Emergency preparedness guide

FROM ALASKA TO AUSTRALIA; THE WORLD IS CHANGING IN FRONT OF US.

• In Greenland, barley is growing for the first time since middle ages.
• In Britain, gardeners are warning that the traditional English Countru Garden will be a thing of the past within 20 years.
• In Italy, skiers were told that melting glaciers would end their pastime at anything less than 2000 meters.
• Even those enjoying the warmer temperatures by venturing into the sea, have been confronted with swarms of jelly fish, flourishing in the warner waters.
• Those same waters are rising in Venice.
• In Holland the flood battle has been lost and 500,000 hectares will be stragetically floode with people moving to floating homes.
• Spain and Portugal are experiencing caudron-like temperatures and prolonged drought with is expanding into central and Northern Europe.

The poorest continent has inevitable found itself on the front line of climatic change. Natural disasters, extreme wether, floods and droughts, have always been common in Southern Africa, but the severity of the wet and dry periods is intensifying with disastrous results.

Meteorological studies have found a pattern of increasing climatic variability and unpredicability.
Throughout the horn of Africa, droughts have culled the region's wildlife and disrrupted migrations. Human populations have been devasted by the soaring temeratures and freak dry seasons
Herdsmen in Kenya have been driven to war over the few cattle that survive the drought

The breaking of the drought has seen torrential flooding wreck havoc en Ethiopia, where tens of thousands were made homeless when rivers burst their banks after heavy rain followed prolonged drought

• In Alaska there have been millions of dollars damage done to buildings and roads caused by melting permafrost.
• In Louisiana about amillion acres of wetlands have been lost to sea level rise.
• In the northwest there has been dramatic shrinkage of glaciers in Glacier National Park.
• Hawai has seen first large scale coral bleaching.
• All through the Golf of Mexico, the intensity and frequency of tropical storms is increasing.

Few images have offered such stark evidence of the advance of climatic change as those of the dry bed of the Amazon river. Last year the largest river in the world was reduced to a trickle by an unprecedented drought.

The Disasters Emergency Committee - www.dec.org.uk - is an umbrella group of UK aid organisations - including Action Aid, British Red Cross and Oxfam - working to provide clean water, food and shelter to thousands. To call from the UK, dial 0870 60 60 900.

The United Nations World Food Programme - www.wfp.org - is seeking donations to feed victims of the earthquake.

Medecins Sans Frontieres - www.msf.org - is sending aid workers to the region, focusing on medical care for survivors and displaced people after the rescue operations.

The United Nations Children's Fund, Unicef - www.unicef.org.uk - is working to meet the "urgent needs of hundreds of thousands of people" affected by the tsunami disaster.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR - www.unhcr.ch - which has been helping victims of conflicts in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, is delivering relief supplies to tsunami survivors in both countries.

Save the Children - www.savethechildren.org.uk - has already flown a plane out to Sri Lanka carrying plastic sheeting for temporary shelter, tents to run children's services from and essentials such as clothing and cooking utensils.

Anti-poverty organisation Care International - www.care.org - has already provided food for thousands of affected people in Sri Lanka.

Cafod, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development - www.cafod.org.uk - is working with partners across Asia to provide shelter, food aid and medical assistance, and assessing what further relief is needed.

The Red Cross, with its sister charity the Red Crescent, is supplying blankets, cooking utensils and other crucial goods. It has had to set up a new site - www.ifrc.org - because of the unprecedented demand from people wanting to make donations.

The Hindu Forum Disaster Relief Task Force - www.hinduforum.org - comprises 50 organisations and is raising money, clothes and medicines. Donations can be made online or by calling the ISKCON Disaster Appeal on 01923 856848 or Sewa International on 0116 261 0303.

Christian Aid - www.christianaid.org.uk - has already allocated £250,000 from its emergency fund to help the victims of this disaster but says more money is needed.

Christian charity Tearfund - www.tearfund.org - and its partners in Sri Lanka and India are helping devastated fishing communities and coastal villages get back on their feet.

Islamic Relief - www.islamic-relief.com - has also launched an appeal to provide medical supplies, tents and sanitation facilities for those affected.

The Islamic Aid Emergency Relief Fund - www.islamicaid.org.uk - aims to provide immediate relief and long-term support to people in the affected areas.

Another Islamic charity, Muslim Hands - www.muslimhands.org - is collecting money and sending volunteers to help in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Medair - www.medair.org - is providing emergency support to agencies with a long-term presence in Sri Lanka and its medical experts are assessing the likelihood of malaria and diarrhea.

Handicap International - www.handicap-international.org.uk- is focusing its efforts on helping displaced people, disabled people and vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, elderly people and children. It is trying to raise £425,000.

World Vision - www.worldvision.org.uk - has also launched an appeal and has already delivered relief goods to thousands.

Concern - www.concern.net - is working with local partners to meet the needs of families in the devastated coastal villages of Tamil Nadu, the worst-affected state in India.

The International Rescue Committee - www.theirc.org - is providing emergency supplies and materials to "people most affected by the crisis".

The Salvation Army - www.salvationarmy.org.uk has local teams working in a number of affected areas and is sending a team from its international headquarters on Wednesday evening.

Muslim Aid - www.muslimaid.org - has already donated £100,000 towards the purchase of food, clothing and medicine in the region but wants to raise more.

Action Aid - www.actionaid.org - is the biggest charity working in south India. It is focusing its relief work on the coast of Tamil Nadu, where 7,000 people died. It is working on providing medical assistance and sanitation for the survivors.

Oxfam - www.oxfam.org - is active in Indonesia, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Sri Lanka and India. Their relief operations include distributing food packs and hygiene kits and setting up water and sanitation facilities.

Asia Quake Relief Appeal UK, a UK-based Sri Lankan organisation, is also raising money and can be e-mailed at asia-quakerelief@europe.com.

World Jewish Aid - www.worldjewishaid.org.uk - is working with local partners in India, Indonesia and other affected areas to help survivors threatened by water contamination and disease.

Hindu NGO Baps Care International - www.bapscare.org - is working in villages around Chennai in Southern India distributing food, drinking water, tarpaulins, utensils, stoves, clothes and blankets.

Goal teams - www.goal.ie - are at present working in Tamil Nadu in Southern India where they are distributing aid to 5,000 families.

Action Against Hunger - www.aahuk.org - has projects in about 40 countries, including Indonesia and Sri Lanka.