WWF - Stories of change

Kathy Leondard, USA

2009-09-01

We're a small advertising/marketing agency in St. Louis. We brought the Earth Hour Event to St. Louis, MO. in 2007. We started pretty small, just the agency and our families, and a few friends. In 2008. we successfully organized a number of the cities most visible political leaders to help us darken our most notable structures: the Gateway ARCH our national monument, Busch Stadium, home to our Cardinals; St. Louis City Hall, the center of our downtown.

We hosted a party at Busch Stadium and had more than 300 people attend. Small by comparison to some cities participation, but significant for us, a small agency of 15 people.

Joe Galliani, USA

2009-08-31

My name is Joe Galliani, I'm 52 years old and I've lived in Southern California for 33 years.

Since 1993 my wife and I have lived in Torrance California, just a half mile from the beautiful beach and the Pacific Ocean. We feel very fortunate to live here at the base of the gorgeous Palos Verdes Peninsula, but today we're breathing a big sigh of relief learning that the Palos Verdes Wildfire was 100% contained this morning. What we're not breathing is clean air, because the smoke from the La Canada-Flintridge fire, about 38 miles from here, is still making air quality hazardous and people in the L.A. basin are being advised not to spend too much time outdoors and to keep their doors and windows closed and their air conditioners running.

Our neighborhood is called the "Hollywood Riviera" because of its beautiful hillside homes with idyllic ocean views framed by palm trees. We've always planned on retiring and spending the rest of our lives right here, but these days we're worried about what climate change is already doing - and about the far more serious consequences headed our way.

We're already getting used to the fires, smoke and related air hazards here in the L.A. area where our annual wildfire season just keeps getting longer and longer.

Meanwhile our long term drought, now its its third year with no end in sight, means less available water to fight the fires with. It also means a Hobson's choice over the most critical needs for this increasingly precious liquid resource.

And this summer it also means we're experiencing mandatory water rationing that restricts our landscape watering to two days a week and forces other cutbacks in water use across the board.

My wife, Debra, is a horticulturist and works at our local South Coast Botanic Garden. In 2001 she terminated our grass lawns and replaced them with drought tolerant plants because of her concerns for water use. We both know that 20% of California's electric power is used just to move water from the North down here to the South and all the other places it goes. So not only is climate change-driven drought cutting our fresh water supply, but the way we use water here also adds to our greenhouse gas emissions.

Because of our interest in horticulture we've also watched sadly as both native plants and our state's legendary agriculture industry have already suffered the consequences of accelerating climate change and related climate conditions for growing. Things don't grow well anymore in the places they have for generations.

We Californians are very proud of our state's Global Warming Solutions law, AB 32, that mandates greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced to 1990 levels by the year 2020. That's about a 25% reduction. By 2050 the law calls for us to reduce our emissions 80% below our 1990 levels. But we're not experiencing the necessary sense of urgency that will make those emission reductions happen, especially not at the local level.

We've got a greenhouse gas-spewing Exxon-Mobil refinery just 5 miles from my house here in Torrance and 9 miles up Pacific Coast Highway sits the climate-changing Chevron refinery in El Segundo. We're also only 12 miles from the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach - the two largest stationary sources off air pollution and all their related greenhouse gases in L.A. County.

But as serious as climate change impacts already are here, we know from our state's just released reports on Climate Change Adaptation Strategy that things will be getting worse no matter what we do. Just as we know that they'll go from worse to catastrophically bad unless we act boldly and immediately.

Sea level rise, higher temperatures, more wildfires year-round, less water, fewer cold nights and devastating impacts to the people who grow half of the USA's fruits, vegetables and nuts are just a few of the certainties in our future from unabated climate change.

Our Nobel laureate Secretary of Energy, fellow Californian, Dr. Steven Chu has already warned us "We're looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California" unless the public wakes up and we take action now.

Because of our personal experiences and our knowledge of the overwhelming worldwide scientific consensus on climate change impacts, my wife and I have changed the way way we live and cut our own carbon footprint drastically. Among other things our electric use has been cut by over 50% in the last year.

I now devote my full time to working on environmental and energy issues. I've been blogging on the environment since October of 2007.

I volunteer with the South Bay Environmental Services Center doing community outreach and presentations. I volunteer with GRID Alternatives installing solar panels on low income and Habitat for Humanity houses. I volunteer with Greenpeace and the Environmental Priorities Network educating the public on climate change news and facts.

