The Fate of our Coral Reefs

I don’t know how to feel. How to face up to the finality of destruction, death, on this scale? A holocaust that, while still in the future, is now inescapable.

Humanity has never destroyed an entire global ecosystem. In some ways we still haven’t. Today the coral reefs are still with us; their millions of beautiful, unique species still living out complex, interconnected lives. But the crime is done. There is no going back.

In the fight on climate change we rant and rage, begging people to look and see the terrible consequences that will occur if we do not act before it’s too late. The coral reefs are the first time that we have had to face the fact that that future in which it will be too late is now. We haven’t done what was necessary, the window to act is now closed and we will inevitably loose one-third of the world's marine biodiversity.

"The future is horrific," says Charlie Veron, an Australian marine biologist who is widely regarded as the world's foremost expert on coral reefs. "There is no hope of reefs surviving to even mid-century in any form that we now recognise. If, and when, they go…there is a domino effect, as reefs fail so will other ecosystems. This is the path of a mass extinction event, when most life, especially tropical marine life, goes extinct."

This is a death sentence. A death sentence most of us have handed out in ignorance, as we continued with business as usual. Only breaking off from business for those 2 weeks last summer spent snorkeling in the Maldives.

Coral reefs are now ghosts; the living dead. Soon only to exists accompanied by a David Attenborough voiceover in some old DVD collection. All that glorious diversity, the millions of years of evolution lost. This little understood, beautiful world beneath the waves was sold up for the chance to continue our love affair with cheap energy a little while longer. A huge part of the biodiversity of our planet condemned with no outcry, no chance of appeal.

So we’ve written the end of the story on coral reefs, and we’ve penned a tragedy. What will we let slip away next? The billion people who rely on Himalayan glaciers for fresh water? Or maybe low lying, hurricane vulnerable New York or the cities of drought riddled Australia?

Or perhaps the coral reefs can become a climate martyr. Perhaps we will learn from this first experience of dithering too long, of waiting until it’s too late. Perhaps this December will see a world united on ambition climate action. But without mass public outcry, I doubt it. Unless we drop the corpse of coral reefs on parliament’s doorstep, unless we stand up and ask our pollutions “Why don’t you take my future seriously?”, unless we think bigger than changing light bulbs, unless London is flooded by thousands of protesters on 5^th Dec for the Wave, unless we are prepared to change our lifestyles now, to take the lead and force our government to follow, we will face the same fate as the coral reefs.

Read more about the fate of coral reefs.
Find out what you can do in the run-up to Copenhagen Climate Conference.

The Faces of a Global Climate Movement

Last Saturday I was part of the largest global day of action on climate change in history: 350.

350 is the most important number in the world. It is the safe level (in parts per million) of CO2 in the atmosphere. We are currently at 384ppm and racing rapidly in the wrong direction. The global talks in Copenhagen this December are currently aiming for 450ppm. This would give the world a 50/50 chance of avoiding runaway climate change. That's a coin flip. Head's we survive, tails... Would you bet your future on those odds?

350 is a message to Copenhagen that world leaders must deliver what the science demand. They must face up to this threat and show real leadership to secure our future. This message has been spelled out across the globe:
I was in Newcastle last weekend with the rest of the UK Youth Delegation for our 3rd training weekend. 350 ended up transforming our training weekend into a weekend of action.

Making a 350 square foot banner is no mean feat. Neither is getting it from Oxford to Newcastle. At about half 10 on Friday night, as we waited for the last of the delegation to arrive, someone thought to wondered exactly how Neil was planning on getting the banner here by train. But he pulled it off, the banner arrived and finally made it impossible for us all to fit in the pub. Darran lugged it across Newcastle, and at a ridiculous hour the next morning we got up to kick off 350 in Newcastle, only to have the banner almost disintegrate in the wind as we laid it out. Having caught the center of the 0, and used everything we could get our hands on, from tent pegs and staples to our mobile phones, to hold the banner down, we finally got our photo.
Plus half a page in the Sunday Sun!

Having managed to squeeze in time for strategy meeting, media messaging and outreach workshops, we rounded off 350 by hosting a fantastic club night at World Headquarters, raising over £500 towards getting to Copenhagen in the process. Which involved, amongst everything else, selling 350 beautiful fairy cakes.

