By Josh Friedman

Under a blazing sun and temperatures rising to nearly 90 degrees, Mongolia’s Prime Minister Batbold Sukhbaatar and all 12 of his cabinet members held their August 27 cabinet meeting seated at tables and chairs set up in the sand in the middle of the Gobi Desert, 415 miles south of the capital Ulaanbaatar.

The Gobi Desert stretches across 30 percent of Mongolia's land. Last week, cabinet members gathered here for a cabinet meeting to draw attention to global climate change. Photo by Flickr user Munkho Gehrke, used under a Creative Commons license.

Wearing green “Save Our Planet!” baseball hats, the ministers met for one hour to discuss Mongolia’s national response to climate change and issue a statement pledging to fight against global warming.
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By V. Bruce J. Tolentino

Despite tremendous economic growth achieved over the past two decades, hunger continues to beset much of Asia. Estimates show that there are 850 million hungry people globally. Of this total, at least 550 million are in Asia, indicating that some 16 percent of all Asians are in a state of hunger. This is a stubborn challenge for Asian governance.

The efficiency and productivity of the food and agriculture sector has immense bearing on the welfare of entire populations. Above, workers shift grain bags at a mill factory in Cambodia. Photo by Karl Grobl.

Food security for all can only be attained if the problem of hunger is recognized as a shared challenge – one that can only be overcome by better sharing of resources and communication, as well as coordination among nations through regional and global integration and the fostering of open trade and exchange, particularly of agriculture and food.
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By Huang Zhen

Zhang Jiao earned her wealth in the agricultural wholesale fruit business, buying bananas from Hainan Island, oranges from Sichuan Province, and rice from Northeastern China, and selling it to wealthy markets such as Beijing. Despite her financial success, Zhang wanted to get back to the countryside, away from the harsh, constant urbanity of Beijing’s Wukesong area where she lived. She packed her things, and left for Yanqing, a mountainous, distant suburb of Beijing, where she spent three months hiking in the mountains. The state of the hillsides, bald from years of careless deforestation, shocked her, and spurred her to action.

In 1997, one year after her trip, Zhang closed her wholesale business and leased over 600 hectares of mostly mountainous, barren land from the Yanquing local government.

On her land, Zhang Jiao launched Nature University as a place where urbanites can experience nature, as well as learn how to protect it.

Without much prior knowledge of ecology and reforestation, Zhang encountered difficulties and failures when she first began her reforestation project. Many of the trees she planted, not native to the area, couldn’t survive the harsh conditions and died as saplings.
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By Julia Chen

The four students dressed in hooded sweatshirts, faded jeans, and designer sneakers looked like any other teenagers walking along the streets of San Francisco. However, these students were part of a carefully selected delegation from Vietnam here last month to gain a sense of youth participation and awareness in environmental protection in the U.S. The delegation also included two officials from the Ministry of Education, and two reporters from Vietnam TV who were videotaping their experiences for a documentary to be shown on national TV in Vietnam. (Watch our own video featuring highlights from the visit.)

The delegation participated in a special reception for the 2010 Goldman Environmental Prize winners at Golden Gate Park’s Crissy Field community center.

The Bay Area’s diverse natural surroundings and strong leadership in environmental innovation made it a great place to examine environmental challenges and successes, such as solid waste management and energy conservation, in an urban setting.
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By To Kim Lien

Rapid economic growth generates tremendous stress on the environment, from water and air pollution to depletion of natural resources and mounting garbage. As one of the countries that has enjoyed a high level of economic growth in the past decade, environmental degradation is becoming increasingly visible in Vietnam. Over the last year, we have seen unprecedented public outcry over the pollution of rivers and waterways with industrial waste, protests over unsanitary waste disposal and loss of green space due to rampant construction, and growing concern over the decline of quality of life.

Public outcry over the pollution of Vietnam's rivers and waterways has increased in recent years.

