Its been officially a year and a day since I got back from the expedition. Its weird thinking about it, cause it seems like it was yesterday. I read my diary today and it took me back to all those days, since Lake St. George (I specially loved the part where i wrote that David and Gerogie went crazy and dressed up as a bunny and a bear and we had an aerobics class) until baffin island. We wnet through so much together and probably the most amazing experience of our lives.

I truly hope that everyone is still as commited as we were back them and are still trying to make sure that our voices are heard. I know is hard to still be as motivated as we were, but anytime we feel discourage we should re-read our notes on the voyage and it will all come back to us.

I am missing everyone.  Lots of love, Amanda.

When I arrived home from the Cape Farewell Youth Expedition, people around me expected that the passion and intensity that had inhabited me would gradually slip away in response to the confines of school and the city. They were correct to a certain extent, but all that I need do is watch the Video 3’s that we created, and the feeling rushes back. If anyone believes that this expedition has not left a resounding impact on those it directly affected, and even those affected indirectly, that changed the way someone thinks about something or the way they do something every single day, then pardon me for being rash, but they are sorely mistaken.

A certain fearlessness was given to me after the expedition to speak up and out on the issue of climate change, and to sometimes sacrifice my often-joking demeanor for one that, by example, shows my classmates that there are only minute parts of this issue that are to be taken lightly.

Moving on to the slightly more trivial impacts of this expedition: my desktop wallpaper has remained a photo from Greenland since the day I arrived home; the pictures tacked to my wall are ones of the voyagers and of wind energy and of polar bears (I found that my posters of a tattooed, smoking Johnny Depp clashed with the theme); some of the looks I have received from friends (“Great… energy-efficient lightbulbs… best Christmas gift ever……”, and, “I’m excited for my new car.. WHY CAN’T YOU JUST BE HAPPY FOR ME!?”) have been 100% priceless and terribly rewarding.

I am also very fortunate to live in a community that works tirelessly to be self-sustaining and to provide an example for the larger city of Victoria. From the slightly more radical methods of action like taking leftover grease from restaurants to power a vehicle, to people like my dad, who is one of the first farmers to grow wheat on Southern Vancouver Island. He is able to mill the grain locally, and then sell it to local bakeries, who rejoice in marketing the loaves of bread made out of it as “4.25 KM Bread”. In turn, I listen to my mom every dinner describe what on our plates is from our vegetable garden. I am also starting at the University of Victoria very soon, where students have created gardens on the roofs of buildings.

All of the action taking place both in my community and around the world are as a result of someone, somewhere being inspired by another someone, somewhere. I can only hope that the cycle continues. And I will say, once again, that it was the Cape Farewell Youth Expedition, and everyone involved with it, that inspired me so much.

Lots of love,

Lily

I wish I could say good afternoon to you all and mean it, but of course our time differences are another reminder of how spread out across this massive painting we really are.

So, instead: A straight-From-the-heart hello to those of you reading this and those of you who are not. It is very incredible yet also hard to believe that almost a year ago from today we met up in the humid, buggy, eventfull Toronto. This time last year, I sat at home wondering at exactly how I was to surive three weeks away from my family with a group of strage (In that awesome sorta way) teenagers all built on one mission and one conclusion. It was not untill I realised how my insecurities looked so small to the actual problem on hand (climate change) that I decided to smarten up and forget about what people were going to think of me. It is not about what they think about me. It is how I encourage them to think about Climate change.

I hope that all of you are still annoying your friends to bit and pieces with your stories about the Arctic just as much as I am *winky face*

*Hey guys, did I tell you about the time that-*

*YES!!!!!*

Anyways, this is me just writing to say that I still think and remember all of your faces. You guys will always hold a special place in my heart and mind that nobody else will ever be able to truly posess. So never forget that! I mean it!

Cheers to mes amis.

From Gatineau with all of my non-french quebecer love.

Jenny.

Ps: anyone going to India?

Hello everyone this is Dhruv back on track after those really long and suffering months of examinations and studies(I recently finished my high school and was dreadfully stuck up preparing for my college entrances), and I have something really really long to share with you guys.Now as it happens,quite a few I came across a very interesting study by the Cambridge university Press on what exactly is pollution all about.What it contained was not merely a collection of flowery terms and sugar coated text, but an earnest attempt to bring forth the facts of day to day advancement of pollution in everyday life, its impacts and our underestimated thinking about it………….Hope you enjoy it and find it satisfying enough for your grey cells to chew upon!

