Excited for Day 2 of the #COP26Universities Climate Summit. First up, Kirstie Ebi, Professor of Global Health, University of Washington, on "melting humans" (that's my summary, not hers) ... Image
... yesterday we heard the projection that we are headed to ten million deaths by heatwaves per year by the 2030s. chathamhouse.org/2021/09/climat…
Already about 30% of heat-related deaths are attributable to anthropogenic climate change. And of course it's unevenly distributed Image
(It feels weird to say a talks is "wonderful" when the content is so devastating. It's almost like, if you can summon up the affect to be mildly upbeat about lucidity, the message hasn't quite got through ...)
One of the references from the compound dry-hot extreme events thelancet.com/journals/lance…
Very rich talk from @SamuelSutanto1. I was especially intrigued by questions around the intersection between early warning systems and compound events and cascades, and tools for integrating different kinds of knowledge (e.g. Indigenous expertise and metereological data)
An early warning platform that was referenced: anywhere-h2020.eu/services/multi…
Andrew Kruczkiewicz on anticipatory action. What anticipatory action should be taken -- who is responsible, and who is accountable for such action?Humanitarian orgs are pivoting to pre-defined triggers for structured action, including funding disbursed before a disaster impact.
Although there is a lot of work being done in this area, there is not yet much focused on compound events, and practically none on compound hot-dry events. A call to action. "What does anticipatory action look like for compound hot-dry events?" - @wxpizza #COP26Universities
And pnas.org/content/118/19… "we are at a critical juncture, faced with a need and responsibility to redesign institutions to be proactive, agile, and socially just when confronted with increasingly likely compound risks" #COP26Universities #COP26
Ross Thompson of Extreme Events and Health Protection Unit, Public Health England, discussing the Heatwave Plan for England gov.uk/government/pub…
Session ends with an important point: "participatory" has to mean more than a seat at the table. Just because local voices are being included, for example, doesn't mean they're being listened to and reflected in policy. We have to rethink the way we integrate voices.
& of course I agree! Some of that rethinking has been done -- it's long been clear that any stakeholder engagement process that doesn't distribute real decision-making power in advance will be deeply limited. Maybe we should talk less about participation, more about democracy?
Now kicking off the Cities Infrastructure Resilience segment. Catherine Pearce (@ClimaReadyClyde), Cristina Argudo and Matheus Ortega (@c40cities), and Nam Fuoongnan (Klinova), chaired by Andy Kerr and organised by Katherine Maxwell ...
Glasgow City Region’s first Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan climatereadyclyde.org.uk/adaptation-str…
Hanoi is one member of the C40 network of cities. Hanoi is a high density, high economic growth city, and one where a lot of government buildings are located. Climate vulnerabilities include proximity to river and sea, in the context of increased storms and heavy rains. Image
Current recommendations: Developing public transport, bike sharing, restricting motorbike use, upgrading drainage system, rehabilitating reservoirs, improving clean water, increasing green spaces, upgrading medical stations, updating forest fire prevention & firefighting resource
In November 26, it rained 170mm in three hours (equivalent to 25% of London's annual precipitation). But there is a strong Civil Defense system of early warning: text messages etc. Nobody died.
Hearing now from Matheus Ortega about Salvador, Brazil, where a third of the population lives in informal (and technically illegal) housing. Image
A really clear example of how climate change mitigation and resilience is fundamentally fused with anti-racism. The black dots in the central map represent landslides. The blue areas in the right hand map are where the white people live. Image
* On November 26, 2019
Discussion exploring synergies between mitigation and adaptation. How do we bring down emissions in ways that also build resilience to climate risks? One example: BRT lines developed in Salvador (not sure, but it sounds like grassroots pressure may have been a key factor)
Matheus talking about improving data management, especially considering informal settlements, as a way of strengthening adaptation management ... and the city's knowledge about itself being a way to push back against a narrow economic filter that leaves out the most under-served
Funders love numbers to justify putting their money into projects. But some of the most important knowledge is qualitative, not quantitative. Perhaps we do need new metrics, more numbers ... but also funding more responsive to different kinds of qualitative knowledge.
Catherine with the reminder that the term adaptation (and by extension mitigation, resilience etc.) is not part of people's everyday language and thinking.
🌳 How do we avoid green gentrification? Residents are often quite rightly apprehensive about trees being planted in their neighbourhoods.
Finally, questions around sharing knowledge, and global collaboration and practical solidarity among cities. There are thousands of cities around the world that need to mitigate and adapt. Image
Cristina and Nam both emphasing data sharing, but also not waiting for perfect data. Matheus and Catherine mentions how innovative and novel solutions can engage socially and imaginatively, and push city-to-city engagement. Catherine adds: be more honest about the failures.
In the 'Communicating the Impacts of Uncertainty when Modelling Coastal Flooding' session, simulation of future coastal flooding hazards. Image
Sanne Muis on sources of uncertainty: data input errors; model errors; scenario uncertainty; large internal variability; extreme value analysis; inter-model differences. Some uncertainties can be constrained, others must be accepted. Image
Visualising sea level rise under two different scenarios Image
Now exploring the extent and limitation of the existing coastal monitoring infrastructure, and exploring real time information as well as model validation. How to integrate nowcasting? And how do waves actually overtop sea defences? -- it's rare to get observations in the field.
Some results from the audience poll. Charlotte agrees, but also suggests that -- though we may not always like to admit it -- the 5%s may have a bit of a point! Image
In situ images submitted by citizen scientists - how can that kind of information be integrated into wave overtopping models?
A word cloud revealing some of the diversity of the audience here -- We have some people interested in estuaries, for example.
I've been spamming questions and one finally got through! It was *cringe* about interdisciplinary collaboration with the arts and humanities. Overall vibe from panel: Would like to explore it more. And a shout out to Climate Stories project climatestories.org.uk
Cascading uncertainty, and the problem that uncertainty might completely overwhelm any message. It is helpful to draw out specific examples from across the uncertainty distribution.
Experience suggests that maps are used in very different ways. E.g. global modelling of extremes: users always look to their own local patch and say, "This map must be wrong."
Exploring the use of historic precedents as one approach for communicating climate risk ... especially when extreme weather events are within living memory.
Is the word "uncertainty" fit for purpose? Image
It often takes expertise just to know where to go to seek the data.
Now asking about whether "return period" is fit for purpose, and its different nuances across deterministic vs. risk-based modelling, where variables are integrated into a single consequence variable. More clarity about deterministic vs. risk approaches would be helpful.
Betting odds are faairly well understood, so perhaps return periods could be glossed with betting odds metaphors?
Sounds like an interesting point (if I understood correctly) about how coastal adaptation itself can generate new forms of uncertainty.

