All Posts Tagged With: "species"

Wake Up, Freak Out, Get a Grip


Wake Up, Freak Out – then Get a Grip from Leo Murray on Vimeo .

Two friends told me about this last Friday, so I had to check it out. It’s an excellent tour of the "tipping point" effects of climate destabilization — something even the IPCC predictions don’t account for. Leo Murray’s animation and narration makes the very complex science of climate feedback easy to understand and visualize in stark terms. While it does give a glimpse into probable scenarios of species extinction, climate refugees, and other human misery, Murray also tells us it’s not inevitable. This is not the time to panic, he says — this is the time to ACT!

On a related note, David Orr came to Baltimore on October 1 to give a talk about climate change policy. He and a group of experts have been briefing the two presidential campaigns as part of the Presidential Climate Action Project . On their website, you can view and download policy papers on what the next Transition Team has to do in order to hit the ground running in the first 100 days in office. Look through their "Climate Action Briefs" on topics such as the role of small business in addressing climate change, national security in a changing environment, the moral case for energy efficiency, and the great potentials of a new "green" economy.

While it’s very good news that the best minds in the U.S. are coming together on this, Leo Murray’s video is a timely reminder that we have spent the last 20 years waiting for government and industry to fix this problem. The message is loud and clear: it is up to US to act, and we must act NOW.

The Nature Conservancy

photo by: Joe Stewart

The Nature Conservancy’s mission is to preserve the plants, animals, and natural communities on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. They partner with indigenous communities, businesses, governments, multilateral institutions, and other non-profit organizations to address threats to conservation involving climate change, fire, fresh water, forests, invasive species, and marine ecosystems. Since their founding in 1951, they have protected more than 117 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of rivers worldwide. They now operate more than 100 marine conservation projects globally.