“The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the
environment. All economic activity is dependent upon
that environment with its underlying resource base.”
US Senator Gaylord Nelson on first Earth Day, 1970
What is pollution and why is it important? Why does pollution occur,
and is it harmful at all levels? What happens to pollutants in the
environment? What are the root causes of pollution?

Humans are massively changing the Earth
Human domination of Earth’s ecosystems, ‘‘Between one-third and one-half of the land surface has been transformed by human action; the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere has increased by nearly 30% since the beginning
of the Industrial Revolution; more atmospheric nitrogen is now
fixed by humanity than by all natural terrestrial sources combined;
more than half of all accessible surface fresh water is put to use by
humanity; and about one-quarter oft he bird species on Earth have
been driven to extinction . . . All . . . trace to a single cause, the
growing scale oft he human enterprise. The rates, scales, kinds, and
combinations of changes occurring now are fundamentally different
from those at any other time in history; we are changing Earth more
rapidly than we are understanding it. In a very real sense, the world
is in our hands and how we handle it will determine its composition
and dynamics, and our fate.”

Nature’s services

In the past, we often did not even consider that we were changing
our environment, let alone how that could affect us. In the twentieth
century, many people willingly ignored gross pollution if its source
was a factory on which the community depended for employment.
‘‘That’s the smell of money” they might say. This still occurs in some
places in the world. If it took so long to recognize that pollution could
directly affect human health, think how difficult it is to recognize our
total dependence on the environment.

Protecting drinking water
Recently, New York City spent over a billion dollars to buy land to
its north in the Catskill Mountains in the watershed that provides
drinking water to New York City. The City then restricted how the
land could be used, forbidding activities that could pollute the watershed’s
streams and rivers. One action regulated was the application
of pesticides and fertilizers on land because these substances can run
off into local waters. By recognizing and protecting the Catskills’ natural
water filtration capability — an ecosystem service — the City avoided
having to build a treatment plant to purify its drinking water. The
plant would have cost about $6 billion, plus $300 million a year to
run. The City saved itself$5 billion.

Protecting ecosystem services
New York City protects much of the land it bought from development.Why?

• Trees and vegetation stabilize the soil preventing it from eroding during rainstorms, and being carried into Catskill streams as a pollutant.
• On undeveloped land, soil and tree and vegetation roots absorb rainwater lessening the risk of flooding during heavy rains.The water is instead slowly released to streams, while another portion seeps down into and replenishes groundwater.

• Undeveloped land acts as a home to wildlife and also provides timber, recreation and aesthetic value, and has the advantage of being cooler than cleared land.
• Its wetland areas also provide services. Aquatic plants and microorganisms purify polluted water carried into the wetlands with runoff. They trap eroded soil, preventing it from running into streams and lakes. Wetlands provide flood protection by serving as a sink during heavy rains.They also provide habitat to multiple bird and other species.

Natural services provided by urban trees
Not only rural, but city trees too provide valuable services. The organization
American Forests was concerned by the loss of tree canopy
in American cities. Using satellite and aerial imagery, they showed
that tree cover in 20 US cities had declined 30% over three decades.
This was disturbing: trees provide shade and cooling to the urban
buildings they shelter; they have aesthetic value; they trap polluted
storm water runoff via the soil held by their roots. And trees trap
air pollutants: they trap gaseous pollutants by the stomata in their
leaves; sticky or hairy leaves also filter particulates from air. Using a
computer-based geographic information system American Forests first
calculated how much air pollution urban trees remove, and then calculated
the economic loss of cutting the trees. In Washington, DC
trees lost to cutting would have removed about 354 000 lbs (over
160 000 kg) of major air pollutants including carbon monoxide, sulfur
dioxide, and ozone. This lost capacity costs the city about $1 million
a year in additional air pollution abatement expenses. And because
cut trees were not there to trap storm water, there was a 34% increase
in storm water runoff. It costs Washington, DC about $226 million
per year to process the additional runoff. Fortunately, the average
American city, despite its losses, still has about 30% tree cover.
American Forests believes that this could reasonably be increased to
at least 40%.

Other natural services
Ecosystems provide many services; a few of these services are outlined
in the following.

