Studies reveal that the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) makes up 2% of all global emissions - the same amount as the airline industry. By 2012, 4.5 billion people will have access to a mobile phone - the majority will be those live on less than USD 2 a day and be the most likely to be affected by climate change. Planting the Knowledge Seed - Adapting to climate change using ICTs a publication from the Building Communication Opportunities alliance, explores the practical linkages between climate change, access to and sharing of information and knowledge and communication for development.
Community radio practitioners and community media have been using ICTs to confront the effects of climate change in local communities in Africa. "This publication invites you to think outside the box," say authors Patrick Kalas and Alan Finlay. "It takes you on a journey to [..] consider[s] how everyday information and communication tools such as radios, mobile phones, personal computers, the internet and interactive media can help reduce the risks of climate change faced by the most vulnerable segments of the global village through providing access to and the sharing of timely information and critical knowledge."
The target audience of this publication are not experts on ICTs or climate change, but development practitioners and policy makers overall: those who will be faced with the need to interpret the demands of climate change, and apply these to their work in the context of the possibilities afforded by ICTs.
