NEWS
25th April
Climate war in the UK? The police go undercover to try to sabotage environmental movements.
24th April:
Oblivious to reality, the UK govern-ment decides to address climate change by maybe capturing between 20% to 25% of CO2 from future coal fired power stations.
22nd April:
To mark "Earth Day", Disney has a new film out - "Earth" - about a year in the life of the planet. Excellent return to form, great for children.
21st April:
"Right to Survive" report published by Oxfam. Download it here.
21st April:
The government isn't meeting its CO2 targets. But recession will help. If the recession is deep enough, the UK's CO2 emissions will drop 19% by 2015!
10th April:
The Age of Stupid, the film of the year 2055 when Pete Postlethwaite asks 'why didn't we do more when we had the chance?'
9th April:
Asia's future at serious risk of conflicts over fresh water supplies - see the Asia Society's latest report.
7th April:
Come to Denmark in July, and join the Danish Climate Camp on the beach! Learn about climate change and sustainable development, and discuss how to get your voice heard at the climate change summit in Copenhagen at the end of 2009.
20th January:
The Rockefeller Foundation announces its Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network initiative, in partnership with Challenge to Change and others.
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Challenge to Change is a British NGO supporting poor communities in Asia to build more resilient livelihoods and to adapt to the impact of climate change.
We work primarily in Vietnam - in Quang Tri Province, where typhoons and floods are occurring with greater frequency and intensity; in three coastal cities - Quy Nhon, Da Nang and Can Tho - where poverty combined with risks from climate change can lead to disasterous consequences; and in the northern mountainous province of Ha Giang, where the livelihoods of poor ethnic minority communities are increasingly effected by flash-floods and mud-slides which destroy their villages and their basic food supplies.
Complementing our assistance to the victims of climate change overseas, we campaign in the UK against over-consumption, and in favour of initiatives for environmental protection. We engage in development education programmes, and we promote local sustainable development and the use of renewable energy. |
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Since 1900, the world economy has expanded 20-fold and world population has increased four-fold. But while the economy is growing exponentially, the earth's natural capacities, such as its ability to to supply fresh water, forest products and seafood, have not increased. Humanity's collective demands probably first surpassed the earth's regenerative capacity around 1980, and by 2009 global demands on natural systems exceed their sustainable yield capacity by approximately 25%. This means we are meeting current demands by consuming the earth's natural assets, setting the stage for decline and collapse. We are crossing natural thresholds that we cannot see and violating deadlines that we do not recognise. Nature is the time keeper, but we cannot see the clock. *
Every society clings to a myth by which it lives. Ours is the myth of economic growth. For the last five decades, the pursuit of growth has been the single most important policy goal across the world. This extraordinary ramping up of global economic activity has no historical precedent, and is totally at odds with our scientific knowledge of the finite resource base and the fragile economy on which we depend for survival. A return to business as usual is not an option. Prosperity for the few founded on ecological destruction and persistent social injustice is no foundation for a civilised society. The current economic crisis presents us with a unique opportunity. To sweep away the short-term thinking that has plagued society for decades. To replace it with considered policy capable of addressing the enormous challenge of delivering a lasting prosperity. **
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Challenge to Change is a non-political, non-religious, non-government, non-profit organisation.
We promote equal rights and opportunities for all. Our daily work is based on our fundamental convictions that:
- climate change needs to be urgently addressed by governments and people, by all means
- the world economy is running contrary to the world's environment and natural resources
- equality is the most effective basis for stability, security and development
- not only the poor but we all now face a momentous challenge to change.
* Lester R. Brown, "Plan B 3.0", Earth Policy Institute, New York, 2008
** Tim Jackson, "Prosperity without growth?", Sustainable Development Commission, UK, 2009
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