TIGblogs TIG | TIGblogs GROUP TIGBLOGS LOGIN SIGNUP
Adam MacIsaac's  Blog
Adam MacIsaac's Blog
« previous 5


Vote For My Story on the Facebook For Good Contest
About this event: The UN Climate Change Conference - Poznan, Dec 08

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Help me support the International Youth Climate Movement with a contest that is happening on Facebook.



The Facebook For Good contest is offering 3,000 euros to the grand prize winner who is using the Facebook platform for the best submitted story for creating good.



The title of my story is "Engaging Youth To Take Action To Address Climate Change" and here is the story;

I have spent the last year volunteering on an United Nations Development Programme youth climate change project. The job wasn’t easy to create a youth summary of the United Nations Human Development Report 2007/2008 but with the use of social networking which allowed me to contact people from all over the world to share their views on climate change a publication was created. I also have been using Facebook to distribute the publication online in English, French, and Spanish.

With my passion for new media I also created 7 videos which have been distributed online through sharing of those who also want to educate their peers.

I also had the chance to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia in December of 2007. Through the Facebook platform you can keep in touch with all of the other youth who are working on climate change in their own regions of the world.

I will be attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference again this year in Poznan, Poland and have been using the Causes feature to help fundraise to attend since I do not have an income from volunteering on the United Nations Development Programme youth climate change project.

I share my interests in a better world with everyone of my contacts hoping that they will pass along the information to others.

Facebook has allowed a large network to create the social change I want to see in the world.

Take a look at my story and please vote for me.

If I was to actually win the Grand Prize I would be donating it back to support other youth delegates to attend future United Nations Climate Change negotiations and to further strengthen the international youth climate movement. The contest ends on December 15, 2008 at 11:59 pm (EST) so please help me support youth in keeping our governments accountable on reducing carbon emissions.

Facebook For Good Contest Deatails

Grand Prize

Each Grand Prize Winner can elect to either: i) accept 1,000 Euros or equivalent in local currency as of date of award, or ii) designate to award 3,000 Euros or equivalent in local currency to one recognized charity or non-profit organization operating in the winner’s country on his / her behalf.
1st Prize

Up to five (5) Finalists per country will each receive a Flip Ultra Camcorder from Flip Video, a pocket-sized camcorder with one-touch recording and 2x digital zoom.
Prize Eligibility

November 13, 2008 | 9:48 AM Comments  0 comments

Tags:


Yet Another Delegation, Joining the Ship For World Youth 21 Canadian Delegation
Related to country: Japan

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

With great excitement I will be joining the Canadian delegation on the Ship for World Youth 21 program, which will include traveling to Japan and sailing to Vanuatu, Tonga, and New Zealand from January - March 2009. The Ship for World Youth program started almot fifty years ago in 1959 when the international youth exchange program of the Cabinet Office launched the "Japanese Youth Gooodwill Mission Program" with the purpose of broadening the global view of Japanese youth and to promote mutual understanding between Japanese and foreign youth as well as to cultivate the spirit of international cooperation and the competence to pratice it and to allow the participating youth with capability of showing leadership in various areas of international society.



The itinerary of the 21st Ship for World Youth program 2009 is as follows:

January 14th, 2009 - Arrival of the participants from overseas

January 15th − 22nd - Program for overseas participants in Japan

January 23rd - Departure from Yokohama Port (Japan)

February 2nd - Refuel, food and water supply in Vanuatu

February 5th − 7th - Port of call activities in Tonga (Nuku'alofa)

February 11th − 14th - Port of call activities in New Zealand (Auckland)

February 19th - 20th - Refuel, food and water supply in Vanuatu

March 5 - Return back to Tokyo (Japan)



Participating countries for SWY21 are:

Canada
Arab Republic of Egypt
Republic of the Fiji Islands
Japan
Republic of Mauritius
New Zealand
Kingdom of Norway
Republic of Peru
Kingdom of Tonga
United Arab Emirates
Republic of Vanuatu
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
Republic of Yemen

September 25, 2008 | 9:47 AM Comments  0 comments



Joining the Canadian Youth Delegation to Poznan, Poland.
Related to country: Poland

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

In Decemeber I will be joining along with 30 other highly involved Canadian youth to form the Canadian Youth Delegation and attend the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change which this year is the 14th Conference of Parties (COP-14). So far there have been some conference calls where those who are joining the delegation got to connect with delegate new and old and start the ball rolling on what we as young Canadians want to focus on during COP-14. This is a very important step in the process of having post-Kyoto reductions of carbon emissions which will be decided in Copenhagen during the December 2009 COP-15, and also that the current Canadian stance is to invest into tar sands development without looking at the effects that this is having on the environment. While I myself have yet to see any major turn in Canadian citizen views, there is hope with the upcoming federal election that voters will show just like recently in Australia that political parties who are not serious on taking action to reduce the impacts of climate change have no place to be the leaders of out societies.

