Author: Charles Gregoire

Near the end of COP26, the climate crisis is accelerating toward a planet-wide disaster, there is still a terrifying lack of unity of purpose, and no real action to halt the painful descent toward extinction, despite the many scientists’ warnings to policymakers.

In this presentation, the Ethics of Unity, based on the work of philosopher Oscar Ichazo is proposed as a common ethical language and a necessary foundation for survival.

A change in the polar ice was first noticed in the Arctic back in the 1980s. With the Arctic amplification, the region is experiencing the most extreme effects of global warming. These effects, however, don’t stop in the Arctic, but affect the whole planet, causing extreme climatic events, sea level rise and the threat of methane released from permafrost. Polar education is very important in making the public understand this connection, and a number of countries are including it in their teaching curricula.

Polar Educators International (PEI) is an international network founded in 2012 after the Montreal International Polar Year conference, From Knowledge to Action. It aims to connect researchers, educators, indigenous people, policy makers, students and the general public to talk about the polar regions, and it’s dedicated to growing the global conversation into polar research, climate education, and cultural connections, according to its Mission Statement: “Connecting Polar Research, Education, and the Global Community”. It numbers more than 1000 members all over the world, all volunteers. PEI was invited to participate with educational initiatives at the 3rd Arctic Science Ministerial (Tokyo, May 2021).

“Hearts in the Ice” (HITI) is the team of Sunniva Sorby and Hilde Fålun Strøm – two seasoned polar ambassadors whose aim is to take people out of climate despair and into hope and action. Over the course of 19 months from 2019-20 they lived in a hunter’s hut on Svalbard, and were able to connect with over 100,000 youth from around the world through live satellite calls. They are story tellers, bridge builders and citizen scientists here to protect what they love – the polar regions and our natural world.

“Ikaarvik” (“bridge” in Inuktitut), is a programme led by Shelly Elverum which aims to incorporate Inuit traditional knowledge systems (“Qaujimajatuqangit”) into Western science, focusing on the region’s priorities and strengths, and supporting Indigenous youth to be the bridge between research and their communities, Since 2013 Ikaarvik had trained more than 750 early-career scientists in the basics of community-based research, meaningful engagement within Indigenous communities, and the utilization of Indigenous Knowledge to create a more informed basis for decision makers.

This press conference titled, ‘Ecological Economics and the Threat of Constant Growth,’ will invite COP26 to embrace ecological economics and challenge the neoclassical economic paradigm that has led to climate catastrophe.

Stream can be found here: https://unfccc-cop26.streamworld.de/program . Look for the organization: ISEE, Type: Press Conference, Time: 5:45 PM.

Said host Raya Salter, attorney and author of ‘Energy Justice’, “The Earth simply cannot continue to absorb the externalities of growth economics; ecological economics instead prioritizes people, nature and planet.”

NeoClassical growth economics, and its assumption that the Earth will always absorb waste and pollution on an ever growing scale has led the world to climate crisis and the brink of collapse. Ecological economics offers alternatives that focus on the preservation of natural capital, sustainability and well-being. This program discusses how ecological economics presents policy solutions that can work to resolve humanity’s urgent environmental and social problems.

The way we do agriculture in most of the world,  using 75% of the land to graze and grow  feed for animals that we eat  is a recipe for pessimism about our survival.  We’re wasting resources like groundwater and soil that will take hundreds, if not, thousands of years to replenish. 

If we are to have cause for optimism, it is in the shift to entirely new systems of growing food directly for people, eliminating meat as a central part of our diet.  By changing to organic  plant based diets, we can restore habitat, sequester carbon and halt the poisoning of the natural world.

Join Raya Salter, John Fitzgerald and Dan Galpern as they take up the enforcement challenge and “sue the bastards” to defeat the climate crisis by any legal means necessary.

Stream can be found here: https://unfccc-cop26.streamworld.de/program . Look for the organization: ISEE, Type: Press Conference, Time: 5:45 PM.

National commitments for climate action are essential, yet too often COP negotiations lead to empty promises. Further, urgent international collaboration is necessary to equitably implement climate solutions. This program discusses the legal means to increase commitments, promote collaboration and force compliance using rule of law, including existing international law, US law and litigation.

Raya, a co-editor of ‘Energy Justice’, said “We must use every legal means necessary to enforce the promises made at COP and facilitate the solutions needed to defeat the climate crisis.”

Increasing each country’s commitment and enforcing it is fundamental to tackling the climate crisis. In addition, international carbon reduction solutions cannot be implemented absent of the rule of law. The session will argue that the means to enforce COP goals and facilitate carbon reduction exist now and should be used by any legal means necessary.

Join Dr. Peter Wadhams, Paul Beckwith and Dale Walkonen as they discuss the state of the polar regions and their critical role in regulating the Earth’s climate.

The AR6 recognizes that the release of  Methane, a greenhouse gas over 80 times more potent than CO2 when first released, poses a serious threat.  Stored below the melting permafrost, emitted by cows and other ruminants,  seeping from manure pits and landfills,  rising into the atmosphere from fossil fuels, and emitted by wetlands, rice paddies and fish farms, it is a monster we must control.  As the oceans warm and expand, more methane seeps up from the depths where it has been stored for millennia.  Experts on this panel present a variety of plans to capture and to slow the release of human-caused methane.

Join Rupert Read as he engages three youth activists Luisa Neubauer, Meera Dasgupta and Ecem Albayrak on their goals and activities.