Films Highlight Tangled Web of Poverty, Development and Climate

Island dwellers whose drinking water is gradually becoming saltier as seas rise.

Farmers’ crops failing due to drought.

Residents of great delta cities in places like Bangladesh and Pakistan that could experience mass migrations due to cyclones and flooding.

How can these people improve their lives in light of the impacts they are routinely facing?

An international initiative launched by the UK government, The Climate and Development Knowledge Network specializes in “climate compatible development.” This research alliance has produced a series of films that give voice to people already living on the front lines of climate change.

Produced by The Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN Global) and OneWorld Films, the first film features specialists from Kenya to Kiribati talking about the plight of their people in coping with climate impacts.

One specialist notes that local people may not necessarily use the words “climate change.” But as farmers whose intimate knowledge of the land and soils and rains has been learned through generations, they know that “something isn’t right.”

A second film focuses on solutions being pursued by the international development community, including preparedness and adaptation strategies such as climate-proofing infrastructure, adopting a cyclone warning system, switching to climate-resilient crops or restoring deforested regions. Without addressing poverty, food security and livelihoods, solutions won’t work, according to those interviewed in the film.

The Climate and Development Knowledge Network is an alliance of organizations that includes PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano, and the Overseas Development Institute, among others.

With global climate meetings concluding in Bonn, Germany, the Network offers some perspectives from the meetings.

Representatives of The Nature Conservancy have also been engaged in the Bonn talks and supporting climate change solutions that protect our natural infrastructure – forests, rivers, mangroves and oceans with their life-giving sources of food, water and natural protection from storms – so crucial for prosperous human survival.

As these films poignantly illustrate, the world is waiting for answers.

Lisa Hayden is a blogger and feature writer for The Nature Conservancy