Impacts are looked at on a regional basis.
Australia:
Australia is the driest continent on the planet and as such the population already regularly copes with regular droughts and other related natural phenomena. The bush fires that devastated rural Victoria in early 2009 and are in fact still raging have been worsened by the heatwave that has recently hit Australia. At the same time tropical storms regularly hit Northern Australia and combined with Monsoonal rains cause annual flooding. All of these issues are projected to worsen in the coming years as a result of climate change.
Through talking to people in remote communities throughout Northeastern and Northern Australia the lack of appreciation of the seriousness of climate change was surprising. The majority made statements to the effect that the weather was not changing and whatever changes did occur would not be out of the normal sphere of experience. This does not fit with the scientific evidence.
Discussions with CSIRO and the Northern Territory Environment Centre revealed the populations most vulnerable to climate changes are remote indigenous communities. In these communities increased flooding, bush fires and drought have the greatest impact and there is little infra-structure to deal with it.
Resources on Australia:
Australian Government
Bureau of Meteorology
Friends of the Earth Australia
Greenpeace Australia
WWF Australia
CSIRO
IPCC
East Timor:
Resources on East Timor:
Haburas Foundation
Permatil
IPCC
Indonesia:
Resources on Indonesia:
The Indonesian Forum for Environment (WALHI)
Malaysia: (Information provided by MENGO, see below)
Social justice and the protection of vulnerable groups especially indigenous people has to be in place due to increase in diseases associated with higher temperatures and vector-borne and water-borne diseases like cholera, malaria and dengue fever, Worsening drought conditions and desertification, leading to more forest fires that disrupt subsistence agriculture, hunting and gathering livelihoods, as well as serious biodiversity loss; Increasing food insecurity due to declining fish populations and coral bleaching etc. In Peninsular Malaysia, the poverty rate amongst ‘Orang Asli’ is about 76% whilst the national average is about 7%. Also, the livelihood of other groups such as coastal communities such as fisherman who would face negative impact of climate change and rising sea levels should also be protects with adequate mechanisms.
For full report visit here.
Resources on Malaysia:
Malaysian Environmental Non-Government Organisations (MENGO)
WWF Malaysia
Thailand:
Resources on Thailand:
Greenpeace South East Asia Report “Climate Change and Thailand”
Laos:
Resources on Laos:
Global Association for People and the Enviroment (GAPE)
OneWorld.Net “Climate Change and Laos”
China:
Resources on China:
China Youth Climate Action Network
Mongolia:
Resources on Mongolia:
WWF Report “Climate Change Issues in Mongolia”
Blogs.WorldBank.org “Mongolia…Impacts of Climate Change”