Eastern European Association of the Greens continues to hold educational event foe young people. Thus we held another one in Brussels on Energy Saving Day, 12 November. One of the most important issue that people should be concerned about is climate change. According to estimates of the UN scientists, by 2030, carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere can reach a critical level. We engage students into this topic with interesting and at the same time thrilling facts.
Did you know for example, that Indonesia will move its capital city as its current one is sinking? Sea levels are rising at the fastest rate in 3,000 years, an average three millimetres per year. Antarctica and Greenland hold enough frozen water to raise global sea levels by about 65 metres if they were to melt completely. Even if this scenario is unlikely, these ice masses are already melting faster.
Earlier this year, Indonesia announced its plans to move the capital city away from Jakarta. Because some parts of Jakarta are sinking as much as 25cm per year. Jakarta’s precarious position is thanks to a combination of two factors – rising global sea levels and land subsidence as underground water supplies have been drained away to meet water needs. This grim picture is repeated elsewhere too. In the Pacific, at least eight islands were swallowed by the sea in the last century, with Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands feared to be the next low-lying nations to be wiped off the map. Did you know that average wildlife populations have dropped by 60 per cent in just over 40 years?
The average size of vertebrate (mammals, fish, birds and reptiles) populations declined by 60 per cent between 1970 and 2014, according to the biennial Living Planet Report published by the Zoological Society of London and the WWF. Even under a two degrees Celsius warming scenario, five per cent of animal and plant species will be at risk from extinction. Coral reefs are particularly vulnerable to extreme warming events, their cover could be reduced to just one per cent of current levels at two degrees Celsius of warming.
Did you know that we consumed all of earth’s 2019 resources by July 29 Earth Overshoot Day is a symbolic date on which humanity’s consumption for the year outstrips Earth’s capacity to regenerate those resources that year. The calculated date is getting earlier each year. It is July 29 in 2019; in 1999 it was September. We want young people know that each of us can do things to combat global warming by yourself, it is not necessary to receive a special education. There are many ways to improve the situation with climate change in ordinary household conditions.
Join us in our future events and Go Green!