The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is releasing its Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) on Friday.

The report is the culmination of more than 800 scientist authors working with more than 9,000 scientific publications on climate change and more than 20,000 comments from 'expert reviewers,' making it the most comprehensive collection of climate change knowledge to-date.

You can watch the livestream of the report's release on September 27th at 8.30am EDT and learn more about climate science, the IPCC, and the AR5 at The Climate Group.

As the Connect4Climate team prepares to head to Durban to present the winners of our Connect4Climate photo/video competition, here is a great resource on climate change, Africa and the COP17 meetings. The Guardian's John Vidal embarked on a journey from Cairo to Durban, stopping in some of Africa's most vulnerable regions including South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, and South Africa. 

Much as we do here, Vidal hones in on the climate change realities of now, not in the future. Events are happening right in from of our eyes and as the world sits down to discuss it's future, it is important that these events are front and center in the minds of the 195 parties and over 17000 delegates partaking in the negotiations. Climate change is happening now, not at some future date we all negotiating to avoid. Lives are being affected as we speak. As Vidal writes:

Climate change is happening "without a doubt", he says, but disentangling its impacts from everything else happening in Egypt is nigh on impossible. Not only is north Africa steadily sinking – or subducting – into the Mediterranean, he says, but also the great Nile water is barely getting to the coast in places because so much is taken off by farmers or evaporating before it reaches the sea. In addition, storms and sea surges are worsening and world record-scale temperatures are being recorded.

This is not our future, it our present. We've added Vidal's blog series to our climate change resources section. 

Make sure to follow our blog as we'll be live-blogging from Durban starting Tuesday. Also follow our Twitter stream and Facebook wall for live updates on our events and all the activities happening in Durban.

What if instead of a regular day at the office you could be outdoors, enjoying Spring?

That was the challenge proposed by Jill S. Wilkins, World Bank Group External Corporate Relations Global Engagement manager (she oversees Connect4Climate!) and we immediately agreed. The idea was to offer a time for the department members to get together and enjoy some quality time as a team. What better way to do while contributing to a worthy cause?

Shovels? Check. Gloves. Yes! The Global Engagement team from The World Bank Group gets ready for action. Photo Credit: ECRGE

We chose the Anacostia Watershed Society, an organization that has been doing amazing work making the Anacostia River that flows through Washington, D.C. a healthy, vibrant waterway. On a hot Thursday morning, around fifteen colleagues replaced their regular suits with practical clothes and hit Hyattsville, Maryland, a mere twenty minutes from World Bank Headquarters in Washington, D.C., where the outing would take place. We were going to build a garden.

Before getting down to business, Jo-Elle Burgard, the project coordinator, explained to the volunteers the purpose of the garden we were about to build. The parking lot of the First United Methodist Church, located in the lower part of the property, often floods with polluted water during a rainstorm. Creating a garden on one of the hills on the church’s property would helpstop the water, which would eventually end up in the sewer storm drain located underneath the parking lot.

This drain channels the water— now warmer from the asphalt and the pollution involved—to the river causing an increase on the water temperature, which consequently provokes changes in the ecosystem.  

Native plants set out for the future garden will help absorb water from rainstorms that had been plaguing the local eco-system. Photo Credit: ECRGE

Ferns, native pachysandra, and tiarella, plants native to the Chesapeake region, would make up the garden. They were chosen for their adaptability; they can bare various climate change differences as also tolerate a wide range of soils.

Everything was ready. The leaders had previously divided and set the plants in places where they were to be planted. Half of the job was done, we just needed to dig in and place them in the ground.

Creating a garden in a watershed area. Photo Credit: ECRGE

It was time at last. We started out with an immense enthusiasm. But as we dug, people started losing a bit of their energy. Great team work was what keep us going. Less than three hours later, the last shovel hit the ground. Our sense of accomplishment was clearly visible.

Working at a computer or shoveling? Guess what we chose? Photo Credit: ECRGE

What a great experience! Tiring but rewarding.

When asked if I would be interested in participating in another volunteering activity, I simply answer: Just tell me where and when!!

Bárbara Gomes Simões is currently an intern for Connect4Climate. Originally from Cascais, Portugal, she’s has worked on numerous international projects and is particularly committed to youth empowerment.

