an education initiative

• audience - general public

• primary aim – awareness raising

•‘stepping stone’ information

• help to ‘internalise’ climate change challenge

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why is this needed?

• scientists ‘get it’

• so do enlightened politicians

• so do NGOs

and although 72%* of the general public accept global warming..only 24%* say they will make changes just for environmental reasons *MORI April 2001

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pollution is causing climate change

climate change has severe consequences

conventional ‘message’

air is not just ‘empty space’

atmospheric gases are balanced to provide optimum life conditions

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we are disrupting this balance - climate change is the result

climate change has severe consequences

personal, organisational, national & international

actions

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a w a

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who are we?

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the the airair

who are we?

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the the airair

who are we?

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the the airair

who are we?

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the the airair

A living planet is a rare thing,

perhaps the rarest thing in the universe.

Kenneth Brower

what is air?

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…the air has indeed become the

most taken for granted of

phenomena. We refer to the

unseen depth between things,

between people, or trees, or

clouds …as mere ‘empty space’.

David Abram

just empty space?

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“… the air itself is a biological product …

a result of active exchange of gases with

living organisms. The air is a protective

skin, a warming blanket, an exchange

and water circulation medium.

The composition of the air seems to

violate the ordinary rules of equilibrium

chemistry.”James Lovelock

GAIA – The practical science of planetary medicine

a protective skin?

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the atmosphere

• an “energetic and unstable” mix of gases

• 99% created by interaction of natural

processes and living organisms

• oxygen & methane co-existing

• low carbon dioxide – active regulation

• many trace gases

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atmospheric gases

Gas Abundance Flux (Mtpa) functions

Nitrogen 79% 300 - atmospheric pressureNi - fire control

Oxygen 21% 100,000 - reference level for O2 energy

Carbon dioxide 370ppm 140,000 - photosynthesisCO2 (280ppm)* - climate control

Methane 1.7ppm 500 - ozone & nitrogen CH4 (0.7ppm)* regulation

… and other ‘trace’ gases like Ammonia, Dimnethyl Sulphide& Methyl Chloride which appear to control nitrogen level, sulphur cycle & ocean salt levels

* = pre-industrial levels

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‘greenhouse’ gases

Gas Abundance Warming Sources contribution

Carbon dioxide 370 ppm 49% - combustion of fossil CO2 (280)* fuels - coal, oil & gas

- deforestation - biomass burning

Methane 1.7 ppm 18% - paddy fields & cow farts CH4 (0.7)* - gas leaks

- biomass burning

CFCs 6 ppb 14% - refrigeration(man-made) - air conditioning

- plastic foam - propellants & solvents

Nitrous Oxide 310 ppb 6% - nitrogen fertilisers (280)* - fossil fuel combustion

- biomass burning* = pre-industrial levels

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• the sun is 25% hotter now than when life

started on earth (3.5 billion years ago)

• but temperature on earth has remained

stable for life to flourish

• most important temperature regulating gas

in the atmosphere is carbon dioxide (CO2)

• CO2 was much more common when life first

started

• where has the carbon dioxide gone?

carbon dioxide

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• over billions of years CO2 has been

‘extracted’ from the atmosphere

• this extraction process has been carried out

by living and natural processes

• example - microscopic forams ‘fix’ CO2 as

calcium carbonate and then fall to sea floor

• the carbon is ‘stored’ as chalk, limestone &

fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas

• result – an atmospheric temperature range

most suited for life to evolve and prosper.

where is the CO2?

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where is the CO2?

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“Lacking all sacredness, stripped

of all spiritual significance, the air

is today little more than a

conveniently forgotten dump for a

host of gaseous effluents and

pollutants.”

David Abram

the air today

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the air today

• unintentionally we have reversed the

‘carbon cycle’ by more than 400,000 years

• since the start of the industrial revolution

CO2 has increased by a third from 280 –

370ppm in the atmosphere

• every fossil fuel power station, every

internal combustion engine contributes

• we are pumping out TWICE as much CO2

as natural system can cope with (now)!

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• IPCC* scientists are agreed that climate change is happening

• human activities are the main cause

• CO2 has increased from 280 – 370ppm

• temperatures have increased globally

• glaciers have retreated

• sea levels are rising

*IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is a UN body of scientists, economists & policy makers brought together in 1988 to inform governments of causes, consequences and solutions to climate change.

climate change is happening

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• more frequent extreme weather conditions

• heat waves & drought more common

• water shortages in many water-scarce areas

• risk to people in low-lying / coastal areas from sea-level rise and storm surges

• increased threats to human health

• massive loss of ecological diversity

• decreased crop yields in tropical regions

•150 million environmental refugees by 2050?

“…the impacts will have greatest effects on poor people & people in developing countries”*

*IPCC Third Assesment Report

what about the future?

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“Global climate, even in fifty years time, may be warmer than the earth has experienced in the past 12 million years….. changes of this speed and magnitude are unprecedented to our knowledge, aside from large meteorite impacts.”

* Peter Barrett, Antarctic Research Centre, New Zealand

what about the future?

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groups / help

Organisation Website

Friends of the Earth www.foe.co.uk

Greenpeace www.greenpeace.org.uk

Energy Savings Trust www.est.co.uk

Climate Care www.climatecare.org

Rising Tide www.risingtide.org.uk

sharing

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we we share share

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“Only as we begin to notice and to

experience, once again, our

immersion in the invisible air do

we start to recall what it is to be

fully a part of this world.”

David Abram