EarthSpace

Too Little Rain, Too Much Sea for Tuvalu.

2011-10-18T12:10:00.004+01:00

Like the tiny island nation of Kiribati in the South Pacific, Tuvalu is reportedly suffering a double punch from climate change - too little water and far too much.

A rainwater drought and rising seas

Would you curb your CO2 ommissions to help Tuvalu?

CENTURY OF STORM (continued)

2011-10-17T15:56:00.003+01:00

We need those cars of the future right now. http://gu.com/p/32kak

Thailand floods, October 2011

2011-06-13T10:48:00.002+01:00

The Car of the Future!

It can travel on land, sand, ice and water....

2011-06-12T17:00:00.005+01:00

For the students in the schools I visited last week - here are some links about how the world is changing (click on the paragraphs below).

We are living through the greatest period of change the world has ever known.

The Polar Eskimos have always lived in harmony with nature, taking from the sea and land what they need to survive. But global warming has upset the equilibrium and left the future uncertain.

Scientists say Greenland is losing ice mass at an increasing rate - photos of the break-up of the Petermann Glacier.

For the first time in living memory, the sun rose above the horizon two days early – a phenomenon that has baffled Greenlanders and scientists. Some believe that the most plausible explanation is global warming. It is thought that the Greenland ice sheet and the glaciers surrounding the town are melting so rapidly that it is now possible to see a lower part of the horizon that was previously hidden by the ice.

Not only has global warming made hunting considerably more dangerous, it has also halved the hunting season.

The last straw?

2011-06-05T20:18:00.002+01:00

The Guardian

The world may have to resort to technology that sucks greenhouse gases from the air to stave off the worst effects of global warming, the UN climate change chief has said before talks on the issue beginning on Monday.

"We are putting ourselves in a scenario where we will have to develop more powerful technologies to capture emissions out of the atmosphere," said Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN framework convention on climate change. "We are getting into very risky territory," she said, stressing that time was running out.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

2011-03-20T14:42:00.008Z

Yann Arthus-Bertrand is on a mission to save mankind by getting us to love our beautiful planet.

The Retreat of the Glaciers

2010-11-26T17:18:00.003Z

As the world prepares for the Cancún summit, John Vidal visits people on the frontline of the battle against global warming..... A climate journey

Stunning.

Help The Guardian write The Ultimate Climate Change FAQ.

It might be snowing but....World is warming quicker than thought.

Don't Be Stupid

2009-03-09T10:50:00.003Z

THE AGE OF STUPID - coming to a town near you?

SNOW PEOPLE AGAINST GLOBAL WARMING

2009-01-06T14:40:00.004Z

A New Home in the World

2008-11-18T11:34:00.004Z

Paradise almost lost: Maldives seek to buy a new homeland

"The highest land point on the Maldives is only 2.4 metres above sea level."

Read about it here.

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Eat less of this....

2008-09-05T09:34:00.008+01:00

Or risk a lot more of this?

HURRICANE GUSTAV HIT CUBA LIKE AN ATOMIC BOMB

STORM HIT HAITIANS STARVE ON ROOFTOPS

Alternatively, have a vegetarian teenage daughter and the barrage of guilt-inducing comments every time you sneak the occasional bacon sandwich will reduce your meat intake no end...

But as the above shows, she's right. As always.

BANGLADESH IS SINKING

2008-09-04T16:39:00.003+01:00

The facts about climate change in Bangladesh are grim, especially for the some of the poorest people on Earth, the char-dwellers who inhabit river islands made of silt; a strange, precarious space between land and water.

"I wonder how these islanders cope with this shifting terrain; how they can bear to know that the place they are living in today may not exist tomorrow. I want to know because more and more people in Bangladesh will suffer the same lot, as the sea creeps up; and because, in the not so distant future, this may be the fate of humanity worldwide."

"In the next 50 years, 17% of Bangladesh's landmass is sure to go underwater, causing more than 30 million people to become homeless. Those who live further inland will be only slightly better off: the cyclones and floods that are already a feature of the weather will occur more frequently and with greater ferocity. Geological events stimulated by changes in temperature will mean intense pulses of rainfall followed by periods of drought, and a potential collapse of the monsoon cycle itself."