• Vegetation and trees absorb the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, while releasing the oxygen necessary to our lives.

• The atmosphere’s stratospheric-ozone layer protects us from the sun’s strongest ultraviolet radiation.

• Worms and other organisms, and vegetation enhance the fertility of soils that we need for agriculture.

• Healthy ecosystems provide insects, birds, and other animals that pollinate plants (including crop plants). Birds and some insects also reduce many agricultural pests.

• Natural systems provide seafood, wild game, forage, wood, biomass fuels, and natural fibers.

• They degrade organic wastes, both naturally produced and human-produced waste.

“Less forgiving than our planet.”
Economists often argue that technology can substitute for natural life-support systems.
One experiment in the ability of technology to support life is Biosphere 2, an
enclosed man-made structure built as a model for a self-sustaining extraterrestrial
colony in space. Completed in 1991 at a cost of $200 million, its 3.15 acres (1.27 ha)
were a closed-off mini-Earth containing tiny biomes – a marsh from the Florida
Everglades, an equatorial rain forest, a coastal desert, a savanna with a stream and
grasses from three continents, an artificial mini-ocean with a coral reef, plus an
orchard and intensive agricultural area. Its underbelly holds a maze of plumbing,
generators, and tanks.
Eight people moved into the Biosphere 2 for 2 years. The first year went
well, but in the second crops failed, and people grew thin. They became dizzy
as atmospheric oxygen levels fell from 21% to 14% – a level typical of 14 000 ft
(4267 m) elevation. This occurred because excessive organic matter in the soil
absorbed oxygen from the air. Atmospheric carbon dioxide “spiked erratically,”
while nitrous oxide rose to levels that could impair brain function. Vines and algal
mats overgrew other vegetation. Water became polluted. The Biosphere initially
had 3800 plant and animal species. Among the 25 introduced vertebrate species, 19
died out and only a few birds survived. All the Biosphere’s pollinators – essential
to sustainable plant communities – also became extinct. Excitable “crazy” ants
destroyed most other insects.
Much was learned from Biosphere 2, which was taken over in 1997 by Columbia
University to be used as an educational facility in which Earth stewardship is fundamental
to the curriculum, a place to “build planetary managers of the future.”
Among its research efforts are long-term studies of the effects of various levels of
the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide on plant communities.
Someone noted that Biosphere 2 is less forgiving than our planet. But Earth
too is a closed system, a larger version of Biosphere 2. History records examples
of civilizations that failed or grew weak after having a severe impact upon their
local environment. But survivors often could move on to other environments.
Today, Earth’s huge population cannot “move on” although many people struggle
to immigrate to better locales. And people cannot, not in inexpensive ways available
to everyone, substitute technology for nature’s services. How does one substitute
for breathable air?

Degrading human wastes
Think about biodiversity, the fantastic variety of species of animals,
plants, and microorganisms in our world. Among these species are the
insects and worms, bacteria, and fungi that degrade natural wastes
and the wastes we discard — the sewage, garbage, and other organic
wastes and pollutants. These waste-degrading creatures could live
without us, but we cannot live without them. Some larger creatures
eat wastes too — vultures are essential for scavenging dead animals
in some places. Which species are absolutely vital to our lives? We cannot answer that question, but we do know that a great many are
needed to maintain ecosystem services. And we know that humanity
is, through habitat destruction and disruption and pollution, destroying
species at a rate perhaps 100 times faster than the natural rate
of extinction. And we know that scientists increasingly emphasize
that we are exceeding the capacity of some ecosystems to absorb our
wastes.

Assessing Earth’s ecosystems
Given that Earth’s ecosystems are vital to human lives we need to
know how those ecosystems are faring. What is the health of our
planet? In 2000 the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)
assisted by about 1500 scientists, embarked on a worldwide study
the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Costing $5 million a year over
4 years, it is evaluating how well the planet’s ecosystems are functioning.
The ecosystems being monitored are: forests, inland waters
and coastlines, shrub lands, dry lands, deserts, agricultural lands, and
others. How well are they providing the ecosystem goods and services
that we expect oft hem including food, fiber, and clean water? How
are human actions affecting their capacity to provide these services?
The vitality of ecosystems is critical both to human life and health
and to the economic viability of nations. The Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment will provide reliable, scientifically reviewed information
on strengthening how we humans can better manage ecosystems
for our own use and for long-term sustainability. The assessment
received a great assist in the form of 16 000 photographs donated by
the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Taken
from space by satellite, the pictures show changes occurring in the
1990s in biomes as varied as coastlines, mountains, and agricultural
land.

