WCC3 YOUTH DECLARATION

Climate change is widely accepted as the one of the greatest challenges facing human kind and the earth on which we exist. From biodiversity and natural resource management, to health, education and equality, global climate change is not only making the current problems we face worse, but is creating new challenges for mankind.

Long-term Ecology Versus Short-Term Politics ?

Presentation by Someshwar Singh, Director of Communications, Green Cross International

Before I begin, I would just like to give you a brief introduction about myself. I started by career as an economic journalist in India. I worked with newspaper, magazine and then news agency and for television. And then I have reported internationally from Geneva. Now I am with the Green Cross International, which is based here in Geneva. Also worked for the World Wide Fund for Nature, not far from here, for over 7 years. 

In my presentation today, what I would like to do is present the systemic forces which kind of trap and confine and therefore constrain the short-term politics which in turn defines the way we live, especially the way our production, distribution and transport infrastructure is organised. Linked to this is our grand appetite to reach the heights of consumerism – which left to itself – is very difficult to draw limits on.  Yet all around you see today a silent and unmistakeable change that has started – first, of course with the thinking but it is being followed up with actions as well albeit slowly and in a disjointed way.  What we are waking up to is the realisation that perhaps we have crossed the limits in consistently not being in harmony with the long-term ecological processes.

Climate Change: Global warming peril to Bangladesh

Bengladesh coastline after the cyclone Sidr – spring 08 (joiseyshowaa/flickr)

When Iman Ali Gain first heard about climate change a couple of years ago, he thought that it was a joke. How could the habits of people in the West affect him, a 65-year-old shrimp farmer in southwestern region of Bangladesh? He still has no concept of the science behind global warming, which will be outlined in a United Nations report today. Climate change here is a day-to-day reality that scientists say could make 17 million Bangladeshis homeless by 2030.

Making the most of sun and water in rural India

The Chhota Shigri glacier in India (raghav.goel/flickr)

Perched 4,200 feet in the southern Himalayas, the Nauni-Majgoan Panchayat, a village council overseeing nine hamlets in India’s Himachal Pradesh state, is on the tipping point of climate change. On the peaks above, the Chhota Shigri glacier has been receding at an accelerated pace; on the road below, the village of Solan has morphed into a small city replete with concrete office buildings and business lunches. Demand for water — to spin hydroelectric generators, to irrigate crops and for residential use — is soaring throughout the area.

Togo : le S.O.S. des sinistrés du climat

Les personnes déplacées à la suite des graves inondations, qui ont affecté en juillet et août dernier [2008] le sud du Togo, sont toujours sous le choc. Cultures dévastées, troupeaux et cases effondrées… Ces sinistrés du climat attendent toujours de l’aide.

Les maliens au chevet de l’écosystème du fleuve Niger

Photo aérienne du Delta du Niger au Mali (Flickr)

Dans le delta intérieur du fleuve Niger, au Mali, les oiseaux migrateurs, autrefois chassés, mangés ou vendus, sont à présent protégés. Les villageois, qui subissent de plein fouet les conséquences des changements climatiques, comprennent mieux l’intérêt de sauvegarder l’habitat de ces oiseaux.