Tag Archives: climate

Northeast Passage: Is climate change real?

General,

This summer, WWF is helping support two expeditions that will take on some of the world’s most difficult waters, to see first-hand the effects of Arctic climate change. One expedition is sailing across the top of Russia, a journey of 6000 nautical miles through the Northeast Passage, while another is attempting a west to east transit of the Northwest Passage, also by sailing boat, a journey of about 7,000 nautical miles.
Tom Arnbom of Sweden was on the ‘Explorer of Sweden’ though the Northeast Passage, as was WWF Arctic Programme Director Neil Hamilton for much of the trip, replaced near the end by WWF polar bear coordinator Geoff York. On the ‘Silent Sound’ Cameron Dueck of the Open Passage Expedition is filing regular stories from the Northwest passage. Come back for photos and stories throughout the summer, and follow the progress of the boats as they follow in the wake of some of history’s most intrepid explorers.
 

Navigating through the floating sea ice

Navigating through the floating sea ice


We have been sitting waiting for the wind to change for 36 hours now, securely anchored in a bay at Tyrtova Island.  Apart from our usual activities, there has been ample time to talk about many issues including the reason I’m here in the first place: Climate Change.
From my perspective, the past few months has seen an upsurge in misinformation and ‘climate skepticism’ in the world’s media.Perhaps this is just a natural reaction to the increased profile of the issue in the lead up to Copenhagen in December.  We see many of the same simple old arguments raised again, despite having been put firmly to bed over the past decade.  “When Erik the Red went to Greenland, it was warmer than today”, “Climate Change has been happening for millions of years, there is no evidence that it is caused by man”, “CO2 is necessary for plants to grow, how can it be bad?”, and “there are so many other more pressing problems in the world, why is all the emphasis being given to something that isn’t going to affect us for many years?”, and so on.  I’m sure you know the drill.  Some of the crew even noted that there is a lot of ice around us, so maybe the problem isn’t as bad as I make it out to be.
The reality is that the science is very, very clear. Human-induced climate change is real, and dangerous. There is no doubt at all, no necessity for debate.  In the Arctic the evidence is probably clearer than anywhere else, with the loss of almost half the summer sea ice since 1980, changes to the ecology, and really obvious warming: last autumn was 5 degrees warmer than normal!
What is really difficult is to communicate the complexity of the climate system. Many people simply don’t have the time or inclination to delve into answering the questions they legitimately pose.  Science has done its best to communicate the knowledge that has been developed, through institutions like the IPCC.  However, the old saying, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink” is as applicable in this arena as anywhere else.
Organisations like WWF and many others try very hard to present the information in a coherent and easy to understand manner.  There is obviously a need to do better to counter the tide of misinformation, to get across the absolute basics of the problem to vast numbers of people who will be affected.  My part in that is small, but I hope that through expeditions such as this we can make a difference.

Climate wars 2030

General, ,

img_0172_editedClive Tesar, Head of Communications for the Arctic Programme, attended the ‘2030 North’ conference in Ottawa, Canada. The challenge of the conference was to try to imagine what life in Canada’s North will be like in 2030, and to devise a plan to deal with that new reality.
By Clive Tesar
WWF’s contribution to the 2030 North conference was to broaden the topic of climate change outside of our traditional area of wildlife, and to focus instead on the security aspects of climate collapse. This does not mean that we are changing our area of interest, just that we realize that not everyone is as interested as we are in saving the natural world for its own sake.
To reach a wider audience, we need to talk about the wider implications of Arctic climate change. The Arctic Programme has commissioned a study on Arctic Climate and Security. The study, led by Dr. Rob Huebert, a well-known Canadian expert on Arctic security issues, is to be released later this year.
At our ‘climate wars 2030’ event, Huebert was able to give people a sneak preview of where his research is heading. He detailed the recent build-up of military interest and capacity in the north. While not suggesting that conflict in the north is imminent, his research shows that various parties are certainly preparing for that possibility.
Huebert was joined on the stage by Gwynne Dyer, a distinguished London-based broadcaster and author. Dyer’s latest book is called ‘climate wars’, and details how a warming world can easily boil over in series of global flashpoints.
The thesis is simple, but powerful. Projections for a global temperature increase above 2 degrees mean many of the world’s people will go hungry. The temperature tolerance of the world’s main food crops will be exceeded in tropical and subtropical regions. “India will lose 25% of its agricultural production at two degrees hotter,” says Dyer. He says figures published only fleetingly from China suggest the giant nation could lose up to 38% of its agricultural production.
As agricultural production declines, says Dyer, “Your most dangerous neighbour lies between you and the equator.” His eyes roamed the room, watching the point sink in for a Canadian audience – in Canada, that means a hungry United States that may be in no mood for the niceties of international relations. “So the generals have reason to be concerned” adds Dyer. “If I was Russian, I’d be worried about the Chinese running out of food.”
It was a powerful presentation, and definitely seemed to make the audience aware that climate change is not just about disappearing ice, and thinner polar bears, but a global problem that requires an urgent global solution.
Clive Tesar, Head of Communications for the Arctic Programme, attended the ‘2030 North’ conference in Ottawa, Canada. The challenge of the conference was to try to imagine what life in Canada’s North will be like in 2030, and to devise a plan to deal with that new reality.

‘Climate change is changing who we are’

General, , ,

This week, Clive Tesar, Head of Communications for the Arctic Programme, is at the ‘2030 North’ conference in Ottawa, Canada. The challenge of the conference is to try to imagine what life in Canada’s North will be like in 2030, and to devise a plan to deal with that new reality.
Last night, the conference opened with an address by Inuit leader, Sheila Watt Cloutier. She has won many environmental prizes around the world for her work on negotiating an international treaty on toxic chemicals. Her work now focuses very much on what she sees as the biggest challenge now facing her people, and people across the northern world. This is how she describes the size and impact of that problem; “Climate change is changing who we are, where we come from, and where we want to be.”
Watt-Cloutier described the several changes she has already seen in her life from climate change. She spoke of seeing her childhood home in northern Quebec change from a landscape of small shrubs to one of tall trees. She also spoke of less benign changes, of the challenges that disappearing sea ice pose to a culture that relies on sea ice as a highway and hunting ground.
Watt Cloutier also talked about her concerns about the increasing friction in the Arctic, and its increasing militarization. While she is not opposed to the military, she believes sovereignty is best achieved by keeping the sea ice frozen. If the Arctic seas remain frozen, there is no argument about who owns tights of passage through them, no need to guard against marine incursions by other countries.
The sea ice is likely to continue melting, even if governments begin to take urgent and effective action on climate change, a fact Watt Cloutier acknowledges. This is why she is proposing a treaty for the Arctic, a treaty that would include the Arctic’s Indigenous peoples in an international agreement to jointly manage resources. She argues that Indigenous peoples, as people who know the northern environment best, are best suited to exercise a role of stewardship of the north.