When Cyclone Pam arrived in the south Pacific Ocean bringing destruction, devastation, and new levels of anxiety to those it affected, I thought it was wrong to sit by and do nothing. I decided to use my business, Five Boys Clothing, as a mechanism for good.

I am half I-Kiribati (the term used to describe a person from the country of Kiribati) and still have relatives living in the far-flung, low-lying beautiful island of Kiribati and across the Pacific.

In the past few weeks, I and others from the I-Kiribati community have found it increasingly difficult to establish good communication channels with our families in Kiribati. What we have heard consistently over the past few months is that the “king tides” that naturally occur at this time of year have been the biggest that anyone who lives in the Oceana region have ever been known.

The author, Sophia Walsh (middle of the second row from the top), at age eight, with her family.
In accordance with I-Kiribati tradition the extended family mostly live as a Kainga – all the siblings live together, with their children and grandchildren, and now great grandchildren. Walsh now lives in England.

Because of Kiribati's geography, any small changes in sea level can have an enormous effect.

Kiribati is composed of three archipelagos in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Together, they span an area greater than the United States. Straddling the equator, Kiribati is the only nation in the world to have land in both the Northern, Southern, Western, and Eastern Hemispheres. With the sole exception of one raised atoll, no where in Kiribati is more than two meters above the sea level.

The Tarawa atoll, capital of the republic of Kiribati. Credit: Mark Tranchant

Freak high tides creep up and across the island, spilling into ground-level wells and contaminating the water.

Due to the low lying position of the atolls of Kiribati, small changes in weather conditions have a big effect. Severe changes in weather conditions have a disastrous effect.  Global warming is causing severe and consistent damage to the islands, particularly with fresh water supplies because the rise in sea levels causes increased salinity in the ground water.

My family has one well that hasn't been contaminated, but there are many families in the Pacific region that are not so fortunate.

During an intensive sociology course over winter break, thirty students from U.S. colleges and universities took part in a workshop organized by the Connect4Climate group at the World Bank headquarters. The students came from many disciplines, and from all over the world. Few had any kind of a background in climate change issues. Here are some of their impressions of Connect4Climates mission and, in particular, the Sport4Climate initiative. The workshop occured on January 15 2015 to celebrate the launch of Action/2015, a global movement of thousands of organizations, coalitions and partnerships that reflect the diversity of injustice, inequalities, poverty and climate change all over the world.

Last December I was one of the lucky six chosen by the University Centre for Development Cooperation (Brussels) to attend the second week of the biggest climate change event of the year: the COP18. I was so looking forward to experience a U.N. international conference from close-by.

This time the 18th Conference of the Parties took place in Doha, the capital of Qatar. Isnt it ironic that the country with the highest ecological footprint per capita on earth, hosts a conference on climate change?

The first couple of days went by quite fast. I was impressed by the size and the organization of such an event. The Qatar National Convention Centre (where the COP was held) is huge: it hosted about 30,000 people (delegates, visitors, journalists, members of NGOs and volunteers). At least I got to stay fit from walking a couple of kilometers a day!

The real negotiations were not opened to observers like me, but there were plenty of side-events I was allowed in, like press conferences and information panels. Some very interesting topics were discussed, like sustainable energy resources, food security, impact of climate change on indigenous groups, etc.

I also attended a couple of actions organized by NGOs. I got the chance to interact with young people from all over the world, people who really care about the climate and would do a lot to try to save it. It was very inspiring to hear their point of view, to see how driven they were. It was also touching to see how, by the end of the COP, they had lost all hope for this COP: they realized there would be no ambitious climate agreement this year. Despite this, they were more determined than ever to keep on fighting for the climate, and to organize many more actions back home to make people realize that climate change is an urgent matter: we cannot afford to wait another ten years. Time is running out Werent typhoon Bopha and hurricane Sandy recent proof of this?

Talking to them was what made me understand that waiting for a global, ambitious agreement is not an option anymore. Maybe it is time for usthe civil societyto take action, instead of waiting for politicians to do so: a so - called bottom - up approach to fight climate change instead of ineffective climate negotiations.