For the past two months I've been the Chairman of the South Bay Los Angeles 350 Climate Action Group. We're taking part in Bill McKibben's 350.org's October 24 Day of International Climate Action. We hope to have thousands of people on the beach here in the South Bay forming the "Amazing Waving Human Tide Line" to demonstrate the projected impacts of sea level rise to our beloved beaches and coastal communities. You can find out more about it and how to join us at http://www.350.org/SouthBay350

I am driven to spend my time trying to wake people up and to working to make a difference because I took Dr. James Hansen, our nation's top climatologist and Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, seriously when he told the US Congress on June 23, 2008:
"...we have used up all slack in the schedule for actions needed to defuse the global warming time bomb. The next president and Congress must define a course next year in which the United States exerts leadership commensurate with our responsibility for the present dangerous situation.

Otherwise it will become impractical to constrain atmospheric carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas produced in burning fossil fuels, to a level that prevents the climate system from passing tipping points that lead to disastrous climate changes that spiral dynamically out of humanity's control."

Ricardo Panicali, Brazil

2009-08-28

We are doing shows at parks and call people to action ! TA FICANDO QUENTE = It is getting warm ! at parks take a message against global warming and we are using the music as a gun to get people attention to preserv our planet and recycle when possible. Educate people we believe is the best way to combat and avoid the worst of global warming effects. We did a show in march to participated on Earth Hour, now we are mobilizing people around the 350 actions. We hope we could to something together with WWF-Brazil. Main while we can observe that the clime has change in Sao Paulo in the last 5 years , the weather sessons has changed and is not well define as in the past. We clear can see it. we are in august and is still cold, usually in august should be warm, but everything is changing.

Wesley Cronk, USA

2009-08-26

When most people think about summer in south Florida, they think of sunny weather and beach days. Originally from West Palm Beach summer is a synonym for hurricane season. Growing up, hurricanes were more of an afterthought of summer, something that you had to be prepared for but no one really worried about. After the 2005 season left Florida ravaged by a series of storms and New Orleans destroyed by Katrina, it is hard to not link the storms to climate change. Even if science doesn't link those storms to warming ocean temperatures, the potential that climate change has to make a hurricane season like 2005 happen regularly was enough for me to start addressing climate change. To do so, a friend and I formed a non-profit organization, the SEEC Foundation, as a means of demonstrating widespread benefits of preventing climate change. We promote the economic and social gains that businesses and communities can realize by addressing environmental problems with the greatest focus being on climate change.

Christopher Drake, UK

2009-08-17

Dear Sir/Madam

After being a weather enthuserast for the last 20years, i am very concerened about the role melting ice will play with the Atlantic Gulf Stream. Moreover the direct impact to the UK climate, may be colder or milder than we think.

I recently completed my BSc Environmental Managment Degree and know the subject well.

Last winter we whittnessed heavy than normal snow fall in London.

Should be very interesting to see how this winter follows.

Olivia Hamilton, UK

2009-08-17

i have a very large lavender bush in my garden and every summer it is usually full of bees but this year there are significantly less bees and they have only arrived in the last 2 or 3 weeks when they usually arrive late spring and stay right threw the summer months.

Kate Bailey, Ireland

2009-08-16

I am living in Ireland now, but used to live in the South Island of New Zealand. In the 90's I moved up to Auckland, in the North Island, for a period of five years. Upon returning home to Christchurch, I felt that a definite change had taken place with regard to both seasonality and climate. While everyone seems to remember their childhood years as having 'better weather', from my own memories observations, and conversations with others - things were quite different. Christchurch is close to the Southern Alps which contains a number of skifields. There was an ever-growing trend towards snow-making, against a background of ever-decreasing natural snowfall, which started appearing later and later each year - if at all. Similarly, the warm weather that was traditionally associated with the NZ Christmas/summer school break has definitely become a thing of the past. Rather than stable high-pressure systems resulting in weeks of warm blue skies, December has now become a notably bad time to holiday, with most people now preferring to wait until January or February for some hope of prolonged fine weather, minus grey skies and drizzling rain. The other phenomena is an increasing number of wild electrical storms in mid-to-late summer - huge fronts containing vicious barrages of hail, violent, almost monsoonal cloud bursts. For the first time in my personal memory, roofs at two of my houses and those of my friend's were compromised by these drastic weather events which did not seem to be a feature of my childhood years. Indeed, I cannot recall a single similar episode during my childhood Christchurch summers; and now there seems to be at least event per year.

Abigail James, UK

2009-08-14

I started gardening in a small way about 15 years ago and have gradually increased so that now I am in my garden practically every day!

Whilst in no way an expert I have noticed within the past 5 years a change in our seasons from being fairly well defined to being out of synch with my memory as a child growing up.

