It is 10 degrees at 8:30am in Johannesburg on the 13th of April and I’m standing in a Melville field with fellow Arctic lovers and it’s cold. The ground is moist from last night’s rain and I’m wondering why I’m doing this to myself on a perfectly cold Saturday when I could be snuggling up in bed.
Flashback: oil spill, Gulf of Mexico, Arctic, unbearable heat, droughts, floods, erosion, melting ice caps, rising sea water…a lonely wondering polar bear. Oh yes, that’s exactly why Greenpeace Africa staff members, over 50 volunteers and I are standing in a beautifully shaped heart on a Saturday morning.
A shot is taken and the message is clear: Climate change has NO borders. Melting Arctic sea ice wreaks havoc on our weather patterns, and that all that open water absorbs more heat (instead of the ice that used to reflect it back up into the atmosphere). The faster the ocean warms, the faster land-based ice sheets like Greenland will melt, causing sea levels to rise. This could submerge many of Africa’s islands, like the Seychelles. No longer can people say to me “The Arctic’s far away from us – it won’t affest us here!”
Let’s not say to our children’s children, “We had the money, the time, the technology but not the courage.” Join the almost three million supporters who have made it clear to political leaders around the world that we’re demanding protection of the Arctic, for all life on earth. It starts now!
Sign here >> www.savethearctic.org