For 350 5200 action in over 180 countries were held, and behind every face in these incredible images is a real person with their own families, friends and futures to stand up for and their own story of what climate change means for them. So take a minute right now to go to 350.org see for yourself what the global climate movement looks like, because it is beautiful. So go on, be inspired and join us for the next day of action. I want to see you at The Wave.

Blog Action Day

Today is Blog Action Day. 13,228 blogs from 155 countries across the world have agreed to dedicate a post to climate change. A few blogs, like this one, focus on climate change, and we each do are little bit to spread the word. But today is different. Today I'm adding my voice to thousands of others, and together we can flood the internet with urgent climate warnings. And that's the central element of the fight against climate change; alone we can do very little but together we can meet this colossal challenge. Alone, all the changes you can make to your own life, from insulating your loft to choosing not to fly, seem dwarfed and insignificant amid this huge, crowded world.

But we each have to remember that we are not alone, we are all in this together; because with climate change there is no other way. It will affect all of us, and equally it will take all of us to avert catastrophe. There is nowhere on this planet you can run to that is safe from climate change, but you can stand your ground. Protect your home, family, friends, future and trust that you are part of something bigger. A global movement that can rise to meet the scale of this challenge.

This was brought home to me on Monday, as we celebrated the amazing media coverage our FlashDance received (watch the video bellow). If I had done that action alone I would have achieved nothing and made a fool of myself in the process. As would anyone else who took part. And if I hadn't bothered to get up, while it was still dark, on a Monday morning when I knew I didn't have to go to work, would it have made a difference to the whole event? Probably not.

And every one of us, who got up at that ridiculous hour, after an exhausting weekend, knew that whether they personally turned up wouldn't make much difference. But we all arrived. Why? Because each of us understood that we were not on our own. We trusted that everyone else would do their bit, so that together, we could achieve something that alone would have been impossible.

Power Shift

Let me tell you about my weekend… Power Shift was an entirely youth organized conference run by the UKYCC (www.UKYCC.org). Although a better way of describing it would be a 3 day journey. Around 400 young people spent the weekend learning how to become energized, effective climate change communicators and on Monday we moved out of our conference hall to spread the word. We took all our new found energy and inspiration and, despite a chronic lack of sleep, we put on an awesome show.

150 of us were part of an incredible Eco Flash Dance that happened first beside the London Eye and then moved to Parliament Square to show our solidarity with Greenpeace and the importance of their message; that we need dramatic action on climate change and we need it now. The movement to Parliament Square was spontaneous. Ellie, a Powershift organizer stood up and told us that if we went to Parliament Square we would have no insurance, it would technically be illegal and we could be arrested. Not a single person backed down.
Watch us as we (in the worlds of the Guardian) "dance to save the planet."

POWERSHIFT LONDON FLASHDANCE! from Adam Tyler on Vimeo.

Countdown to Copenhagen Actions

Increasing the pressure on our government helps give them a stronger mandate to negotiate for an ambitious, fair and binding climate deal in Copenhagen.

We can all do things in the next few weeks that will help make a difference:

1. Donate to support the UK Youth Delegation and the Kenyan Youth Delegation who are attending the conference to give voice to the world's young people and generations to come.
   For more info see - Road to Copenhagen
   
   

2. Attend Gloucester Climate Change March and Lobby of MPs and MEP – Sat 17th Oct 11.30-12.30 Gloucester – starting at Council Offices at the Docks and going to the Cross. more info...
   

3. Support Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Milliband on his pledge to fight for a “climate deal that's ambitious, effective and fair” - www.edspledge.com
   

4. Keep the pressure on Gordon Brown for an ambitious global climate deal by signing to “Back the Bid” at www.actoncopenhagen.gov.uk
   

5. Support www.350.org international day of action on October 24th and other campaigns for on this issue – see www.tcktcktck.org
   

6. Pledge to get stuck in to a carbon reduction of 10% during 2010 – join thousands of other individuals, businesses and organisations who have already taken the 10:10 pledge – www.1010uk.org
   

7. Join the National Climate Demo in London on 5th Dec – www.stopclimatechaos.org

Road to Copenhagen

I am one of 21 young people traveling to the Copenhagen Climate Conference 2009 this December as part of the UK Youth Delegation, on behalf of the UKYCC (UK Youth Climate Coalition).

If a global deal on climate change is to be in place by 2012 when the Kyoto Protocol expires, it must be agreed in Copenhagen, otherwise it will not be ratified in time.