Now we have very hot days in February & March where we can sit outside in our garden for lunch to needing to water heavily (and needing to buy more water butts to collect the little rain we have in the Spring) in April and May this year; not necessarily because it was hot and sunny, but because there was no rainfall of any consequence for weeks.

I also notice flowers coming up early and have a rhododendron in a second flowering as I write this. I don't know if this is unusual, but it's never happened before. Last 'winter' I had snowdrops starting to show in December along with the odd daffodil.

Jennifer Stegmann, USA

2009-08-12

What do mountains mean to me?

June 27, 2009
This morning, I saw some pictures a friend sent me. They were of the Glacier Basin campground in Rocky Mountain National Park. Or what's left of the campground. It really was acutely painful to look at. As a kid, I measured my growth by the Lodgepole and Ponderosa pines (Pinus contorta and Pinus ponderosa) of Rocky. But this year, because of the pine beetle epidemic, my two favorite campgrounds, Glacier Basin and Timber Creek, were nearly clear-cut. You can't wake up any more and enjoy a cup of morning coffee in the shade of a century-old pine while listening to a moose slurp up her morning sustenance in the nearby marsh.
    Dendroctonus ponderosae, or Mountain pine beetle, is an insect found throughout forests in the western United States. The species is native to the region and makes its home in many species of pine including Ponderosa, Lodgepole, and Limber pines. Outbreaks can cause wide-spread tree loss; fire damage or other injury, drought, overcrowding, root disease, or old age are often reasons why specific trees or stands die first.
    Throughout the Rocky Mountains, a few factors have contributed to the current epidemic. First, decades of purposeful fire suppression in our western pine forests have created dense forests. Prolonged drought is also one of the factors contributing to this current epidemic. Mountain Pine Beetles bore into the trunks of trees, creating pitch tubes. If a tree has sufficient resin, it can "pitch out" the intruding beetles. Older trees, however, and those suffering from the effects of a drought, have less resin and thus are less able to protect themselves. A third contributing factor revolves around aspect of climate change. The winters have not been cold enough, for long enough periods of time, to hinder larvae development. So beetle populations have not been kept in check by freezing temperatures in the winter months. Yet another effect of climate change is that the beetles are finding warmer temperatures at higher elevations and are thus moving higher up on mountainsides creating an even larger epidemic.
    But it is all part of a process. I've seen how Yellowstone and parts of Alaska have fought back after [what we think of as] devastating fires. Being a native species, the beetles are a food source for woodpeckers, among other birds. And the death of pines will cause the opening of the canopy in many areas of Rocky. In turn, this will allow aspen and other understory plants to grow and thrive, encouraging the cycle of forest succession.
    Mother Nature is the most resilient force we can witness. I know Rocky's forests will come back, just not in my lifetime.

August 5, 2009
What do mountains mean to me today? A sense of wonder, freedom, and amazement. Something new around every bend in the trail.
    Not to bring up past moments, but I received a new update about Rocky Mountain National Park this morning. The NPS has announced a first-come, first-served firewood sale, selling off the trees cut down as a result of the current Mountain Pine Beetle infestation. While members of my hiking group posted comments about this topic on our website this morning, I personally wondered how I would feel if I were to buy and use some of those downed Ponderosas...
    I would need a moment of silence and reflection.

Katharine Parsons, Canada

2009-08-11

My name is Katharine Parsons and I am submitting the video "Lili's Law" on behalf of my daughter Lili. The video was a runner-up in Discovery Magazine's video contest "The Future of Energy in Two Minutes or Less." Lili is 8 years old now but invented her law of conservation while as a kindergartner in Ontario after viewing "An Inconvenient Truth." She wanted to do something to help the polar bears. You can watch it at http://discovermagazine.com/contests/vote-for-the-future-of-energy-in-2-minutes-or-less/?searchterm=lili's%20law I filmed and edited it.

Colleen Gardner, USA

2009-08-10

The Texas Hill Country has experienced "exceptional drought" conditions for the last two years with more observed in 1999, 2000 and 2006 and we are line to surpass the total number of days of triple digit temperatures (record is from the 1920's of 69 days, and we currently have 44 in early August). We believe this to be a direct effect of climate change & global warming. Believing also that the only species to ever go extinct is one that cannot adapt to a changing environment, the Bamberger Ranch Preserve is focusing the majority of its attention on capturing as much rainfall as possible - in a variety of ways, but the largest scale project was recently publicized at http://www.keyetv.com/content/news/topnews/story/Texas-Hill-Country-ranch-restoring-native-natural/GJuOMgicYkCB26GyWAkmog.cspx