Although a few recent environmental cases generated significant media and public interest in Vietnam, citizens generally do not play an active role in the environmental discourse – whether pushing for more effective government response or individually participating in protecting natural resources.
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By V. Bruce J. Tolentino

On Earth Day 2010, Asia has much to be thankful for. While the recent global financial crisis hit Asia hard, most of Asia’s governments acted swiftly and decisively and succeeded, against prevailing expectations, to limit the impact of the financial debacle. They had learned the hard way from the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

Intertwined with the global financial crisis was the food price crisis of 2007-2009: long-term global trends in population growth, rising incomes, competing non-food use of crops, falling investments in agricultural productivity, and lower food stocks were jarred by sudden supply shocks in key producing countries. The panicky procurement and knee-jerk trade bans hurriedly implemented by several governments, particularly India and the Philippines, sparked a food price spiral – that spiraled out of control.
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In Asia speaks to The Asia Foundation’s Deputy Country Representative in Dhaka, Jerome Sayre, on climate change in Bangladesh.

Q: The latest Global Climate Risk Index ranks Bangladesh as the most vulnerable nation in the world to extreme weather and climate change. What does “climate change ground zero” look like on a daily basis?

A: Since floods and cyclones are part of life in Bangladesh, and climate change is expected to contribute to the intensification of these, the average Bangladeshi may experience this as “more of the same,” only more destructive and more frequent. Bangladesh is also grappling with declining water tables and river flows, and salinization of crop lands along the coast due to non-climate change related phenomena. Climate change can intensify these trends.

These are slow but real changes that affect people’s lives, but the more dramatic and visible shift I’ve noticed over my five years in Dhaka is in public awareness of the issue. Members of Parliament, government agencies, NGOs, and the general public are all now much more aware of the potential for losses due to climate change. Bangladesh’s Prime Minister spent a significant amount of her time abroad in her first year in office raising the issue at several international venues.

Q: And, Bangladesh happens to also be one of the most densely populated areas of the world which would make this a humanitarian crisis as well.

A: Over the long term, an estimated 17 percent of Bangladesh’s land area could be submerged, displacing about 20 million Bangladeshis.
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By Jerome Sayre

The Bangladesh Parliament Building is a striking combination of cubes and cylinders in pale gray concrete, surrounded by water and a rare expanse of unbroken green in the nation’s otherwise densely congested capital of Dhaka. On a quiet Saturday morning recently, a group of Bangladeshi Members of Parliament came together in the building’s Oath Room to unknowingly create a small piece of history in the global pursuit of health, education, poverty-reduction, and environmental targets known collectively as the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs. Adopted by 189 nations during the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000, the eight goals set a series of ambitious development targets, measured by 48 separate indicators, to be achieved by 2015.

Bangladesh's parliament building, designed by architect Louis I. Kahn. Photo used under a Wikimedia Commons license.

An active NGO sector working to deliver health, education, and sanitation services, combined with steady economic growth and some successful government initiatives, have all contributed to significant progress on the MDGs in Bangladesh.
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By Jill Kosch O’Donnell

The recent news from Korea that the country is stepping up cooperation with Denmark on energy efficient and renewable technologies marked the latest triumph in President Lee Myung-bak’s push to build international support for his green growth vision. In Seoul, Danish Prime Minister Lars Rasmussen said that Korea’s green growth plan can serve as a model for the world. The announcement was emblematic of the Lee administration’s growing global posture. Korea is aiming to be the first “me” in what Lee has called the “me first” approach to climate change, referring to the need for nations to take the initiative instead of waiting for others to act first.

President Lee has described his National Strategy for Green Growth as a “new national development paradigm that creates new growth engines and jobs through green technology and clean energy.” The underlying premise of his approach is that economic growth and environmental protection are compatible, and even mutually reinforcing.
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By Gretchen Kunze

The Mekong River, the longest in Southeast Asia, is at its lowest reported water level in 20 years. The river runs through six countries – China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam – but the highest percentage (35 percent) of the river’s overall water flow runs through Laos. The dramatic effects of the low water level here are palpable. In past weeks, downtown Vientiane businesses and homes have experienced reduced water pressure and even the stoppage of water supply during business hours. Boats in Luang Prabang and northern Laos that daily ferry tourists and cargo along the river and make up a significant part of the economy are currently beached for the first time in memory because it is too dangerous or just impossible to navigate the now-shallow waters. The hospitals in Vientiane are without water supply at peak hours and are busy brainstorming stop-gap solutions such as building larger holding tanks or drilling more artesian wells. The maternity and surgery wards are the biggest users of water, so they are the most affected. Recognizing the severity of the issue, the Prime Minister urged ministries and government offices last week to actively address the impact of this water shortage crisis.

As the country that holds the largest percentage of the Mekong River, Laos' industries, such as fishing, have been dramatically affected by current low water levels.

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