Action Campaigns

 

Action Campaigns: Race 2 Survival (R2S) - Main
* What is the Race 2 Survival (R2S) Campaign About?
Climate Emergency 2008
Tar Sands Kill
Harper: Race to Extinction
TIFF (Toronto Int'l Film Festival), 2007, 2008, 2009

 

R2S - About

R2S

 

                        R2S

Join the Race!   What is the Climate Emergency: Race 2 Survival (R2S) Campaign About?

 

Now. Fast. Together! ecoSanity's Climate Emergency: Race 2 Survival (R2S) Campaign is a bold call for the rejection of 'business as usual' in favour of an urgent international declaration of a state of global emergency.

Why? To allow for the greater than WW2-equivalent mass- mobilization necessary to REVERSE our accelerating course toward the potentially unsurvivable threat of runaway climate collapse within the lifetimes of today's children.

 

      R2S     R2S     R2S

 

Inspired by Project Survival, an initiative of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) to safeguard the survival of all peoples and nations against the current global emissions reduction targets set by powerful countries that condemn their nations to extinction (!).

R2S is an urgent invitation, donation and mobilization effort to escalate and maximize our climate emergency advocacy and activism.

Through truth, passion, emotion and urgency, ecoSanity will work to:
 

 

 

Join the Race!   What Does the 2 in Race 2 Survival Stand For?

 

Twice as Bad, Twice as Fast

At the March 2009, 'Emergency' Scientific Congress on Climate Change, more than 2,500 top scientists and delegates from nearly 80 countries warned that:

Several key statistics are at least DOUBLE/ TWICE AS BAD/ happening TWICE AS FAST as previous estimates and conditions are at or beyond the worst-case scenario trajectories predicted by the dangerously outdated, 2007 IPPC report, upon which ALL current international climate negotiations are based and LIMITED TO.

And even these revised conclusions underestimate the latest science that shows many aspects of climate decline to be 2, 3, 5, 10, 20 x worse, depending.

+2 ºC = Global Disaster, Not Salvation (Dr. James Hansen)

The acceleration of climate breakdown toward climate tipping points -- a threshold wrongly promoted by governments and even many environmental organizations as a global average temp increase of +2 ºC or more, when it has in fact been shown to be +1.5 ºC OR LESS -- is now RAPID. At a mere +0.8 ºC, we have already suffered profound impacts.

If surpassed, a phenomenon called positive feedback loops – like when less arctic ice to reflect sun leaves more ocean surface to absorb more heat faster and faster -- would become EXPONENTIAL AND IRREVERSIBLE.

More Than +2 ºC Already Assured

The +2 ºC target is no longer achievable, nor was it ever 'safe'.

If a global carbon emission switch could be flicked off tomorrow, the atmosphere would continue to heat beyond +2 ºC based of the inertia of the system. We are already committed to AT LEAST a +2.0 ºC to +2.4 ºC rise, no matter what (Scientific Congress on Climate Change Synthesis Report, Page 18, June 18, 2009).

Once released, carbon persists in the atmosphere for a thousand, if not thousands, of years, yet we continue to increase AND accelerate our annual release of carbon emissions -- in the wrong direction!

Even the 2007 IPCC impacts report (chapter 5) said that +2.5 ºC would not only be disastrous for agriculture in the most climate breakdown vulnerable regions, it would make ALL agriculture vulnerable in ALL regions.

Late 2008, Hadley Centre (UK) researchers announced new calculations that suggest a rise of up to +7 ºC by 2100. And in early in 2009, so did MIT.

R2S

If these projected potential increases were to occur, climate extremes would render the planet UNLIVABLE for most life by around +6 ºC (or less) which, incredibly, could become a reality BEFORE THE END OF THIS CENTURY.

But worse still, extreme fresh water/food scarcity and global agricultural collapse would transpire MANY DECADES SOONER.

That is why, what we do NOW is the ONLY CHANCE to have the biggest impact to slow the process. What we do later and incrementally once climate tipping points are passed and exponential, irreversible positive feedback loops are triggered, will be far '2' little, far '2' late.

This makes it especially inconvenient that the 2007 IPPC report, upon which all current international climate negotiations are are based and LIMITED TO, did not incorporate the impacts of positive feedback loops -- the key drivers of potential runaway climate collapse -- into its assessments.

As a result, even if fully embraced and implemented, its outdated recommendations are, by far, DANGEROUSLY INADEQUATE to the actual size and urgency of the threat.

The Most Ambitious Int'l Emissions Reduction Targets Must be at Least Doubled

Our children do not have 40 years for us to get global emissions down to near-ZERO.

