As Durban, South Africa, prepares for the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol in November this year, the world is recovering from a series of climate and environmental-related disasters, which have occurred over the past few years. The Indian Ocean tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, the Haiti earthquake, the New Zealand earthquake, the Japanese tsunami and nuclear crisis, among others, have killed and affected millions. At the same time, silent and slower disasters related to the effects of natural and anthropogenic climate and environmental changes are affecting billions – especially poor people who depend on the environment for their livelihood. Sudden disasters and slow-onset environmental changes have the potential to.
