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Coal is the worst climate offender Enlarge Image

Stop climate change

The world's leaders meet at the end of 2009 in Copenhagen to determine the fate of the climate. They could set us on the path to a deep emissions cuts or they could lock the planet into catastrophic, irreversible climate change.

Take action

With the world on the brink of runaway climate change, millions are anxious about the effects that a warmer globe will have on our everyday lives. Wanting to learn, act and agitate is a perfectly valid response.

Scientific consensus

There is, in fact, a broad and overwhelming scientific consensus that climate change is occurring, is caused in large part by human activities (such as burning fossil fuels), and if left un-checked will likely have disastrous consequences.

The specks on ice are explorers Lonnie Dupre and Eric Larsen, setting off on the first ever unsupported summer crossing of the Arctic Ocean in order to draw attention to global warming. Enlarge Image

Climate research

It was realised by the mid-18th century that some gases in the Earth's atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, trap heat and keep the Earth warm. At the start of the 20th century, a Swedish scientist named Svante Arrhenius put forward the idea that human emissions of carbon dioxide would eventually raise temperatures. He didn't see this as a particularly bad thing, and most scientists at the time were sceptical that humans could burn fossil fuels fast enough to have a noticeable impact at all.

Illustration of the greenhouse effect. Enlarge Image

Greenhouse effect

The Earth's atmosphere is made up of a blanket of gases, which trap enough heat to sustain life. However, by burning fossil fuels and cutting down forests humans pump billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. We also add other gasses to the atmosphere in smaller quantities.

Carbon dioxide emissions and the carbon cycle. Enlarge Image

CO2 emissions

The primary human source of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is from the burning of fossil fuels for energy production and transport. Changes in land use and deforestation also contribute significantly. Trees, for example, are natural 'carbon sinks' - they absorb carbon dioxide while alive and when they are destroyed, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. Once in the atmosphere, most of the carbon dioxide stays there for 50 to 200 years, and some of it stays there indefinitely.

Flooded village in southern France, close to a nuclear power station. Earlier in 2003 the same area experienced a long drought. Climate change means more extreme weather like flooding and droughts. Enlarge Image

Impacts

No one knows how much warming is "safe". What we do know is that climate change is already harming people and ecosystems. Its reality can be seen in melting glaciers, disintegrating polar ice, thawing permafrost, dying coral reefs, rising sea levels, changing ecosystems and fatal heat waves. And it is not only scientists that are witnessing these changes. From Inuit in the far north to islanders near the equator - people are already struggling with the impacts of climate change.

Icebergs melting in low sun. Enlarge Image

Global Melting

As the Earth warms, its ice melts. This global melting is an early and obvious sign of climate change, but its implications go far beyond merely losing snow and ice. For starters, some people and ecosystems depend on the ice - glaciers for water supply in areas of seasonal rainfall, for example, and sea ice for habitat.

Pita Meanke, of Betio village, stands beside a tree as he watches the 'king tides' crash through the sea wall into his family's property, on the South Pacific island of Kiribati. Enlarge Image

Sea level rise

"The Maldives is one of the small states. We are not in a position to change the course of events in the world. But what you do or do not do here will greatly influence the fate of my people. It can also change the course of world history." -- Statement by H.E. Maumoon Abdul Gayoom (Maldives) Kyoto, Japan, 3rd Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC

Floods in southern France only months after a severe drought and forest fires in the same area. Global warming, caused by ever increasing consumption of fossil fuels like oil, means extreme weather events are becoming more frequent. Enlarge Image

Extreme weather

There is strong evidence that extreme weather events – such as hurricanes, floods, droughts and heat waves – are increasing because of climate change. In fact, the Financial Initiative of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) recently calculated that the economic costs of global warming are doubling every decade. The cumulative number of people affected by disasters rose to two billion in the 1990s, up from 740 million in the 1970s. Virtually all of these millions were concentrated in poorer countries.

A family living next to the sea in the village of Tenoraereke, stand with Greenpeace Climate Change campaigner on the South Pacific island of Kiribati, beside some collapsed coconut trees, fallen over due to sea erosion. Enlarge Image

Climate voices

The real meaning of climate change can not be fully grasped from scientific charts and equations alone; one needs to hear the stories of those who are living through it, grappling with its implications, and struggling to find ways to halt it. Part of what we do is to give a voice to these first hand witnesses of climate change. Here is what some of them have to say:

A clear indication that while the delegates inside the convention make new alliances and forge tenuous political partnerships, outside the UN buildings very real walls based on access to resouces continue to exist. Enlarge Image

Governments

There is a fundamental irony and injustice at the heart of the climate change problem. Today’s growing body of evidence indicates very clearly that the first and worst impacts of climate change are felt by the poor in the developing world. The responsibility for the problem, however, lies primarily with the rich industrialised nations, and increasingly the rapidly industrialising nations.

