You Are Here:
Delegates at the UN Climate Change Conference in Montreal, Canada today got a first hand view of carbon dioxide emissions coming from Thailand’s Mae Moh coal power plant, the largest and most notorious of its kind in Southeast Asia. Greenpeace activists transmitted to the conference live images of the coal plant as a laser projector beamed messages such as “CLIMATE CHANGE STARTS HERE” and “COAL KILLS” at the facility as it belched thick smoke.
Enlarge Image“Delegates at the conference in
Montreal must decisively go for drastic cuts in carbon emissions that
come from facilities such as the Mae Moh coal plant. Climate change is
not a distant problem to be dealt with sometime in the future. In fact
we have very little time left to avoid the most catastrophic impacts.
Without prompt, decisive action from governments to phase out the use
of fossil fuels such as coal we will soon find ourselves riding a
runaway train,” said Tara Buakamsri of Greenpeace Southeast Asia.
If climate change goes unchecked many of its effects will be irreversible. A new scientific study indicated that climate change can intensify the social and environmental problems faced by an already over-burdened population in Asia (1).
The severity of climate change is already bringing two of the world's mightiest rivers at the brink of collapse. Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences say that environmental damage linked to climate change is pushing the Yellow River source into an ecological breakdown, threatening the lifeblood of 120 million people who rely on it for domestic as well as agricultural and industrial uses. In the Amazon river region, one of the worst droughts ever recorded is damaging the world's largest rainforest, with wildfires breaking out, fresh drinking water becoming scarce and polluted and the death of millions of fish as the streams dry up.
Greenpeace believes that the goal of climate policy should be to keep global average temperature rise to below 2ºC above pre-industrial levels, a position also adopted by the European Union Heads of Government. It is economically and scientifically possible to do this with known technological means.
“The vast majority of world governments who have ratified the Kyoto Protocol now have the obligation to show that they mean it. They must get on with negotiating the next phase of Kyoto, with much stronger emission reduction targets for industrialised countries. We hold this planet in trust for our children and our children’s children,” Tara concluded.
Greenpeace’s flagship the Rainbow Warrior arrived in Bangkok today for the Thailand leg of its Asia Energy Revolution Tour, exposing the impacts of climate change and promoting the uptake of renewable energy like wind, solar and modern biomass.
Greenpeace is an independent, campaigning organisation, which uses non-violent, creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems, and to force solutions essential to a green and peaceful future.
If climate change goes unchecked many of its effects will be irreversible. A new scientific study indicated that climate change can intensify the social and environmental problems faced by an already over-burdened population in Asia (1).
The severity of climate change is already bringing two of the world's mightiest rivers at the brink of collapse. Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences say that environmental damage linked to climate change is pushing the Yellow River source into an ecological breakdown, threatening the lifeblood of 120 million people who rely on it for domestic as well as agricultural and industrial uses. In the Amazon river region, one of the worst droughts ever recorded is damaging the world's largest rainforest, with wildfires breaking out, fresh drinking water becoming scarce and polluted and the death of millions of fish as the streams dry up.
Greenpeace believes that the goal of climate policy should be to keep global average temperature rise to below 2ºC above pre-industrial levels, a position also adopted by the European Union Heads of Government. It is economically and scientifically possible to do this with known technological means.
“The vast majority of world governments who have ratified the Kyoto Protocol now have the obligation to show that they mean it. They must get on with negotiating the next phase of Kyoto, with much stronger emission reduction targets for industrialised countries. We hold this planet in trust for our children and our children’s children,” Tara concluded.
Greenpeace’s flagship the Rainbow Warrior arrived in Bangkok today for the Thailand leg of its Asia Energy Revolution Tour, exposing the impacts of climate change and promoting the uptake of renewable energy like wind, solar and modern biomass.
Greenpeace is an independent, campaigning organisation, which uses non-violent, creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems, and to force solutions essential to a green and peaceful future.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Tara Buakamsri, Climate campaigner, Greenpeace Southeast Asia, +661 8550013
Ua-phan Chamnan-ua, Media Campaigner, +661 9282426
Photos and video available upon request.
www.greenpeace.or.th
1) Climate Change Impacts in the Philippines: Crisis or Opportunity, Greenpeace Dec 2005