SGI Quarterly (Japanese publication) just published something on the Farewell journey. It was inspiring to read all the reflections, (nice writing George). Check it out.

(the formatting seems off, you might have to scroll to the bottom to read the article.)

Hey Everyone,

Before I write more, I just wanted to say Happy Easter =)))))))))))))))))))) 

Today I went through many of the blogs written during the expedition, and it brought back SO many memories! I miss everyone still, and I often catch myself feeling as though the expedition was just an amazing dream. But thank God for pictures, email, and blogs…. they help me to remember that I was not just in a dream =)))

So I decided that it would only be fair to write a blog and to update everyone on the stuff i have been up to. I am currently in Doug’s One Planet One Future class, and we are gearing up for Earth Day elementry school visits. We will be visiting different grades in different elementry schools in the area, and we will teach them about the environment and about being more “green”. We will also do different activities and crafts with  the students. I am looking forward to it!

I am also in a Co-op class where I am doing different presentations to the different schools in the area. I do the presentations about the expedition, and I talk to students of all ages. It is alot of fun, and it makes me happy to be able to share my experiences with the students.

The Green Team here has been very busy getting ready for our Earth Day assembly. We are making a movie based on the TV show 24, and it is coiming together really well. We are hoping to finish shooting the last two scenes today! We have also been selling tree cards at Christmas and Valentine’s Day. We will also go tree planting…. once the snow melts =)))

Aside from school, homework, Green Team stuff, and Co-op, I have been doing other things related to the expedition as well. I have done a number of presentations in the community, and I have more planned for the coming months. I have also written an article for a German magazine and an article for a magazine for England. I entered the Turning the Tide photo competition, and came out as one of the twelve winners. You can chek out my pictures at http://www.turningthetide.ch/winners. So that is what i have done so far.

I miss you all, and I am very sorry that my contact-keeping sucks. Well I have to go to class now…..

Lots of love, Sarah Gaehwiler

From Bill McKibben
Project 350 Updates

Dear friends,

Here’s the invitation I’m sending around about the October 24th Day of Action–it comes to you from a coalition of leaders around the world.

It’s going out to people on every continent and in every nation, from Antarctica (hi to our friends at McMurdo Station) to Zimbabwe (greetings to the folks at ZERO working on windpower in rural Africa!).  We need everyone working together, in a way that’s rarely happened before.

The invitation is a bit long, which worries me since I’m a writer, and value conciseness. But we need to get across both the problem and the plan–and after all this is the greatest challenge we face.

This is going to be fun–and important.  Please spread it around.

Many thanks,

Bill

————————————————————————

This is an invitation to help build a movement–to take one day day and use it to stop the climate crisis.

On October 24, we will stand together as one planet and call for a fair global climate treaty. United by a common call to action, we’ll make it clear: the world needs an international plan that meets the latest science and gets us back to safety.

This movement has just begun, and it needs your help.

Here’s the plan: we’re asking you, and people in every country on earth, to organize an action in your community on October 24.

http://www.350.org/oct24

There are no limits here–imagine bike rides, rallies, concerts, hikes, festivals, tree-plantings, protests, and more. Imagine your action linking up with thousands of others around the globe. Imagine the world waking up.

If we can pull it off, we’ll send a powerful message on October 24: the world needs the climate solutions that science and justice demand.

It’s often said that the only thing preventing us from tackling the climate crisis quickly and equitably is a lack of political will. Well, the only thing that can create that political will is a unified global movement–and no one is going to build that movement for us. It’s up to regular people all over the world.  That’s you.

So register an event in your community for October 24, and then enlist the help of your friends. Get together with your co-workers or your local environmental group or human rights campaign, your church or synagogue or mosque or temple; enlist bike riders and local farmers and young people. All over the planet we’ll start to organize ourselves.

With your help, there will be an event at every iconic place on the planet on October 24-from America’s Great Lakes to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef–and also in all the places that matter to you in your daily lives: a beach or park or village green or town hall.

If there was ever a time for you to get involved, it’s right now.

There are two reasons this year is so crucial.

