Sunday, November 29, 2009

Jean-Michel Cousteau

"Is it too late to prevent us from self-destructing? No, for we have the
capacity to design our own future, to take a lesson from living things
around us and bring our values and actions in line with ecological
necessity.
But we must first realize that ecological and social and economic issues
are all deeply intertwined. There can be no solution to one without a
solution to the others."

Saturday, November 14, 2009

The Fresh Water bank account of Asia...



a compelling video by David Breashears:
http://www.asiasociety.org/onthinnerice
The nearly 60,000 square kilometers (14.8 million acres) of glaciers on the greater Tibetan Plateau, mostly in China, are the largest ice mass outside the polar regions. The ice has shrunk by 7% over the past four decades and two thirds could disappear by 2100, according to conservative estimates by Chinese scientists.
by Chinese Academy of Sciences

Friday, November 13, 2009

BBC/Science: Greenland ice loss 'accelerating'


The Greenland ice sheet is losing its mass faster than in previous years and making an increasing contribution to sea level rise, a study has confirmed.

Published in the journal Science, it has also given scientists a clearer view of why the sheet is shrinking.

The team used weather data, satellite readings and models of ice sheet behaviour to analyse the annual loss of 273 thousand million tonnes of ice.

Melting of the entire sheet would raise sea levels globally by about 7m (20ft).

For the period 2000-2008, melting Greenland ice raised sea levels by an average of about 0.46mm per year.

If you multiply these numbers up it puts us well beyond the IPCC estimates for 2100
Professor Roger Barry

Since 2006, that has increased to 0.75mm per year.

"Since 2000, there's clearly been an accelerating loss of mass [from the ice sheet]," said lead researcher Michiel van den Broeke from Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

"But we've had three very warm summers, and that's enhanced the melt considerably

In total, sea levels are rising by about 3mm per year, principally because seawater is expanding as it warms.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8357537.stm



Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Tear down the wall and save the planet!


Tear down the wall and save the planet!

Gorbachev said today, “There is the wall between those who cause climate change and those who suffer the consequences. There is the wall between those who heed the scientific evidence and those who pander to vested interests. And there is the wall between the citizens who are changing their own behavior and want strong global action, and the leaders who are so far letting them down".

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Matthieu Ricard in Paris

I did get a chance to speak with Matthieu Ricard (http://www.matthieuricard.org/) this afternoon as he was doing a book signing at the Paris showrom of Yellow Korner (http://www.yellowkorner.com/)
Interestingly, his next possible photographic destinations: The Arctic, Iceland...
"Que l'amour altruiste règne en ton coeur"

Fr Left to Right: Yves Moutran, Christophe Laurent, Matthieu Ricard, Luc Hardy at the Yellow Korner gallery rue des Francs Bourgeois in Paris