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Greenpeace launches Forest Defenders Camp in Indonesia

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.

Temperature change 1765-2100: Graph excerpted from the IPCC's Third Assessment Report showing past and predicted changes to global temperature. Enlarge Image

Science

Climate change is a reality. Today, our world is hotter than it has been in two thousand years. By the end of the century, if current trends continue, the global temperature will likely climb higher than at any time in the past two million years. While the end of the 20th century may not necessarily be the warmest time in Earth's history, what is unique is that the warmth is global and cannot be explained by the natural mechanisms that explain previous warm periods. There is a broad scientific consensus that humanity is in large part responsible for this change, and that choices we make today will decide the climate of the future.

The US based Cargill corporation burns large areas of rainforest to prepare for soya plantations. Enlarge Image

Deforestation

Deforestation and forest degradation are both a cause and a result of climate change. Plants absorb carbon dioxide and use it to grow, but when they decay or burn the carbon dioxide is released again. Decaying plants also produce methane, a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide.

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.

Bleached coral, Great Barrier Reef. Effects of climate change. Enlarge Image

Habitat loss

"Most of the world's endangered species -- some 25 percent of mammals and 12 percent of birds -- may become extinct over the next few decades as warmer conditions alter the forests, wetlands, and rangelands they depend on, and human development blocks them from migrating elsewhere." -- UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

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.

United Nations

The United Nations plays a key role in coordinating the international response to climate change. But it is no simple job getting cooperation and agreement from the 191 member states of the UN - all intent on pursuing their own self interests and policies - even when the evidence is clearly shows that failing to act would be disastrous for all.

A Greenpeace activist dressed in a polar bear suit holds up a sign advocating the Kyoto Protocol near an entrance to the Forbidden City. Enlarge Image

Protests and direct actions

Carbon dioxide, the most significant global warming gas, is odourless, invisible, and an easy thing to ignore as our world heats up to dangerous levels. At Greenpeace, it's part of our job to make the invisible impossible to ignore. Often this means going to the source of the problem - hanging a banner on a coal plant's giant smokestack, for example. Other times, it means reminding decision makers they have a higher responsibility than the corporate bottom line.

Greenpeace observer checking heavy ice floes beside Arctic Sunrise. Enlarge Image

Expeditions and special projects

Here you can find the special weblogs and tour sites we put up for particular projects. Past project sites are archived, and no longer updated.

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.

Nomadic Penan leader Along Sega and his grandchild examine a tree stump near their village in the Sungai Nyakit area of the Sarawak rainforest in Malaysia. He is 60, a father of nine and grandfather of 30. Enlarge Image

Protect ancient forests

Forest destruction produces about one fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than that emitted from all the cars, planes, and trains in the world.

Visit our new Climate Defenders Camp in Indonesia!

Clearcutting of Canada's temperate rainforest, Tofino Creek, Clayoquot Sound, Vancouver Island. Enlarge Image

Threats

Eight thousand years ago, large tracts of ancient forest covered almost half the earth's land area. Today, only one fifth of the original forests remain as large areas of ancient forest, the rest having been destroyed, degraded or fragmented by relentless human activity.

Rubber tappers in Jurua Extractive Reserve, Amazon, Brazil. Enlarge Image

Solutions

Few can dispute the irreplaceable damage caused to forests from illegal and destructive logging around the world, but what can be done to effectively address the problem and reverse the increasing trend of ancient forest destruction?

Go to your national site

World websites

General media enquiries:
+31 (0)20 718 2096.

Hotline:
+31 (0)20 718 2470

For EU related:
Mark Breddy
+32 2 2741 903(p)
+32 496 15 6229(m)
mark.breddy@greenpeace.org

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