Greenpeace Czech Republic marks Kyoto coming into force with a large banner reading "Kyoto for the Earth" in the front of famous National Museum in the centre of Prague. The museum is a place marking historic and symbolic events in recent Czech history. Enlarge Image

Kyoto

On 16 February 2005, in the culmination of ten years of sometimes exhausting and often frustrating negotiations, the Kyoto Protocol became law. Thirty-five industrialised countries along with the European Union are now legally bound to reduce or limit their greenhouse gas emissions.

Greenpeace activists climb a 700-ft coal plant smokestack to denounce Bush's dirty power plan. The Hatfield's Ferry Power Station is a symbol and an example of the Bush administration's dirty energy policy that favors polluting fossil fuels over clean energy sources. Enlarge Image

United States

The saying, "If you not part of the solution, you're part of the problem", is a massive understatement when it comes to the Bush administration and climate change. With less than 5 percent of the world's population, the US is the world's largest producer of greenhouse gases and is responsible for nearly 25 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions.

Greenpeace activists paint two gigantic cracks on the 32 year old nuclear reactor dome at Borssele, Netherlands. The Dutch government wants to keep the plant, one of the world's oldest, open beyond 2013, despite inherent safety and security risks. Enlarge Image

Project work

Climate change is a priority issue for us here at Greenpeace. We realised years ago that it has the potential to wipe out most of the gains the environmental movement has made in other areas. Disruptions to ecosystems will likely harm everything from minke whales to coral reefs to polar bears. Whole forests will be lost, and hundreds of thousands of species will become extinct. Climate change will also bring devastation to people and communities, especially some of the world's poorest.

One of the largest wind farms in South America. Enlarge Image

Solutions

Greenpeace is pushing for some big, visionary measures to turn around the global trend towards runaway climate change. The plan needs political will to make it happen and the opportunity is at the Copenhagen summit in December. You can get behind our plan in a whole lot of different ways. Here's how.

Building a toxic free, sustainable home for low-income families. The house is free of toxic materials like PVC, the wood is from sustainable forests and the construction is solar powered. Enlarge Image

Energy efficiency

Energy efficiency is a very broad term referring to the many different ways we can get the same amount of work (light, heat, motion, etc.) done with less energy. It covers efficient cars, energy saving lights, improved industrial practices, better building insulation and a host of other technologies. Since saving energy and saving money often amount to the same thing, energy efficiency is highly profitable.

The UK's first wind farm in the Irish Sea which will supply 50,000 homes with power. Enlarge Image

Wind

Wind power, the world's fastest growing energy source, is a deceptively simple technology. Behind the tall, slender towers and steadily turning blades lies a complex interplay of lightweight materials, aerodynamic design and computer controlled electronics. Power is transferred from the rotor through a gearbox, sometimes operating at variable speed, and then to a generator (although some turbines avoid a gearbox by use of direct drive).

Close up of the sun. Globally, the sun provides 10000 times the energy humanity uses – energy free to anyone who can harness it. Enlarge Image

Solar - Sunlight to Energy

Solar Energy is already being harnessed in many part of the world and it has the potential to provide several times the current world energy consumption if properly exploited. Solar can be used to directly produce electricity or for heating and even for cooling. Future potential of solar is only limited by our willingness to seize the opportunity.

Geothermal energy plant near Reykjavik. Iceland has abundant amounts of free geothermal energy. Enlarge Image

Geothermal

Geo (Earth) thermal (heat) energy means harnessing heat from inside the Earth. Our planet's core is incredibly hot – 5,500° Celsius (9,932° F) by recent estimates – so it's no surprise that even the top three metres of Earth's surface stay a nearly constant 10-16° Celsius (50-60° F) year round. Plus, thanks to various geological processes, at some places much higher temperatures can be found in some places.

Bioenergy

Bioenergy (aka biomass energy) is using organic matter (plants, etc.) as fuel via technologies such as gas collection, gasification (converting solid material to gas), combustion and digestion (for wet wastes).

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Update February 1, 2006

George Bush admitted that the US is "addicted to oil" in his State of the Union speech.

Is this the first step in the 'Oilaholics Anonymous' programme? No one should be under the illusion that the Bush Administration has undergone a fundamental shift in its position on Climate Change, but he has certainly knuckled under to pressure. The administration has been forced to acknowledge they have a serious problem by the growing pressure from states, cities, the business community and the public (as well as the last 6 Environmental Protection Agency administrators) to do something about climate change, and the weight of high gasoline prices, the high price of energy, and on the vulnerability of their supply lines.

The good news is that while the Bush Administration slept, others were preparing the future. Preliminary figures have the USA leading the world in annual installed wind capacity in 2005, some 2500 megawatts. Solar photovoltaic technology is now cost competitive in California markets where demand outstrips supply. And biofuels are becoming an increasingly significant part of the energy landscape.

If Bush wants to get started on a 12-step programme, he could to worse than address the current balance of U.S. federally funded energy research, development and investment. While it now contains some substantial support for renewable energy technologies, it is too heavily weighted towards nuclear, carbon capture and storage (CCS) and hydrogen, and not on deploying the technologically-developed, market-ready renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies that are available today.