Unexpectedly, attending the COP18 has radically changed my views on what seems to be the best way to tackle climate change. All over the globe, climate action movements are growing.  Thousands, maybe millions of people are ready to act. They are hopeful that together we can build a worldwide movement of solidarity and that we have the potential to actually make a change if we cooperate.  I too am now convinced of this.

More experiences of the 6 students at the COP18 can be read at the UCOS @ COP 18 blog.  

For three years, Muntasir Mamun worked towards one goal and one dream: Trash Maniacs. For 66 days, this 30-year-old engineer from Bangladesh rode across the USA on a tandem bike with his colleague Mohammad Ujjal, to measure and collect the amount of plastic and other waste they came across. Equipped with a smartphone application to track and count litter, they rode for 5500 km, through 40 cities and 12 states, starting in Seattle and finishing in Washington, D.C. With this journey they hoped to raise awareness on climate change and the impact of plastic and trash on the environment, for the benefit of their home country and the rest of the world. 

Why? Muntasir clarifies: "The USA have the highest consumption of plastic based products and the largest consumer market for the bottled water in the world. And Bangladesh is the most vulnerable nation in the world, due to global climate change. A large number of people are displacing their homes from one place to another, as a result of the regular environmental disasters. In Dhaka- the capital- nearly 20 million people are living in only 304km, and this number is growing every day." 

Growing up in a country where millions are affected by climate change has made Muntasir aware of the environmental problems the world is facing and how urgent it is to take a stand: "Dhaka is an example of what is going to happen in the future in many other countries: flooding, storm-surge, shoreline erosion, degradation of agricultural land, cyclones..." 

And so, even though it took him three years to save the necessary money and his visa request for the US was rejected three times, Muntasir didnt give up on his journey to raise awareness for the change the world desperately needs. For 66 days he rode his tandem bike through the country with his colleague, camping along the way and only sleeping at motels or hostels for a very few times, measuring the plastic that is not recycled and other debris they came across. After 40 days, they both ran out of money, and had to rely on friends for shelter and on donations of food and other supplies. But in the end, it paid off. Trash Maniacs won the C4C Special Prize in the Voices4Climate competition, and Muntasir was declared International Climate Leader, by The Climate Reality Project. "This prize helped me a lot in making my voice stronger about this issue".

"Everything comes along with a price. Climate change is the result of our extravagant lifestyle, and if we dont solve this problem, poverty will never be eliminated". For this reason, Muntasir is planning to ride Trash Maniacs II next summer, from Alaska to Toronto, spreading his message along the way. "I want to keep this campaign in other countries where the rate of consumption is higher than their basic needs. My plan is to reach the global scale. This is a common ground where everyone can participate and contribute without any geographical boarder. We just have to start from home: one step at a time, all together".

On the 14 November Connect4Climate hosted a live chat on the Guardian Climate Change Hub. The topic was “how to build a global coalition to end climate change” and the outcomes of this are to be used in the Be The Movement workshop tomorrow at the University of Warsaw in parallel to COP19.

World Bank president Jim Yong Kim was quoted as saying: "To deliver bold solutions on climate change, we need to listen to and engage broader and more diverse audiences."

The live chat presented the following guiding questions: What do cross-sectoral coalitions to end climate change actually look like? How do you get the science, politics, humanitarian, development, environment, business and donor communities all singing from the same hymn sheet and working towards the same goals? Who gets to decide what those goals are? In addition, how do you communicate the value of working in coalition?

Our grandparents defeated racism through the Civil Rights movement, our parents dealt with fear during the Cold War; it now falls on us to make our mark on the world. Will our generation be characterized by combating terrorism, or could we strive for much more? This notion is what inspired our Sociology class to create this video.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/embed/_lHkE54Ye94]

 

In the beginning of the semester, we learned about the fundamentals of Sociology, what it is, how it has evolved, and the forces that have shaped it. One of the key components of Sociology is its basis around the idea of a social problem. These problems are defined as any issue that affects a large number of people, endangers the values of a group, and can be solved by collective action. This last part is what grabbed our attention.

