Photographing environmental issues for a sustainable future.
Posts Tagged ‘climate change’
Covering Copenhagen
All eyes will be on the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen starting next week — and we’re pleased to offer real-time, daily coverage of the conference happenings here on Earthkeepers . Introducing our Copenhagen reporting team:
OLIVIA ZALESKI is a journalist focused on environmentalism as it relates to business, corporate best practice and executive thinking. As the regular "green correspondent" for CNNmoney.com , Olivia can be found hosting CNN and Fortune Magazine’s Emmy-nominated series, "Business of Green ,” as well as hosting "Home Work ," the popular green do-it-yourself series for Money Magazine. In addition, Olivia reports for Hearst Magazine’s "The Daily Green" and appears regularly as, ABC’s "Good Morning America Now " green expert. She has also contributed her commentary and advice to programs like Discovery Channel’s TreehuggerTV, PlumTV, the CW and nationally syndicated morning news program The Daily Buzz. Follow Olivia’s twitter account here or check in daily to the Earthkeepers blog for the latest from COP15.
GABRIEL LONDON is a documentary filmmaker and writer. As the founder of the documentary film production company, Found Object Films , Gabriel has produced and directed films that bring overlooked stories to a national audience, dealing with issues ranging from the death penalty to climate change. In the process, he has used his work to participate in advocacy campaigns, work for which he was awarded a Soros Criminal Justice Award . His films have been broadcast nationally on networks ranging from MTV to SpikeTV and as part of film festivals including IDFA, Urbanworld Film Festival, and Live Earth.
For the next two weeks, Olivia and Gabriel will be sharing the view from Copenhagen through videos and blog posts, interviews with key leaders attending the conference and coverage of key events. (For Copenhagen coverage in 140 characters or less, you can also follow Olivia on Twitter .)
Saving the world in 14 days is a daunting challenge … and we’re hopeful that leaders gathering in Copenhagen are up for it. If you haven’t already joined our campaign to encourage climate action at Copenhagen, do it now .
Then, come on back to Earthkeepers to follow along as Copenhagen unfolds.
The Anatomy of a Human Crisis
We all understand climate change to be a critical concern and an issue worth attention and effort; a comprehensive study issued by the Global Humanitarian Forum(GHF) today supports the notion in no uncertain terms:
- Climate change today accounts for over 300,000 deaths throughout the world each year. By 2030, the annual death toll from climate change will reach half a million people a year.
- Economic losses due to climate change are estimated to be more than $125 billion per year – expected to reach almost $340 billion annually by 2030.
- A majority of the world’s population doesn’t have the capacity to cope with climate change without suffering a potentially irreversible loss of wellbeing and risk of loss of life. The populations most gravely at risk are over half a billion people in some of the world’s poorest and under-developed areas.
Is there any light at the end of this grim tunnel? The call to action issued along with the GHF study is for world leaders at the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen to take notice and take action, swiftly and collectively.
“Climate change … is a gross injustice – poor people in developing countries bear over 90% of the burden … yet are least responsible for creating the problem. Despite this, funding from rich countries to help the poor and vulnerable adapt to climate change is not even 1% of what is needed. This glaring injustice must be addressed at Copenhagen in December.”
- Barbara Stocking, chief executive of Oxfam GB
and Global Humanitarian Forum Board Member.
Thoughts about the report? Share them here.
Bluepeace
Writer, filmmaker, adventurer and contributing Earthkeeper blogger Jon Bowermaster rounds out his recent visit to the Maldives:
Saffah Faroog sips a mango juice and continues explaining the history of the Maldives oldest environmental group, Bluepeace, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. He is its communications director, a volunteer like the rest of its staff, and has a great story to share – the organization has a great web presence and a long history of doing the right thing in the Maldives by keeping environmental stories in the news. There’s no lack of subject matter with beach erosion, species loss, the impact of climate change and rising sea levels and the still lingering after-effects of the 2004-tsunami still daily stories.
“Perhaps the most impressive thing for us here in the Maldives,” he says, “is that just two years ago I would never had a conversation in public with you like this, not about these subjects. We had to be very careful about everything we wrote, anything we said in public or private, because almost anything could be construed as a potential criticism of the government, thus possibly resulting in recrimination.
Going Carbon Neutral in the Maldives
Bird’s eye view of the Maldives, courtesy of Jon Bowermaster
The call to Friday prayers on Eydhafushi are spread island-wide by plastic loudspeakers affixed to poles and buildings scattered around the Maldivian sand-spit, home to three thousand. When it comes I’m floating a quarter mile offshore and it wakes me from a heat (90 degrees F) and calm-sea reverie; a reminder that here, near where the Arabian Sea melds into the Indian Ocean, we are in an all-Muslim nation. (I was reminded last night too, with a chuckle, when the man in matching linen who brought me a bottle of chilled rose and bragged about it’s ‘fruity’ taste admitted his lips had never touched alcohol.)
Earlier in the morning, before the day’s heat arrived, I’d walked a nearby jungled island, crows and rails darting among the pandanas and palms, camouflaged lizards and introduced rabbits scooting across the sandy paths. The foliage was dense and green, the island far more substantial than most in the Maldives, which are typically little more than sand and sea rubble piled up on coral. Given that even a substantial island here rises just six feet above sea level, as much as anywhere in the world the Maldives are threatened by rising sea levels.
The first democratically-elected president in the nation’s history has quickly turned into a vocal leader. One of his first pronouncements was that he was going to start setting aside money for and start looking at land to buy to move his people, to get them out of harm’s way if sea levels rise as expected.
Climate Change and Survival in the Maldives
Jon Bowermaster is a writer, filmmaker, adventurer and fellow Earthkeeper who has spent the last 20 years exploring remote corners of the globe and documenting his experiences for a variety of national and international magazines, as well as in his own books and documentary films. We’re honored to feature periodic posts from Jon here on Earthkeepers, and you may follow his travels anytime on his own blog.
The last time I was in the island nation of the Maldives – nearly 400,000 people scattered among 1,200 tiny islands running south for a thousand miles off the tips of Sri Lanka and India – the place was on edge. It was early in 2005 and the tsunami waves had rushed over the islands just a few weeks before. Fortunately for the Maldives a combination of deep channels running between islands and the sizable coral reefs that surround many of them prevented the giant wave from sweeping its entire population into the sea. Only about 100 people were killed, far fewer than drowned on the coast of Somalia hundreds of miles further west.
I came to report on the post-tsunami impacts for the New York Times and as I wandered among the homes badly cracked by the wave and saw decades-old garbage dumps swept into the sea by waters that rushed over the islands – which rise less than six feet above sea level – everyone was talking about the possibility of another such incident. “What can we do to prevent the next wave from taking us all,” was the collective concern. “What if there is a second wave coming?”