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More from @jolwalton

1 Oct
Day 3 of the Climate Risk Summit, focused on communicating climate risk. Liz Bentley of the Royal Meteorological Society kicks off emphasising the need to tailor across sectors and contexts ... #COP26Universities #COP26
... and the tension between needing to deliver a clear message, and the fact that oversimplifying can cause more problems than it solves.
Asks, "Who is best placed to communicate? Experts or communicators?" One ideal answer is climate experts who are good communicators. (Another answer is good collaborative teams, of course ...)
Read 50 tweets
30 Sep
Is there ever a situation where the approach is, "We're too holistic and joined up here! What we need is fewer partnerships and less communication among stakeholders!" I'm kind of serious ...
... not to say that calls for greater cooperation are mere platitudes; they identify that a lack of cooperation is more significant for some problems more than athors, and they set up the real content, which is an account of who should cooperate more closely and how.
But might it be good to cultivate more awareness of the opportunity cost of new collaboration? And also to keep alive the possibility that a problem might *not* be best addressed by the emergent capacities of networking existing actors more intensely - maybe it needs new actors?
Read 4 tweets
29 Sep
IN ARMS is a novelette I wrote about awkward first dates, collapsing marine ice and submerged cities, AI senators, activism futures, laws about LAWs, parecon, and Beyond Beyond GDP. drive.google.com/file/d/1WREQnI…
It was originally part of the fabulous GROSS IDEAS: Tales of Tomorrow's Architecture, ed. @eddieramones @PhinHarper and @Mariaisasmith, architecturefoundation.org.uk/writing/gross-…
The whole collection is reviewed by @Amy_Butt_ for @AncillaryReview here: ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2020/12/09/the…
Read 6 tweets
29 Sep
Tipping points are large transitions to new system equilibriums. Antarctic sheet disintegration and the mass flooding of coastal cities, the destabilisation of the South American monsoon system, collapse of Amazon rainforest resilience, coral reef death ...
... the disintegration of the entire pattern of water flow throughout the oceans of the world. Rachel Warren, Nik Boers, Sebastian Rosier, Levke Caesar, at the #COP26Universities network Climate Risk Summit, exploring tipping points.
Nik Boers describes how comprehensive Earth system models can now be complemented and constrained by observation of statistical early warning signals, particularly the phenomenon of critical slowing down: variance and autocorrelation indicate a coming tipping point.
Read 5 tweets
29 Sep
At the #COP26Universities Climate Risk Summit, enjoying the first panel on risks and attribution of extremes in a changing climate. digitalevents.uk/climaterisksum…
We have known for a very long time that one manifestation of climate change will be extreme weather events. What has changed is that we now see them happening. They are "in your face."
Two charts from IPCC WGI AR6, heatwaves and heavy precipitation. I am interested, from a climate science comms perspective, that the legend says "heavy precipitation" and Freddie Otto adds another word: "floods."
Read 28 tweets
25 Jul
In some historic moneys, every 80 counted is rounded up to 100. So one transaction valued at 100,000 shells 'really' only transfers 64,000 shells, whereas 100,000 transactions of one cowry each would transfer all 100,000. Any guesses how such a convention alters market structure?
All else being equal, perhaps it favors the elite who are rich enough to deal in more expensive goods or in bulk when it's advantageous? But also encourages distribution via many small transactions, such as are associated with subsistence and more ‘everyday’ consumption?
Bearing on price-stickiness? The nominal price of a good can remain stable for longer spells simply because its merchants are not tinkering with the spread between buying and selling price, but rather reaping the profit associated with trading at a single customary price point?
Read 5 tweets

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