Climate Change and Vulnerability

Neil Leary is Director, Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education, Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He was the Science Director of the AIACC project. Cecilia Conde is a researcher at the Center of Atmospheric Sciences, UNAM, Mexico. Jyoti Kulkarni is a program associate at the International START Secretariat, Washington, DC, USA. Anthony Nyong is Programme Manager, International Development Research Center, Nairobi, Kenya. Juan Pulhin is Associate Professor at the College of Forestry and Natural Resources (CFNR), University of the Philippines Los Ba os, Philippines.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded in its 2001 report that much of the developing world is highly vulnerable to adverse impacts from climate change. But the IPCC also concluded that the vulnerabilities of developing countries are too little studied and too poorly understood to enable determination of adaptation strategies that would be effective at reducing risks. This authoritative volume (along with its companion covering adaptation), resulting from the work of the Assessments of Impacts and Adaptations to Climate Change (AIACC) project launched by the IPCC in 2002, is the first to provide a comprehensive investigation of the issues at stake.

Foreword by R. K. Pachauri * Part I: Introduction * For Whom the Bell Tolls: Vulnerabilities in a Changing Climate * Part II: Natural Resource Systems * Vulnerability of Southern African Biodiversity to Climate Change * Forest Responses to Changing Rainfall in the Philippines * Vulnerability of Mongolia's Pastoralists to Climate Extremes and Changes * Resource System Vulnerability to Climate Stresses in the Heihe River Basin of Western China * Part III: Coastal Areas * Climate and Water Quality in the Estuarine and Coastal Fisheries of the R o de la Plata * Climate change and the Tourism Dependent Economy of the Seychelles * Part IV: Rural Economy and Food Security * Household Food Security and Climate Change: Comparisons from Nigeria, Sudan, South Africa and Mexico * Vulnerability in Nigeria: A National-level Assessment * Vulnerability in the Sahelian Zone of Northern Nigeria: A Household-level Assessment * Livelihoods and Drought in Sudan * Social Vulnerability of Farmers in Mexico and Argentina * Climatic Threat Spaces in Mexico and Argentina * Climate Variability and Extremes in the Pantabangan-Carranglan Watershed of the Philippines: An Assessment of Vulnerability * Climate Risks and Rice Farming in the Lower Mekong River Basin * Vulnerability of Sri Lankan Tea Plantations to Climate Change * Part V: Human Health * Vulnerability to Climate-induced Highland Malaria in East Africa * Vulnerability to Dengue Fever in Jamaica * Index