September 25, 2008 | 9:46 AM Comments  0 comments

Tags:


Past The Tipping Point: Melting ice opens up North-west and North-east passages simultaneously.
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

THE INDEPENDENT Aug 31

For the first time in human history, the North Pole can be circumnavigated

Melting ice opens up North-west and North-east passages simultaneously.
Scientists warn Arctic icecap is entering a 'death spiral'

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
*Sunday, 31 August 2008*

Open water now stretches all the way round the Arctic, making it possible for the first time in human history to circumnavigate the North Pole, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. New satellite images, taken only two days ago, show that melting ice last week opened up both the fabled North-west and North-east passages, in the most important geographical landmark to date
to signal the unexpectedly rapid progress of global warming.

Last night Professor Mark Serreze, a sea ice specialist at the official US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), hailed the publication of the images – on an obscure website by scientists at the University of Bremen, Germany – as "a historic event", and said that it provided further evidence
that the Arctic icecap may now have entered a "death spiral". Some scientists predict that it could vanish altogether in summer within five years, a process that would, in itself, greatly accelerate.

But Sarah Palin, John McCain's new running mate, holds that the scientific consensus that global warming is melting Arctic ice is unreliable.

The opening of the passages – eagerly awaited by shipping companies who hope to cut thousands of miles off their routes by sailing round the north of Canada and Russia – is only the greatest of a host of ominous signs this month of a gathering crisis in the Arctic. Early last week the NSDIC warned that, over the next few weeks, the total extent of sea ice in the Arctic may shrink to below the record low reached last year – itself a massive 200,000 square miles less than the previous worst year, 2005.

Four weeks ago, tourists had to be evacuated from Baffin Island's Auyuittuq National Park because of flooding from thawing glaciers. Auyuittuq means "land that never melts".

Two weeks later, in an unprecedented sighting, nine stranded polar bears were seen off Alaska trying to swim 400 miles north to the retreating icecap edge. Ten days ago massive cracking was reported in the Petermann glacier in the far north of Greenland, an area apparently previously unaffected by global warming.

But it is the simultaneous opening – for the first time in at least 125,000 years – of the North-west passage around Canada and the North-east passage around Russia that promises to deliver much the greatest shock. Until recently both had been blocked by ice since the beginning of the last Ice
Age.

In 2005, the North-east passage opened, while the western one remained closed, and last year their positions were reversed. But the images,gathered by Nasa using microwave sensors that penetrate clouds, show that the North-west passage opened last weekend and that the last blockage on the north- eastern one – a tongue of ice stretching down to Russia across Siberia's Laptev Sea – dissolved a few days later.

"The passages are open," said Professor Serreze, though he cautioned that official bodies would be reluctant to confirm this for fear of lawsuits if ships encountered ice after being encouraged to enter them. "It's a historic event. We are going to see this more and more as the years go by."

Shipping companies are already getting ready to exploit the new routes. The Bremen-based Beluga Group says it will send the first ship through the North-east passage – cutting 4,000 nautical miles off the voyage from Germany to Japan – next year. And Canada's Prime Minister, Stephen Harper,
last week announced that all foreign ships entering the North-west passage should report to his government – a move bound to be resisted by the US, which regards it as an international waterway.

But scientists say that such disputes will soon become irrelevant if the ice continues to melt at present rates, making it possible to sail right across the North Pole. They have long regarded the disappearance of the icecap as inevitable as global warming takes hold, though until recently it was not expected until around 2070.

Many scientists now predict that the Arctic ocean will be ice-free in summer by 2030 – and a landmark study this year by Professor Wieslaw Maslowski at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, concluded that there will be no ice between mid-July and mid-September as early as 2013.

The tipping point, experts believe, was the record loss of ice last year, reaching a level not expected to occur until 2050. Sceptics then dismissed the unprecedented melting as a freak event, and it was indeed made worse by wind currents and other natural weather patterns.

Conditions were better this year – it has been cooler, particularly last winter – and for a while it looked as if the ice loss would not be so bad.

But this month the melting accelerated. Last week it shrank to below the 2005 level and the European Space Agency said: "A new record low could be reached in a matter of weeks."

Four weeks ago, a seven-year study at the University of Alberta reported that – besides shrinking in area – the thickness of the ice had dropped by half in just six years. It suggested that the region had "transitioned into a different climatic state where completely ice-free summers would soon
become normal".

The process feeds on itself. As white ice is replaced by sea, the dark surface absorbs more heat, warming the ocean and melting more ice.

September 2, 2008 | 1:00 PM Comments  0 comments



Ottawa pulls $100,000 from B.C. Sierra Club's climate-change initiative
Related to country: Canada

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

FIONA MORROW

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

September 2, 2008 at 4:38 AM EDT

VANCOUVER — Environment Canada has terminated a funding contract to the B.C. chapter of the Sierra Club of Canada, causing the possible closing of a climate-change program initiative.

Pat Dolan, executive director of Environment Canada's outreach and biodiversity priorities division, telephoned the environmental non-profit group last week to say that the $100,000 funding contract, signed May 16, was terminated.

The grant had been approved through the EcoAction Community Funding program, a federal initiative created by the Chrétien government in 1995 and supported by subsequent administrations.

"I was informed that our application had been reviewed - after the signing of our contribution agreement - against the priorities of the program, that sometimes adjustments in priorities occur, and that as a result of that review our funding was terminated," said Jenn Hoffman, development director of Sierra Club B.C. "I was told that we are not the only organization being impacted."

