WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY
Melting Ice -- a Hot Topic?

Excerpts from a Message by Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General
 and UNEP World Environment Day - 5 June 2007

World Environment Day 2007 focuses on the challenges facing the people and ecosystems
of the Arctic and Antarctic as a result of rapid environmental and climatic change. In doing
 so it also links to the wider world where glaciers are shrinking and an increasing number
of extreme weather events are triggering more frequent droughts and floods.

In focusing on the Polar Regions we hold up a mirror to the accelerating impacts sweeping
the whole planet from the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. These seemingly
remote regions vividly illustrate the interconnectedness of all life on Earth�bringing home to
the six billion people alive today how mutually reliant and linked we all are to landscapes and
ecosystems both near and far.

The Arctic and Antarctica may be the Earth's climate early warning system�feeling the heat first --
but we know it does not end there. Ocean circulation, the key driver of regional and global
weather systems, is inextricably linked with melting and freezing processes in and around the
poles. The Polar Regions are also a kind of protective shield, reflecting heat back into space that
would otherwise be absorbed on Earth. There is also growing concern over so-called 'positive
feedbacks' including the potential release of massive amounts of the powerful greenhouse gas
methane, which is stored in the Arctic permafrost.

So, what happens in the Arctic and the Antarctic as a result of climate change is of direct interest
to us all�from someone living in the Congo River Basin, the Australian outback and in rural China,
to suburban dwellers in Berlin, New Delhi, Rio de Janeiro or Washington DC.

At the same time, the actions of those living outside the Polar Regions is of direct interest to Arctic
peoples. The vast majority of emissions that are contributing to melting ice are being generated on
the roads and in the factories, homes and offices of the industrialized and, increasingly, the rapidly
industrializing economies.

We are currently locked into a vicious and ever widening circle. Our common responsibility is to
make it a virtuous one�to underline that overcoming the profligate burning of fossil fuels is not a
burden but an opportunity. Switching to a cleaner and more efficient development path can not
only liberate us from the overarching threat of climate change, it can free us from dependency on
a finite and, some might say, politically disruptive resource.

�The costs of acting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the worst impacts could cost as
little as 1 per cent of global GDP each year. The US firm PricewaterhouseCoopers recently concluded
that the world would have to sacrifice just one year's economic growth over the next four decades
to reduce carbon emissions sufficiently to curb global warming.

Climate change is magnifying existing disparities between rich and poor and aggravating tensions
over fragile or increasingly scarce natural resources such as productive land and freshwater. It
increases the potential to create a new class of displaced people known collectively as environmental
refugees.

Finally, the science of climate change is now indisputable, and has been further underlined in the latest
reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released in February this year. The findings
put a full stop behind the scientific debate as to whether humankind is influencing the climate and now
beg the question of what we are going to do about it.

Collective and decisive political will is the final -- and still missing -- piece in the jigsaw puzzle. While many
sectors of society are moving to address climate change�including local authorities, industry, the financial
sector and civil society -- the collective political process is moving frustratingly slowly.

The theme for this year's World Environment Day is Melting Ice: A Hot Topic? Thus it is fitting that the
main celebrations are being hosted by Norway on the edge of the Arctic Circle. The logo underlines the
global theme by asking a polar bear, an African farmer, a Pacific islander, an insurer and businessman,
two indigenous children and ultimately 'Yourself' the rhetorical question of whether indeed this is the
topic of our time.

Perhaps we should have added a further person -- namely a politician. World Environment Day has at its
heart the empowerment of the individual citizen. UNEP urges everyone to embrace this year's theme a
nd put the question to their political leaders and democratically elected representatives: just how much
hotter does this topic need to become before governments across the globe finally act?

(For the full text of the Under-Secretary General's remarks, visit
http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=513&ArticleID=5604&l=en)

For more info on World environment Day, visit
http://www.unep.org/wed/2007/english/ 

What does this mean for us? How are we contributing to or helping to allleviate Global Warming
or Climate Change?

ACTIONS
1. Drive less -- car omissions are one of the largest contributors to Global Warming
2. Eat less meat -- methane, which is generated by meat producing animals, is 20 times more
effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (CO₂) according to the US
Environmental Protection Agency.
3. Look for ways to engage in local initiatives that will cut carbon emissions and create positive
changes now for Global Climate Change.