The first reason is that the science of climate change is getting darker by the day. The Arctic is melting away with astonishing speed, decades ahead of schedule. Everything on the planet seems to be melting or burning, rising or parched.

And we now now have a number to express our peril: 350.  

NASA’s James Hansen and a team of other scientists recently published a series of papers showing that we need to cut the amount of carbon in the atmosphere from its current 387 parts per million to below 350 if we wish to “maintain a planet similar to that on which civilization developed.”

No one knew that number a year ago-but now it’s clear that 350 might well be the most important number for the future of the planet, a north star to guide our efforts as we remake the world. If we can swiftly get the planet on track to get back below 350, we can still avert the worst effects of climate change.

The second reason 2009 is so important is that the political opportunity to influence our governments has never been greater. The world’s leaders will meet in Copenhagen this December to craft a new global treaty on cutting carbon emissions.

If that meeting were held now, it would produce a treaty would be woefully inadequate. In fact, it would lock us into a future where we’d never get back to 350 parts per million-where the rise of the sea would accelerate, where rainfall patterns would start to shift and deserts to grow. A future where first the poorest people, and then all of us, and then all the people that come after us, would find the only planet we have damaged and degraded.    

October 24 comes six weeks before those crucial UN meetings in Copenhagen.  If we all do our job, every nation will know the question they’ll be asked when they put forth a plan: will this get the planet back on the path below 350?  

This will only work with the help of a global movement-and it’s starting to bubble up everywhere. Farmers in Cameroon, students in China, even World Cup skiers have already helped spread the word about 350. Churches have rung their bells 350 times; Buddhist monks have formed a huge 350 with their bodies against the backdrop of Himalayas. 350 translates across every boundary of language and culture.  It’s clear and direct, cutting through the static and it lays down a firm scientific line.

On October 24, we’ll all stand behind 350–a universal symbol of climate safety and of the world we need to create.  And at the end of the day, we’ll all upload photos from our events to the 350.org website and send these pictures around the world.  This cascade of images will drive climate change into the public debate–and hold our leaders accountable to a unified global citizenry.  

We need your help-the world is a big place and our team is small.  Our crew at 350.org will do everything we can to support you, providing templates for banners and press releases, resources to spread the word, and tools to help you build a strong local climate action group.  And our core team is always just a phone call or e-mail away if you need some support.

This is like a final exam for human beings. Can we muster the courage, the commitment, and the creativity to set this earth on a steady course before it’s too late? October 24 will be the joyful, powerful day when we prove it’s possible.

Please join us and register your local event today.

Onwards,

Bill McKibben - Author and Activist- USA
Vandana Shiva - Physicist, Activist, Author - India
David Suzuki - Scientist, Author, Activist - Canada
Bianca Jagger - Chair of the World Future Council - UK
Tim Flannery - Scientist, Author, Explorer -Australia
Bittu Sahgal - Co-convener, Climate Challenge India - India
Andrew Simmons - Environmental Advocate, St. Vincent & The Grenadines
Christine Loh - Environmental Advocate and Legislator - Hong Kong

P.S.-We need you to do something else, right away, that’s pretty easy. Please forward this message to anyone you know who is even remotely appropriate.

350.org is an international grassroots campaign that aims to mobilize a global climate movement united by a common call to action. By spreading an understanding of the science and a shared vision for a fair policy, we will ensure that the world creates bold and equitable solutions to the climate crisis. 350.org is an independent and not-for-profit project.

350.org needs your help! To support our work, donate securely online at http://www.350.org/donate

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Hi everyone!

  Im very pleased to say that here in Vancouver we had a little reunion of our own. Lily came from Victoria and we both attended a Gegraphical Exhibition on Climate Change at the Vancouver Club. We were surrounded by amazing pictures taken all over the world, and discussed how each picture represents a different view on how climate change affects each location. Mrs. Richardson, our Carson Graham Cape Farewell teacher, Amir a Cape Farewell team member as well as Lily’s teachers, talked about our upcoming projects withing our school and also Lily’s personal art project which is looking amazing! 

 I have seen pictures of reunions all over the place! next time we all better be there or else Im making cardboard cut out of all of you!

 What have you guys been up to?

Take care cup-cakes, missing you lots;

Alejandra Henao

We will all find this interesting. Check out the Voyage for the Future trip that took place last year, sponsored in part by WWF and run out of Europe. The similarities to our voyage are astonishing.

The Video