Like postcards from the future, familiar views of the capital have been digitally transformed by illustrators Robert Graves and Didier Madoc-Jones. They bring home the full impact of global warming, food scarcity, rising sea levels"London has become uninhabitable,
as every year the Thames Barrier is overwhelmed by spring tides"
The presentations at the conference 'Sustainability, climate change and tourism' which took place last November, can now be viewed here and are entitled as follows:
As part of Blog Action Day, which has focussed on climate change this year, I've decided to talk about the Maldives. These islands with a reputation for luxury, sunshine and warm hospitality have a sad fate awaiting as growing sea levels creep up over these 12,000 low lying islands, most of which are just 1m above sea level. There is a real fear that the Maldives will at some point, become uninhabitable. The tourism industry there is also under threat; as Ali Rilwan, executive director of local environmental NGO Bluepeace, commented, "Our natural asset is the beauty of the islands. If the proper measures are not taken to protect these islands, I don't think the Maldives as a tourist destination can be sold as it is today." Although coral reefs offer some protection, the Maldives took a battering during the 2004 Tsunami and also suffer from regular flooding and tidal surges; together with rising sea levels, the islands will literally drown
The Climate Change Festival in Birmingham is now underway and over the course of this week will be offering a variety of events, alongside exhibitions, stalls and performers. Catch a tour of secret green roofs, send your own message to the world via the Green diary room at Central Library or attend a masterclass on climate change. There will also be a futuristic multimedia exhibition at Baskerville House later this week and don't miss the pylon near the Council House.
A lake is missing in Chile and this week, Buenos Aires has seen snow for the first time in 89 years, but who is to blame? There has been a lot of debate following the recent documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle, which claimed that climate change had little to do with carbon emissions and instead blamed solar activity. However, a recent report by the IPCC concludes that greenhouse gases are about 13 times more responsible for rising global temperatures than the sun. And now, a scientific study published in the Royal Society's journal, Proceedings A, claims that although cosmic rays may have affected climate in the past, this is not the case at present. In the meantime, the Live Earth concerts hoped to agitate people into some positive green action, even though the size of the carbon footprint left by Live Earth itself is yet to be assessed by auditors PriceWaterhouseCoopers. How about the effect climate change is having on tourism? Research undertaken by Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre in the Holiday 2030 report looks at how tourism in various regions across the globe will change in the future. And how is the population trying to adapt to climate change? The Eldis website focuses on global development policy, practice and research; their website contains many resource guides, case studies, articles and and working papers to include strategies in climate change adaptation.