Jill Miller, USA

2009-08-05

I live in the city of St. Louis, where summertime temperatures are normally very hot, hazy and humid. Smog contributes to high asthma rates, and heat waves result in illnesses and deaths in the most vulnerable populations. Our electricity comes from coal-burning power plants, leading producers of air and global warming pollution. After learning about how white roofs can save energy, I started my own small company painting flat black roofs white in the city of St. Louis, Missouri. Painting flat roofs white is cost-effective for homeowners and businesses, who immediately lower cooling costs, reduce repairs, and significantly extend roof life. It's great for communities because it mitigates the urban heat island effect; lower summertime temperatures mean less smog and fewer heat-related illnesses. Just as impressively, every 100 sq. ft. painted white offsets 1 metric ton of carbon dioxide from the coal-fired power plants that provide our electricity here in Missouri. So far this summer my little company (White Caps, Green Collars) has painted almost 5000 square feet of roof and offset nearly 50 tons of CO2. It's a small, simple step in the right direction.

Dylan Brown, USA

2009-08-04

I grew up on the St. John's River in Brevard County Florida. This river always had a steady cycle of rising and faling water levels depending on the season. I began to see very eratic water levels since about 1999 to the present. This to me was and is very concerning. I've also watched beachfront houses fall into the ocean at the beaches on the Atlantic coast here due to rising sealevels. These are two reasons that I decided to major in Environmental Studies and Sustainable Development/Growth Management at Rollins College in winter Park, FL. I have several Sustainable Development projects here in Central Florida and am helping Rollins College to form a new Master's Program called Master's in Civic Urbanism, which will mostly entail Sustainable, environmentally conscious urban development. I also hope to become LEED Certified.

Miguel Roberto Huanay Bonilla, Peru

2009-05-21

Hi, I`m Miguel, Peruvian citizen, Atorney at Law, born in La Oroya, 1957, worked in a smelter company, first called Cerro de Pasco Corporation, after CENTROMIN PERU , now called DOE RUN PERU. My position was as Cheif Office lawyers.

In 1966 I returned to Lima after 31 years. The altitude difference betwenn La Oroya to Lima is 3880 meters to 10 meters respectivly and we use the railway or cars, crossing Ticlio, Abra Anticona 4880 meters which is the highest railway in the world. Ticlio used to always have snow, but in last 30 years it didn`t snow, this from the climate change, then there isn`t enough water for both eastern and west side of the Andes Cordillera.

La Oroya has 70,000 people, but for the private company and goverment politics there is now 30,000 people, forever the electricity demands has increased for the miners and smelter companies production. La Oroya is called now "one of the ten cities more contaminated of the world", the kids have pb in the blood, the company and the Health Ministery have a treatment for this, but is not enought, because the smoke go out the "unique chimenea" (before was 3, the american company eliminated 2) is with metalic parts in order of the one million tons per day, then we knows it isn`t enough. My last 2 kids are living there, they are 8 years and 9 months each one.

Since 2005 I don`t work in the smelter company and I have been in medical treatment. Them I founded SPIDE-SOSS, one civil action to help the people with this kind of problem, health, social security and laboral health, and now to try to put in there minds thah we need work all together about the risk of the climate change in our life. How you can apreciate about your own works the principal problems are in the people and the poor economics arc for work in it. We don`t lose the hope to continue the work of saving the earth.

Robert Swan, UK

2009-04-22

We are about to head South to the Antarctic for TWO Big Expeditions focused on Climate Change and SOLUTIONs Please check out web site www.2041.com

We have on board a senior WWF person for WWF Netherlands

All My Very Best

Robert

Emanueli Fernanda, Brazil

2009-04-07

AS mudanças climaticas causaram enchentes
uma das enchentes em sc encheu a casa da minha mãe e das pessoas do meu bairro foram parar na escola e as aulas atrasaram.

as mudanças tambem provocaram ventos que que arracaram flores amarelas que ficavam a
3 km da minha casa
durante a ventania petalas dessas flores vieram para em meu quintal

o granizo destruiu a telha da minha casa e do motel do meu pai, destruiu a telha da minha escola atrasando as aulas e pifando os aparelhos de casa e da escola.

Fabio Henrique, Brazil

2009-04-07

Moro em uma cidade pequena e, a cada dia que passa fico mais preocupado com as mudanças climáticas.
Procuro incentivar meus colegas a fazer coisas que ajudariam a acabar com o aquecimento global.
O problema é que a cada dia que passa isso vai se agravando e só com a ajuda das pessoas certas vai poder diminuir,a melhor maneira para acabar-mos com esse problema é a conscientização mundial.
Ainda acredito na salvação do planeta e uma das coisas que poderá nos ajudar é o projeto hora do planeta.
Vou continuar tentando inssentivar as pessoas ao meu redor e torçendo para que esse projeto seja um sucesso!