Do read Losing The Ground Beneath Their Feet.

It's not anything to do with us, silly...

2008-06-22T18:01:00.007+01:00

The majority of the British public doesn't believe that climate change is caused by humans - and many others think scientists are exaggerating the problem.

Yet a report last year by more than 2,500 scientists for the UN Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change found a 90 per cent chance that humans were the main cause of climate change. Drastic action, they said, was needed to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

'The scientific evidence for climate change is clear and it is down to human activities. It is already affecting people's lives - and the impact will be much greater if we don't act now.' So says the Department for the Environment. But what would they know?
Read the full article here.

Kiribati's King Tide on Youtube

2008-06-19T20:37:00.004+01:00

Click here to watch the desperate plight of the islanders of Kiribati as the sea rises and surges to their doors in a King Tide....

(Just ignore the stupid comments section.)

Kiribati's 11th Hour?

2008-06-09T09:58:00.008+01:00

"We may be beyond redemption," said President Tong. "We may be at the point of no return, where the emissions in the atmosphere will carry on contributing to climate change, to produce a sea level change so in time our small, low-lying islands will be submerged."

Kiribati – a former British colony called the Gilbert Islands – is home to 97,000 people, most of them squeezed into the densely populated main atoll, Tarawa, a chain of islets surrounding a central lagoon. Along with other low-lying Pacific island nations such as Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands and Vanuatu, it is regarded as one of the places most vulnerable to climate change.

President Tong, a London School of Economics graduate, said emigration needed to start immediately: "We don't want to believe this, and our people don't want to believe this. It gives us a deep sense of frustration. What do we do?"

Kiribati was my inspiration for Mara's drowning island in EXODUS. I first read about the Kiribati islands in 1999. Almost a decade on, we, the outside world still have done nothing to help.

Read the full story here and here, and about how I was inspired by the Kiribati islanders here.

I've been so imaginatively involved with Kiribati's plight, all through the writing of my trilogy. They are part of the talks I do in schools and at festivals but I wish I could do something more than talk. I will think about what that might be. Ideas welcome.

Our 11th Hour?

2008-05-23T19:59:00.009+01:00

The 11th Hour is an inspirational film from Titanic star Leonardo di Caprio, to be shown on the UK's Channel 4 this Sunday (25th May, 7.25pm).

It's a must watch; not just Doom & Gloom, the over-arching message is this:

THE HOPE IS YOU.

Here is the trailer (Linkin Park's magnificent What I've Done is the soundtrack.)

Join in 11th Hour Action here and here.

Watch it. Be very scared. But most of all, be inspired.

HAPPY EARTH DAY

2008-04-22T13:36:00.005+01:00

I didn't even know it was. Join the party here.

What if we all ignored Earth Day? I certainly hope EXODUS is not the answer! Some other books on the theme.

SPLITTER!

2008-04-16T23:48:00.001+01:00

Or Space Litter.... read all about it here.

21st CENTURY PENGUINS

2008-04-01T13:22:00.002+01:00

How penguins are adapting to global warming! Look at this.

Polar Bear Eco-therapy?

2008-03-25T13:42:00.003Z

Feeling eco-anxious about the future?

"People tell me how an article about the polar bears losing their habitat was making them ill," says [eco-psychologist/therapist Melissa Pickett]. "So I place a photograph of a polar bear into the patients' hands and encourage them to have an imaginary conversation with him as a way to ease their despair." She also advises we carry rocks in our pockets to remind us of our connection with the Earth and buy one of her "sacred matrices" (yours for $10 each).

Oh dear. But more tips here. If you must.

I'll stick with the Zen monks 12 Essential Zenhabits.

I'm going to work especially hard on Zenhabit no. 4: Do less

WORLD WATER DAY 22ND MARCH

2008-03-20T21:27:00.016Z

It's WORLD WATER DAY on March 22nd.

Can you imagine what it's like to live with
'Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink' ? *

Well, have a look at the young water babies and bucket gangs here.

And enter the world of the floating village of Chong Khneas here.

And read what it's like to live in a flooded world here.

