Changing Arctic, Changing World
Author: Irene Quaile A white desert of snow-covered peaks, startlingly blue skies, face-tingling ice crystals in the crisp cold air,– when I first flew into Svalbard
Author: Irene Quaile A white desert of snow-covered peaks, startlingly blue skies, face-tingling ice crystals in the crisp cold air,– when I first flew into Svalbard
Education is widely seen as conferring huge advantages, and educational institutions are recognised as wielding considerable social influence. They are the intellectual homes to researchers examining all aspects of the climate and ecological crisis (CEC). So why is it that decades after the first United Nations Conference of the Parties (CoP) on climate change, we have moved ever closer to a disaster and are currently in a planetary emergency?
Once upon a time, before I became Executive Director of Scientists Warning, I was an academic, a cognitive psychologist with a successful career. And I was also becoming increasingly aware of the climate crisis: the year on year rise in atmospheric CO2 levels, the loss of biodiversity, the increasing frequency of extreme weather events and the loss of Arctic sea ice…
In this latest interview from ScientistsWarning.TV, Professor McGuire and Dr. Green talk about the need for scientists to speak up about the climate and ecological crisis, about geoengineering – what it is and why we should care – and his new novel, ‘Skyseed’, a terrifying yet realistic tale of geoengineering gone wrong.
Professor Chris Rapley (a member of the Scientists’ Warning Advisory Board) and colleagues Bill McGuire, Sarah Bracking, Simon Lewis, Jonathan Bamber and many others are inviting people across the scientific community to join a pledge to prevent catastrophic climate disruption and commit to full disclosure. It’s time to speak truth to power.
“For years, Guy Dauncey has tirelessly warned of the urgency of tackling the climate crisis and provided practical ways to achieve reductions in our emissions. While the crisis has only worsened, the window of opportunity to shift direction has shortened. Here is a blueprint for concrete action. Read it and act!” – David Suzuki
We know that we are in the midst of a climate and ecological emergency. A key question is what can we do about this? Which actions will have the greatest positive impact? Scientists have been working to develop modeling tools to help us to predict this and to inform policy decisions. One promising tool is En-ROADS (Energy rapid overview and decision support).
The footprint of human activity is now felt in every region and ecosystem on earth from the bottom of the oceans to the tallest peaks and even high up into the atmosphere. Because of this, many scientists now think we have departed from the Holocene, which refers to the previous 13,000 years or so and entered into a new, much less stable, geological epoch termed the Anthropocene where humans are very much in the driving seat of the earth’s systems.
Free online book by scientist and bestselling author of Brain-fizzing Facts, Dr Emily Grossman, breaks down the science of the climate and ecological crisis to make our situation easy for adults and teenagers to understand.