Weathering

New Online Maps: Population and Climate Change Hotspots

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Population Action International’s mapping website shows how climate change and population dynamics will change the world over time. New features on the site include country profiles which contain maps, graphs, videos, and additional resources that offer a closer look at population, gender, and climate change trends in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nepal, and Peru.

High rates of population growth and climate change consequences overlap in many countries. Interactive maps illustrate how climate change impacts, demographic trends and the need for contraception are likely to affect countries’ abilities to adapt to climate change.

The maps identify 26 population and climate change hotspots – countries that are experiencing rapid population growth, low resilience to climate change, and high projected declines in agricultural production. Many hotspots are currently experiencing water stress or scarcity, a condition that will worsen with continued rapid population growth. And in many countries, a high proportion of women lack access to reproductive health services and contraceptives. Investments in family planning programs in these hotspots could improve health and well-being, slow population growth, and reduce vulnerability to climate change impacts.

The newly-updated interactive mapping website can be viewed here.

The brief guide to the population and climate change hotspots can be downloaded here.

Related themes of population, gender and climate change are highlighted in Population Action International’s new 15-minute documentary film, Weathering Change: Stories About Climate and Family From Women Around the World. The film takes viewers to Ethiopia, Nepal, and Peru to hear the stories of women as they struggle to care for their families, while enduring crop failures and water scarcity. The film shows how women and families are already adapting to the climate change challenges that threaten their health and their livelihoods. As the world’s population hits 7 billion in 2011, the film calls for expanding access to contraception and empowering women to help families and communities adapt to the effects of climate change. The film and related materials can be viewed at http://www.weatheringchange.org

 

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.

It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
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SEEDS|Earthdance 2010 – NOURISHMENT: A crop’s environment

SEEDS|Earthdance is a unique festival dedicated to Somatic Experiments in Earth, Dance, + Science. We are very excited about the festival in its third year, 2010 – this summer will be quite an adventure! I hope you can join us for a workshop, for the whole event, for the research projects, or the public events. Please come and be a part of this experiment in interdisciplinary arts and ecology. Get in touch if you have any questions, or go right to the site and sign up.

Thank you

Olive Bieringa, SEEDS co-curator

The theme of this year’s 10-day long SEEDS festival is NOURISHMENT: A crop’s environment—including soil, topography, and climate—imparts a characteristic taste and flavor and must be taken into consideration in cultivation. With care, through interaction we hope to create an ultra-lush, enriching, and regenerative culture in which to grow our art.

Come for a performance or a film, a workshop, a jam, or the whole festival!

You are also invited to sign up for workshops, for the whole festival, for research projects, in addition to evening  performances, discussions, jams, and films as well as the Saturday Community Day as part of your participation.

SEEDS workshops:

  • Diego Piñon/Butoh Ritual Mexicano Dance<
  • Benoît Lachambre/Extending the Comfort Zone<
  • K.J. Holmes/Weathering<
  • & PineCones <(an overnight event)
  • Pedro Alejandro/Soft Body/Soft Terrain, Open Artist’s Projec<
  • Dave Jacke/Eden Arising: Ecological Design as a Spiritual Practice<
  • Plus performances, an ECO jam, disucssions, films, artists-in-residence, green m-Art, and more.

WWW.EARTHDANCE.NET/seeds