It's all so shockingly close to some of the things I've written as fiction: Tuck in his floating city in ZENITH; Wing and the urchins who paddle the toxic floods in salvaged junk, buckets and car bonnets in EXODUS.

But this is not an imagined scenario in some futuristic fiction - it's all happening right here, now, in our world.

*(Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner)

Our place in the universe

2008-01-21T11:55:00.004Z

Interesting thoughts by Philip Pullman in the Telegraph.

"Environmentalists also tell a story about us and ourselves and our place in the universe. In a sense it's a religious story, because that's the big question of religion. Why are we here? What is here, what does it consist of? What have we got to do now we are here? What responsibilities does being conscious place on us?"

What do you think?

TUNE IN TO THE FUTURE....

2008-01-08T11:32:00.001Z

... and win £100 worth of iTunes!

To celebrate the paperback release of my eco-epic novel ZENITH (that's it there in the pic above, the sequel to EXODUS) there is a bebo competition to win £100 of iTunes. Why not see if you can win? All you have to do is think up a 'green idea' and jot it down on my bebo page.

There are lots of great ideas already HERE.

(If you are not already a bebo member, it's quick, easy, safe and free.)

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-21T12:17:00.000Z

Want one of these for Christmas? Go to www.growaforest.com

Or why not get on board @ http://getonboard.wwf.org.uk/index.php

A New Island in the World

2007-11-27T11:55:00.000Z

THE FUTURE IS YOURS

2007-11-08T20:26:00.000Z

‘They knew,’ says Mara.
Another surge of nausea hits her.
Fox leans closer. ‘It was a hundred years ago, Mara. It’s history.’
‘But they knew. They could’ve done something but they didn’t. They knew. They didn’t think about the future, did they? They never thought about us.’ (From ZENITH by Julie Bertagna)

SO WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?

Over the years, human activities have poured extra carbon dioxide into the upper atmosphere. Evidence is growing stronger by the day that this is adding to natural global warming, causing world temperatures to rise to a critical threshhold. If the Earth grows too hot it's likely that there will be more floods, hurricanes, storms, famines, droughts and disease. How you travel, what you eat, where you go on holiday, the energy you use, the products, cosmetics and clothes you buy - ultimately, all the small, ordinary things that you do today will have a huge impact on the planet and on the future.

RHINO-SIZED FOOTPRINTS?

Everyone knows their own shoe size. But do you know the size of your carbon footprint? Each person on Earth has a ‘carbon footprint’. It’s the amount of carbon dioxide we create every day of our lives.

*The average person in Europe creates a pile of rubbish each year that is the weight of a young rhinoceros. It all adds up to a 30 million tonne mountain of waste. Each festive season in the UK creates an extra 3 million tonnes of waste. Almost half of the UK’s ‘greenhouse gases’ come from incinerated waste or landfills of rotting rubbish.

*Most Europeans use about 160 litres of water a day - that’s two bathfuls each. But tap water is better than bottled as it does not use up the energy in road miles and packaging or create plastic waste.

*Over a billion people in the world own a mobile. In Europe alone, 100 million are dumped each year, creating 1000 tonnes of highly toxic electronic waste. A single phone battery can contaminate 600,000 litres of water. In a single year, more than 800,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water could be polluted by the batteries of the phones that are thrown away. Up to 90 million old phones could be lying forgotten in UK homes or binned. Fewer than 1 in 30 of unwanted phones are re-cycled. Old phones and other dumped electrical equipment, such as TVs and computers, send toxic gases into the environment.

*There are almost 500 million cars in the world. By 2030, that number is set to double.

*Ten thousand planes fly the Earth’s skies - that number is also set to double in the next twenty years. A single jumbo flight from the UK to Australia creates the same carbon dioxide as 400 small cars each travelling 16,000 km - the distance most Europeans drive in a whole year.

*Trees are the world’s lungs. They ‘breathe in’ carbon dioxide and ‘breathe out’ oxygen. One tree makes the same amount of oxygen a person needs to live. Yet the planet’s forests are being chopped down at an incredible rate.

It's a lot to think about. But the future is yours. What can you do to protect it?