If we are to RACE BACK TO a 'safe' climate balance of not more than +1 ºC -- FAST (Bill Hare, Worldwatch Institute, State of World 2009, Chapter 2), the world community must peak emissions as soon as possible, rapidly reduce to virtual ZERO emissions, AND REMOVE much of the carbon from the atmosphere that has already been released.

A Greater Than World War 2-Equivalent, Emergency Global Mass-Mobilization

Humanity must launch a multi-pronged 'Marshall Plan/ Manhattan Project/ Apollo Program'-equivalent venture on the greatest scale ever to confront the climate crisis -- research and rapid development/ transference/ implementation of clean, renewable technologies, emergency assistance for/ cooperation with fast-developing countries and those on the front lines of devastating impacts, and much, much more -- and we must initiate it NOW in order to survive.

 

 

Join the Race!   2100: An Unlivable World?

Former World Bank chief economist and author of the 2006 Stern Review, Nicholas Stern, famously warned that climate breakdown threatens to be the greatest market failure ever because the costs of fossil fuel emissions are
not incorporated into free market accounting and polluters are not forced to pay for the social/ environmental costs/ impacts of their pollution.

Now he warns of "severe risks" if global average temperature rises by the predicted +4 ºC to +7 ºC by 2100.

R2SAgriculture would be destroyed and life would be impossible over much of the planet.

The last time the Earth was that hot was 30 - 50 million years ago.

The last time it was even +3 ºC warmer was 3 million years ago and we are racing there again LONG BEFORE 2100.

In fact, as you read this, global average temperature is already higher than at any time over the last 2 MILLION YEARS.

Meanwhile, humanity is only 200,000 years young!

In the article, Perfect storm of environmental and economic collapse closer than you think, founder director of Forum for the Future, chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission and author, Jonathon Porritt, makes the argument that a confluence of factors are anticipated to build over the next few years and mount into "world upheavals", perhaps as soon as 2020.

Climate breakdown will be a major contributor and the most glaring root threats are:

R2SArctic meltdown that could result in summers without sea ice as soon as 2013 instead of 2100 (!). So much for our confidence in the 2007 IPPC report suggestion that we have until 2015 to level off emissions.

R2SMethane time bomb -- Millions of tons 20 x more potent than CO2 as a heat trapping gas are leaking out from underneath melting permafrost and warmer ocean floors. Scientists fear the increasing rates of release could become a giant
            positive feedback and result in a massive acceleration of global heating.

R2SOcean acidification (carbon saturated and chemically altered) and ocean heating could render the base life of the ocean food chain unable to produce protective shells (exist) and, therefore, unable to absorb carbon by 2030. Ocean life creates every
            second breath we breathe. If the food chain and carbon regulation were  to collapse, land life could not survive either.
            See: 10 x weaker carbon sink absorption in the southern ocean and 10, maybe even 20 x higher levels of ocean acidification.

   ■       Potential sudden climate system flip -- +2 ºC to +4 ºC in as brief as a 3 year period of time. The record is +6 ºC in 1–3 years,
           +10-12 ºC over 50 years (Steffensen, 2008).

 

On our present course, these forces would, among other things, lead to epic fresh water scarcity and the collapse of global agriculture THIS CENTURY.

Along the unpleasant way: sea level rise, floods, extreme weather events, resource wars and mass-migration, mass-extinctions, extreme deforestation, soil depletion, extreme drought and desertification, proliferation of disease(s) and intangibles like the potential for a massive bee die-off (pollination).

 

 

Join the Race!   2009: It's Happening NOW -- We’ve Already Gone Way Too Far

The first comprehensive study focused on adverse effects of climate change on human society has revealed that:

  • Hundreds of millions around the globe are suffering the consequences of climate change impacts NOW – their lives lost or livelihoods undermined or destroyed -- and 4 billion (60% of the world’s population!) are vulnerable.
  • Developing countries bear more than 90% of the burden, but are least responsible for the causes.
  • 99% of deaths linked to climate change occur in developing countries.
  • Current adaptation efforts are woefully inadequate and NEED TO BE SCALED UP 100 TIMES.
  • The findings are very conservative and the true human impact will be FAR MORE SEVERE.

R2S

As a result of our collective indifference and inaction...

The accelerating, rich nation-induced impacts of climate breakdown are NOW the greatest threat to global human rights and livelihood in the history of humankind. (Click map to enlarge and read more)

Yet leading experts warn that current climate negotiations are on course to implement EVEN LESS than the minimum recommendations of the dangerously outdated, 2007 IPPC report and that EMERGENCY ACTION on a scale many times greater must be taken — FAST.

As outlined in the essential book, Climate Code Red, and informed by the work of the world's most eminent climate authority, NASA's Dr. James Hansen, authors, David Spratt and Philip Sutton warn that, if humanity is to survive, only EMERGENCY INTERNATIONAL ACTION far beyond economics and politics as usual has any chance to concurrently:

R2S1. HALT man made greenhouse gas emissions to as near to ZERO (virtual 100%, also stated in the 2007 IPCC report) as fast as possible through conservation and carbon rationing.