Fábio Almeida Pizzinatto, Brazil

2009-04-06

We, Pizzinatto Group, are a metal building producer. The rain ins the last year is forcing the consumer to get just the largest gutter that the market offers. This tendency began in the last 10 years but nowadays can be seen in every case. It is rainin more in a less time. This is a real fact that the climate change is already part of our lifes, changing our costumes and way of living. Fábio A. Pizzinatto

Raoni Rocha Simões, Brazil

2009-04-06

Ondas de calor inéditas. Furacões avassaladores. Secas intermináveis onde antes havia água em abundância. Enchentes devastadoras. Extinção de milhares de espécies de animais e plantas. Incêndios florestais. Derretimento dos pólos. E toda a sorte de desastres naturais que fogem ao controle humano.

Mais recentemente, no final de 2008, o Brasil foi surpreendido com chuvas torrenciais que causaram mortes, destruíram milhares de casas e deixaram inúmeras pessoas desabrigadas em todo território nacional. Minas Gerais, São Paulo e Santa Catarina foram os estados que mais sofreram com as chuvas.

Os desafios, nesse contexto, passaram a ser dois: primeiramente se adaptar à iminência dos novos e mais dramáticos desastres naturais e, em seguida, buscar soluções para amenizar o impacto do fenômeno.

Diante dos fatos acima mencionados, um grupo de belo-horizontinos sensibilizados com a causa se juntaram em um projeto ousado a favor do meio ambiente: percorrer o Caminho Velho da Estrada Real, realizando palestras sobre meio ambiente e aquecimento global para a população das cidades por onde passarem. O meio de transporte utilizado para os mais de 600 quilômetros percorridos sugere a força de vontade do grupo. Deixaram de lado os carros, ônibus ou pick-ups para percorrer todo o trajeto sobre uma bicicleta!

Com o slogan "Deixe o carro em casa e vá passear de bicicleta", o desafio será lançado dia 03 de julho, como parte das comemorações ao dia 05 de junho – Dia Internacional do Meio Ambiente. O percurso escolhido é o Caminho Velho da Estrada Real. A equipe, formada por 10 voluntários, irá repetir os passos dos bandeirantes do século XVII, que abriram a Estrada à procura das riquezas abundantes em solo mineiro. O grupo sairá de Ouro Preto e partirá rumo a Parati, no Rio de Janeiro, promovendo conscientização sobre preservação do meio ambiente em algumas das cidades por onde passarem. Essa conscientização virá através de palestras em escolas para a comunidade. Além disso, a intenção é fazer com que cada escola doe uma muda de planta para a próxima escola em que o grupo for passar. Essa será uma forma de simbolizar a intenção do projeto.

O projeto procurará sensibilizar milhares de pessoas quanto à causa ambiental e conta com o apoio de diversas entidades, como o IBAMA, Instituto Estrada Real, Instituto Estadual de Florestas, Abrampa, e diversas empresas privadas. A equipe vai divulgar diariamente os detalhes e fotos da viagem, através do site www.ergobh.com.br. Todo esse projeto pode ser visto também no site http://estrada.blog.terra.com.br/.

Georgia Daniere Lobato Moura, Brazil

2009-04-06

Meu nome é Georgia, estou morando atualmente em uma região do Estado do Pará que já foi muito rica em mata, hoje porém a realidade é outra, aqui tem muita plantação de eucalipto, isso se deu a grande area que foi devastada, então um projeto de reflorestamento deu apoio e fez essa plantação. Bom o que isso tem haver comigo? Muito! Pois aqui deveria ter um clima menos quente, e não é o que se tem atualmente, muito embora desde o ano passado, para nossa felicidade existe por aqui o FLORESTA VIVA, que afinal esta colocando a importancia das matas, do verde, da floresta.
Estou aqui em GOIANÉSIA do PARA, é um Municipio bom de viver, mas ainda não o ideal por precisar ainda de muitas coisas, como por exemplo a volta de nossa mata que foi devastada por madeireiros inconsequentes, mas espero que a criação da Secretaria do Meio Ambiente aqui, possamos enfim ter de volta o ar puro por aqui e não mais esse "AR DE CARVÃO" que deixa nossa pele e roupa com mal cheiro.
Eu acredito no BRASIL, NO PARÁ E EM GOIANESIA DO PARÁ e sei que essa sitiuação vai mudar pra melhor.