© 2010 Ben Stephenson/Flickr cc by 2.0
The climate crisis is a story of connections between global change and local impacts. That’s why we are now launching a series of local expeditions, working with our partners in many parts of the world, to showcase the diverse and global impacts of the climate crisis. No matter where we are, all of us are living on thin ice.
Yesterday, our Chairman announced our expedition to Antarctica. On this journey, we will discover firsthand how events on a faraway continent are linked to a climate crisis that impacts the entire globe. Meanwhile, we have planned several more expeditions in places most people would consider closer to home. One of them is in Brooklyn, New York, where local activists and a Columbia University scientist will show how their neighborhood will be affected by a polluted canal vulnerable to sea level rise.
On the other side of the world, we are sending filmmakers to Bangladesh to find out how this coastal country is severely threatened by the rising seas that are accompanying our changing climate. Our partners in both Ecuador and California will travel into the mountains where the snowpack, a primary source of drinking water, is on the decline. Our supporters in the far north will visit the Arctic to learn about disappearing sea ice. We’ll find out how glacial melt heightens risk of landslides and floods from Nepal to Bangladesh.
I hope you will follow us online as we go on these journeys to learn the full truth of the climate crisis. But of course, we can’t be everywhere at once – that’s why we hope we will inspire others like you to organize your own expeditions where you live.
To find out more about these expeditions, take a look at our Expedition Headquarters now. And keep checking back over the coming days and weeks as we post journals, photos and videos.
Deanna Scroggs
January 26th
Dear Mr Gore, I showed your video “An Inconvenient Truth” to my 7th graders on my last day of teaching (after 35 years). I applaud the work you do and hope that naysayers will eventually come to realize the scientists are not making this stuff up!! I waited until my last teaching day because I knew some close-minded parents would complain!
Lynda Schroeder
January 26th
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for all you are doing. I, we soooooooooo appreciate it. If, Mr. Gore, there is history to go down in, you will be listed!!!
MARILYN POFF
January 26th
WE NEED TO BE INFORMED AND INTELLIGENTLY
REACTIVE SO WE CAN CARE FOR OUR LAND
AND OUR SURVIVAL. WE NEED TO PROTECT OUR
ENVIRONMENT.
Sandy Aptecker
January 26th
MAGGIE, I commend you on undertaking this ambitious and worthy project. However, I am bowed down by the thought of all the work involved. I am not young, am handicapped, can’t walk much and can only do so much. If you still can use me, I would like to help.
Richard Jacobs
January 27th
I recently returned from Antarctica; yes it is melting. The Gentoo Penguins, who breed on ice, are taking over the breeding grounds of the Adelie Penguins who only breed on ice. They are becoming extinct. This is reality, not politics. The ultimate result could be a sea level rise of over 100 feet.
Richard Jacobs
January 27th
Sorry, a typo in the prior comment; the Gentoos breed on rocks and that is why they are replacing the Adelie Penguins that breed only on ice – rock is replacing the melting ice.
Michael A. Lewis, PhD.
January 27th
In answer to the headline, which is not addressed in the article, I respond: “It doesn’t.”
Jan Eco
January 27th
Some people I know still react with: ‘when ice melts in a cup of water, it holds the same level’. It’s stupifying…
but maybe true for the North pole.
The attention of the debate should indeed shift to the south pole. Because 90% of the ice of the world lies here on a continent, not on water.
Good move guys! And good luck.
Lisa Turk
January 27th
I live in the Tampa area and would like to do an expedition on changes here. any one willing to join?
Jan Moore
January 29th
Arctic Story is a photojournalist documentary which already chronicles how melting on Greenland is effecting the Inuit.You might want to take a look at it. It is very well done. There are definite changes where I live regarding extremes and ecology in NJ.