2. Initiate an immediate and rapid global shift from rampant fossil-fuel addiction to clean, renewable energy.

3. Maximize investment into research, development and implementation in order to figure out how to REMOVE the dangerous, excess CO2 and methane from the atmosphere that has already been released and attempt to actively COOL THE EARTH to the extent (a return to near pre-industrial carbon concentrations = 300ppm), and within the rapidly closing window of opportunity necessary, to prevent imminent and irreversible global catastrophe.

Here in Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservative party exhibit the least acceptance of this reality, the most resistant and entrenched approach to maintaining the 'business as usual' status quo, and engage in some of the greatest obstruction to national and international action and progress with the second worst climate change plan in the world after Saudi Arabia.

 

 

Join the Race!   Now. Fast. Together!

You may have noticed we have not hesitated to be frank about the dire state of the situation.

But some question this undiluted approach and worry that it may risk the sense of hope and inspiration they think people require in order to be motivated enough to act.

In an essential guest blog post, Fear is a GOOD thing and hope is NOT an action verb, Julie Johnston of Greenhearted.org (and ecoSanity.org Kindred Defender), finds it counterintuitive that environmental groups and activists keep saying we must not scare the public or spread "doom and gloom."

She supports educator and author, Thomas Homer-Dixon's assertion that, contrary to conventional wisdom, fear is GOOD and that we should embrace it, not scorn it.
 

R2S"Fear serves a vital purpose," Homer-Dixon writes. "Our ancestors evolved the biological capacity for fear because it helped them survive, which allowed them to pass their genes to future generations. Fear signals something might be wrong in our surroundings and that we could be in danger... And we should listen to those whose fears might help them see dangers earlier and more clearly than the rest of us."

Julie concludes: "...hope is not an action verb - and hoping, like praying, is not going to safeguard the future. Take hopeful action, be an optimistic activist, but TAKE action and BE an activist!

As a world community, we don't know the full potential of what we COULD do to confront this crisis because we have not yet begun to try on a massive scale.
 

But if we DID try, as if the survival of our species and most other life depended on it, and if we were to commit all of our collective abilities to the task, multiple carbon cutting, clean energy 'miracles' would, no doubt, be discovered.

With global emissions accelerating; climate tipping points both near and passing; feedback loops kicking in; many key estimations to date shown to be extreme and dangerous underestimates; and the lives of most people and species at stake THIS CENTURY, it is clear that we are -– ALL OF US –- in a MORTAL RACE AGAINST TIME.

And for the rapidly growing number of families in the most impoverished regions —- those least responsible for the problem and least able to cope -- who've already been displaced from their homes and/ or seen loved ones KILLED by the devastating social and environmental impacts of climate breakdown, staying alive is a daily struggle RIGHT NOW.
 

R2S6 months ahead of the final day of the critical UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen (Dec. 7-18, 2009), where the governments of the world will be tasked to negotiate and commit to a new, eleventh hour, global climate agreement...

ecoSanity.org announces the Climate Emergency: Race 2 Survival Campaign (R2S), a bold, new call for the rejection of 'business as usual' in favour of an urgent international declaration of a state of global emergency to allow for the greater than WW2-equivalent, global mass- mobilization necessary to REVERSE our accelerating course toward the all too real, potentially unsurvivable threat of runaway climate collapse within the lifetimes of today's children.

Every effort must be made RIGHT AWAY to learn the basic science, spread the word like a virus, organize and mobilize to inspire IMMEDIATE, RESPONSIBLE, EXPANSIVE ECOLOGICAL REFORM ON A MASSIVE SCALE, WORLDWIDE.

We must all PARTICIPATE. We must all SPEAK OUT. We must all DEMAND CHANGE.

Get informed. Get inspired. Get involved and help to motivate bold, new, transformative approaches and just, resilient, EMERGENCY RESPONSES to the climate crisis -- FAST.
 

                                 Join the Emergency Movement. Join the Race -- 2 Survival!

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Emergency Climate Congress Summary, March 2009
Call for Declaration of Global Climate Emergency, Dec. 2008
Climate Emergency Campaign, Dec. 2008
Founder’s Imperative, Revised Sept. 2008

 

Join the Race!   R2S -- Campaign Menu

R2S - Home
R2S - What is the Race 2 Survival Campaign About?
R2S - Upcoming Activities - Get Involved!
R2S - Ways 2 Act Now - Join the Race!
R2S - Latest Blogs on blogSanity
R2S - Fear is GOOD and Hope is NOT an Action Verb
R2S - Essential Quotes