(Picture and hosting stolen from NRT)
I saw this on No Right Turn a few days ago and thought it would be all over the place shortly after. It hasn’t been. So I’m doing my tiny bit to further distribute this little visual shock around the globe.
Here’s idiot on that NRT post:
In 2005, the arctic ice-cap shrank to its smallest extent in recorded history. This year, it’s smashed that record, shrinking to a mere 4.13 million square kilometres, compared with the previous low of 5.32 million square kilometres. Previously, climate scientists had been estimating that if climate change continued the arctic would be ice-free around 2080. Now they’re talking 2030. This isn’t about our children anymore – it will happen in our lifetime.
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In related news, I’ve been watching student presentations for the last two days. Each small group describes how they tried to change their behaviour towards greater environmental sustainability, and whether they were successful. It’s been great, and inspiring, and exhausting. The students are demonstrating incredible insight into their behaviour, and along the way they’ve built an awareness of environmental sustainability in action (and sometimes a repertoire of successful environmental behaviours). That’s a win in my book. A big theme coming through is that initial motivation is really hard, but having a group microculture to sustain you once you’re underway is an enormous help. This fits nicely with what I’ve been thinking for a while, so it’s pleasing to hear in anecdotal form.
Soon it’ll be the hard data-crunching and theory-wrangling stuff. I love it.
And as a side effect, the Polar Bear will become extinct in the wild; they need the ice-cap to survive.
Which has kindof spoiled my enjoyment of that beautiful moment of freedom in the Golden Compass trailer…