Recently, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confirmed the potentially catastrophic impacts of climate change caused by human activity and detailed the possible consequences if we fail to act immediately. While the picture they paint is a dire one, there are concrete steps we can take now to avoid the more nightmarish scenarios.

Building the message

The 10m x 4m x 4m (32ft x 13ft x 13ft) wooden ship, being constructed by Greenpeace volunteers, will send a strong message to leaders of all nations that we must act now to tackle global warming and the impending climate change crisis. 

A caravan of 40 horses have hauled the prefabricated wooden sections up Mount Ararat, where work has now begun on constructing supports as well as the keel and ribs of the boat. Over the next 2 weeks, a team of 20 German and Turkish carpenters will complete the construction of the boat, which will be turned over to the public in an official ceremony on  May 31, 2007. A day before the ceremony, activists will climb the 5,137 meter summit of Mount Ararat and call on the leaders of all nations to make climate protection a reality.

Building towards a solution

Greenpeace recently launched the Energy [R]evolution, a blueprint for avoiding dangerous climate change and keeping global warming to under two degrees. The Energy [R]evolution sets out a detailed plan up to 2050 showing how to make reductions in greenhouse gases - which IPCC prescribes can be achieved using current renewable energy technology and energy efficiency measures - without harming economic growth and taking into account population increases.

"At the upcoming G8 summit, many announcements will be made on climate protection, but they must be followed by real action," said Andree Böhling, a Greenpeace energy campaigner, "Otherwise, the G8 summit will pay only lip service to climate change and a historic opportunity will be lost."

Climate change could mean a future with huge coastal flooding, drought, extreme destructive weather events and massive increases in disease and displacement of hundreds of million of people. That's why millions of people around the world are already mobilizing.  They're lobbying politicians, changing what they buy and making smart energy choices.