!
Our friends in Bungoma Kenya
May 11, 2012 – Bill McKibben
organized by the local group Jatonet
A poignant picture from Burundi that connects a lot of dots
May 11, 2012 – Bill McKibben
It came with this caption: Here, it is in a village of Gatumba in a country of east Africa which is called Burundi. In this photo, we are in the presence of a young lady showing with the finger there where was her house before being taken by the violent rain. Now you see it yourself, there is only a swamp of water….
Connecting the dots in India's beautiful Nilgiri Hills
May 11, 2012 – Bill McKibben
At KPMG in Santiago Chile
May 11, 2012 – Bill McKibben
We told everyone at the company to come to work on a bike and then we drove
around in circles around our office building at lunch time wearing KPMG
vivesostenible T-shirt that was especially designed for the event. We also
gave lectures to over 50 employees about climate change and sustainablity
and how everything is connected!
From Senga-Gweru in Zimbabwe
May 11, 2012 – Bill McKibben
The message from Hembergen, Germany
May 11, 2012 – Bill McKibben
“We’re up to our necks in it, so let’s get to work!”