Our professor, Dr. Leszek Sibilski, came forward one day and invited us to attend the Connect4Climate 'Right Here, Right Now' event at the World Bank on March 1, 2013. At the Bank, some of us heard the leaders of one of the world’s largest development organizations request that we take action. We could see the flags and faces around the room, representing all different types of people and ages. The most dominant age group, however, was the youth. This was a real wake up call for us. Few of us had ever seen so many young people gathered in one place to help combat climate change. We knew we were witnessing the start of something incredible.

The next class period, Dr. Sibilski asked us to create a punch line that we could use to get the attention of our generation to act. Each one of us went home that night and thought, why is it our job, why is it our problem? The truth is, it is our problem because it has been left to us. While science has only brought it into light within the past few decades, not enough action has been taken. The numbers presented by science talk about “the future” that is at risk from any of the impacts of climate change. The concept of the future has created this idea that the effects are far off and do not impact people’s present-day lives. While this may be true, our generation is the one that will feel these impacts. We are still young, the future is ours. As such, we must make sure that there is a future in which we can live the lives we want. Climate change is destroying that future. Without any action we are throwing away our future, simply hoping that it turns out well. 

Instead we must unite and take action. One of the critiques of our social movement video is that there are no real suggestions in our message. While this may be true, our goal is not to promote a certain action but rather the need for action as a whole. From what was said at the Connect4Climate event, the climate crisis is real and we must take action now. It was this message that inspired our class to make this video. We were tired of reading in our textbook about all the social problems that exist in the world. We wanted to do more. Rather then just studying Sociology, we wanted to create it. With the punch lines that we developed, we began filming. Every step of the way, Dr. Sibilski has encouraged us, making sure that the best shot was captured, and using his connections to improve our outreach and spreading our call to action around the world.

This entire experience has shown us what just a small action by a small group of people can do. The video we made has spread around the world and thanks to youtube, it has been seen on all six populated continents. We have hundreds of comments in a wide variety of languages. It is clear that our message is beginning to spread fast. The time has come now for our generation to unite and act to end climate change. So I must ask you now, will you join us?

When you first enter a classroom and see a wave of unfamiliar faces, do you expect to work with everyone in that class or do you assume that whoever sits near you will be your discussion partner for the whole semester? Would you ever imagine that one of them would be so ambitious and motivate the whole class to join together and make a major statement for social change?

In two sociology classes taught by University of Maryland’s Professor Leszek Sibilski, 50 students all joined forces to not just raise awareness of climate change but to also start a chain reaction of actual social change around the issue.

On the first day of Professor Sibilski’s "Contemporary Social Problems" class, I was very much a cynic and had little faith that my classmates would think about coming together for any serious endeavors. I even doubted my professor when he told us that we would work together on a video project that would spread globally and really get people talking. Well, I stand happily corrected in my cynicism. There was a great deal of kinship when we all supported one another as we flubbed through lines, changed our intonations, and sat through countless versions of the video until we had created the best one possible for the world to see.

 

Thanks to the power of social media and online marketing, many people from all over the globe have indeed seen our class video! We have comments in multiple languages on YouTube and at latest count, there are over 2800 views from around the world. When we set out to make a genuine effort to spur people to act and commit to social change, I was floored to see the results we garnered so quickly. If anything could be said about this project, it would be that it not only got external people involved in seeking change, but it also inspired a group of normally apathetic students - myself included - to want to seek real global change as well.

Now, with the collaborative support of the World Bank’s Connect4Climate (C4C) initiative, we are proud to introduce a new video that we shot on Earth Day, 2013, when members of the C4C Team came to speak to our class.

In this video, my classmates and I all share simple ideas as to how we can begin the process of correcting the damage we have caused. Unless collective social action is taken now, the dire effects of climate change will be felt most acutely by our generation and those younger than we are. There is thus a clear need for students and youth to be proactive and to share positive role models and ideas with other young people from around the world. Earth Day is a day for the world and its inhabitants to connect - even if it’s just through the Internet – to improve the planet. So even though April 22 has passed, Earth Day is really just a reminder of what we should be doing on a daily basis. With this video, we are starting a global challenge to address climate change and sending a message from our university campus to you and your communities: all people need to unite and revive the planet we love. Please join us and Connect4Climate!

Learn more about the UMD/C4C connection.