Why is a global deal so important? I’m sure many of you have your own answers to this. My answer is that with each passing year the fact that climate change is not a future possibility but a present reality becomes clearer. From the millions now facing starvation in East Africa to images of Sydney consumed by dust storms. And every time, events are shown to be moving faster and happening sooner than the science predicted. The prediction for ice-free Arctic summers has fallen from 2080, to 2050, to 2013. I had the chance to visit the High Arctic in July 2007. I stood on the edge of the polar ice-cap and watched the rain. This shouldn’t happen; its like seeing snow in the desert. All of human history has taken place during a phase of relative climate stability. We have never experienced the kind of changes we are setting in motion, yet we play with fire as if we won’t get burnt.

Under Agenda 21 the UN must involve young people in decisions that will affect their future as part of “intergenerational equity”. As a delegation we are therefore have seats at the Copenhagen Conference and can speak in the Plenary Hall in front of hundreds of world leaders and decision makers. So if we can get to Copenhagen, we can make ourselves heard. But to get there we need to raise £1500 each to cover travel, accommodation and food. And perhaps more important than getting ourselves there, we also need to raise enough to fund the Kenyan Youth Delegation to get to the conference. Without our help they will not be able to attend. For the Kenyan Delegation climate change is now a daily reality, as, in their own words, “over 10 million Kenyans are presently starving as drought continues to ravage virtually every corner of our nation.” Global warming is a global problem; it therefore requires a global solution. But this will not be achieved in an equitable way, if at all, without the strong presence of developing nations.

Between now and December we will all be working hard to spread the message, in our local community and across the UK, that we have to act now to call for a global agreement that will deliver what the science demands. It is 17 years since the Earth Summit in Rio. After 17 years of UNFCCC conferences, endless discussions, and empty promises to cut emissions we have finally run out of time. It has to be now because we won’t get another shot.

On Mon 7th of Sept 10 of us from the UKYCC delegation met with some of the UK’s core team of UN negotiators at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). They spoke about how the actions of UKYCC delegations at previous climate conferences had made a dramatic impact and really served to remind decision makers that this is not just another conference to get through before Christmas, or a stepping-stone in their career. But that the lives and livelihoods of billions of peoples hang on these decisions.

One of UKYCC’s most powerful questions at previous conferences was “How old will you be in 2050?” I will be 59. Most negotiators won’t have to see the state of the world in 2050. Help us raise the funds to get to Copenhagen so that when our futures are on the line, we can remind decision makers that we all have to live in this world and whatever state they leave it in, they are leaving it to us.

To donate please go to http://act.ukycc.org/copenhagen

or cheques to "UK Youth Climate Coalition"
post to: UKYCC, 4 Modbury Gardens, London, NW5 3QE.
Please include note saying donation for appeal by Isabelle Ellis-Cockcroft.
All donations will be split between the UK and Kenyan Delegations.

Thank-you for your support.

Seeing The Bigger Picture

Stroud has been given a unique opportunity. Local company Ecotricity would like to help Stroud generate 50% of its electricity from wind.

The UK is becoming increasingly dependent on Russian gas and oil from the Middle East; hardly ideal for energy security. And on top of that we are now at a crucial point in the fight against climate change. And after nearly 20 years of endless conferences, discussions, and empty promises to cut emissions we have finally run out of time. This December when the world meets in Copenhagen it will be our last chance to agree an effective global deal. It has to be now because we won’t get another shot.

So as the world turns towards Copenhagen, Stroud has a chance to play its part and take its responsibility to the future seriously. Ensuring a renewable and secure source of local energy in the process.

But the anti-campaign has kicked off and as always they are making the loudest noise, drowning out the views of the silent majority. So if you would like Stroud to take this opportunity then say so. And if you’re still unconvinced, then before you cast your vote, think about what you are really voting for. Perhaps it’s about looking at a bigger picture than the view you see from your kitchen window. I am 18 and in 2050 I will be 59. I want the chance to live my life in a world with a safe and stable climate, where there is more or less enough food and water to go around. Is that too much to ask?

I’m not saying windmills are the only way to tackle climate change, far from it in fact. What I’m saying is that we need to use every tool we’ve got to tackle our addition to fossil fuels. And wind is a vital piece of the puzzle.

And Stroud is not about to be over run by turbines. In fact 16 across the whole of the Stroud District is all it will take to meet 50.50.

So whether you want to support local jobs or help protect your children’s future. Why not step out from the silent majority and make yourself heard: http://www.stroud5050.org/vote-now