The money had been targeted for the Sierra Club's new House Cooling initiative, in which groups of workers, neighbours or others gather in one member's house to discuss climate change and how they, as individuals or as a group, can reduce their carbon footprint.

Sierra Club B.C. supplies materials that give information about the practical steps people can take to reduce household greenhouse-gas emissions. At the end of the gathering, guests are invited to form their own Carbon Emission Reduction Club that will meet regularly so people can support each other in their greening efforts.

Sierra Club B.C. executive director Kathryn Molloy said she was outraged by the decision to cancel funding.

"I would like clarity as to why the program has been terminated," she said. "I was told this was the best proposal EcoAction had ever seen. This issue of climate change and empowering people to make decisions to reduce their own impact and to educate them on these issues - it has never been more salient.

"It has never been more prudent for the government to be supporting this kind of work and we've never had this level of interest. In my view, right before an election, this is voter suicide on their part."

Asked for a response, Environment Canada said in an e-mailed statement: "The department regularly reviews all of its grants and contribution funding projects to ensure that taxpayers' dollars are respected. The Department is informing project proponents on the results of the annual review. As per the terms of agreements, payments will be issued where money is owing for work already done. Any money freed up will be redirected to other programs and services to help protect our environment."

An Environment Canada spokesman did confirm that Environment Minister John Baird is sometimes involved personally in the application review process. He could not confirm which, if any, other organizations might be affected, nor which specific issues had caused Sierra Club's application to suddenly be deemed ineligible.

Special to The Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080902.wbcgreen02/BNStory/National/

September 2, 2008 | 12:56 PM Comments  0 comments



« previous 5


Adam MacIsaac's Profile

Adam MacIsaac's Friends


Latest Posts
Get Instant Feedback...
The Long and Short of It
New Themes: AutoFocus,...
WordPress.com Bloggers...
It’s getting cold in...

Monthly Archive
August 2006
February 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
November 2008
December 2008
September 2009
October 2009
November 2009
January 2010
February 2010
September 2010
November 2010
December 2010
April 2011
October 2011
November 2011
December 2011

My Group Blogs
Climate Change

Change Language


Tags Archive
afghanistan atlantica canada canadianyouthdelegation caninternational civicus civicusyouthassembly climatechange climatejustice cycc cyd education environment fossilofthedayawards glasgow globalwarming humanrights johnbaird music peacechildinternational princeedwardisland robertvanwaarden scotland sierraclub undp unfccc unitednations youth youthengagement 2008

Filter By Type
Events
News
Travel
Topics

Friends
Abdullah Ali Hbahbeh
Adam
Aiden Abram
Alanna
Alfredo Redondo
Allan Cox
Andrea Arzaba
Andrea Martin
Angelique
Angie MacDonald
Anita Li
Anjali Helferty
Anna C Keenan
Ashley Pinsent
Audrey Ottier
Ben Powless
Benjamin Quinto
Bernise Ang
Bohemian Bonnie
Candice Lys
Cara-
Casper ter Kuile
Chiara C.
chloe
Christian Robitaille
Coquille
Cyrielle Fleury
Elizabeth Fraser
Ellen Sandell
Emilie Grégoire
Emily Briggs
Emily Brown
emma strople
Fabio
Fizza Ilyas
Francis
Franziska Seel
G
ghaz
hammou elmrabet
Hannes Koudelka
hayadin
Incia Zaffar
Jarra McGrath
Jasmeet Sidhu
Jenni
Jennie
Jennifer Corriero
Jenny
Jess Conn-Potegal
Jess Wishart
Joanna Dafoe
João Felipe Scarpelini
Jocelyn
Jocelyn Sweet
JohnnyB
Josh Darrach
Justine Castonguay-Payant
Katelyn
Katherine
Kayla Dawson
KeSEMaT
Kevin Walker
Kimia
Kirsten
Krys
Lauryn Drainie
Leif Utne
Leslie Malone
Lia Johnson
Lia Shaw
Lindsey Ross
Lindsey Ross
Livs
Liz McDowell
Lomac
Mabaruuk M Omar
Madelaine Hamilton
Mai
Maia Green
Mariposa
martin tétu
Matthew Gusul
May Jeong
medin
Micah Melnyk
Michael Furdyk
Mike Lafleur
Nafiz Zaman
Nick Moraitis
Nick Yeo
P.J. Partington
Patrick R. Crossman
Peace Child Int
Phil
Rachel M Jacobson
Rosemary Melnyk
Sabrine Herrira
Sandi Rankaduwa
Sandy Mae
Sarah Pinchevsky
Sarah TOUMI
Sawa Matsumura
Scott Crawford
Shawn MacLean
Sierra Youth Coalition
Sonja Miokovic
Stephanie Rajotte
Stop Violence !
Susan Hawkins
Suzanne Branstrom
Tchekwie
Thea
Tom Burke
tomjogden
vanessa macdonald
whitney
Yassir EL OUARZADI
Zach
♥ ♥ ♥

Links
My Personal Website & Blog


205791 views
Important Disclaimer