NEWS
22 March
is World Water Day! Read the website, and see what you can do.
18 March
Ian McEwan's eagerly anticipated new novel on climate change ' 'Solar' is published today.
11 March
The DFID Agenda 2010 conference asks: How will Climate Change impact on the Millenium Development Goals?
7 March
Wealthy nations continue to buy African land, for their own food and water security
4 March
The Red River dries up as Vietnam experiences the worst droughts for 100 years
2 March
Gender and the Climate Change Agenda - download the report from the Women's Environmental Network (WEN) here.
20 February
Even if he is filled with good intentions, Barack Obama may not be able to deliver an effective programme to combat climate change
12-13 February
Oxford Climate Forum for Youth
10 February
US$ 700 billion for the poor - here, the Tobin tax |
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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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