On Climate Impacts Day protesters connected the dots between climate change and extreme weather
May 5, 2012 – Burned forests of Siberia, melting glaciers of the Pamir and landslides in the mountains of Azerbaijan – these and other dangerous effects of climate change have forced people all over the world to express their concern. Bright and unexpected actions took place in almost all countries of the world, to emphasize that the climate crisis threatens our well-being right now.
Creative demonstrations in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have become part of the global Climate Impacts Day, or Connect the Dots, a joint project initiated by the international climate movement 350.org. The day brought together more than 1,000 events in 150 countries in an attempt to “connect the dots” between local changes, such as extreme weather events, and global climate crisis.
“People in our region are already feeling the negative effects of impending climate change. Recent record temperatures in Kiev and Moscow – is only one example of the consequences,” said Yuliya Makliuk, 350.org Coordinator in Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia. “It is no wonder that we are so actively involved in global climate campaigns. After all, when the river from which you drink, shrinks with each passing year due to the reduction of glaciers, as in Tajikistan, you will not stand by idly.”
The list of events in the EECCA and links to pictures – see below.
Over the past year, heat, floods, droughts and other extreme weather events have increased awareness of climate change around the world. From heavy rains in Central America, a terrible drought in the U.S. and Russia, to the devastating floods in most parts of Asia, millions of people are already feeling the effects of the climate crisis.
“We just celebrated Earth Day. May 5 is more like Broken Earth Day, a worldwide witness to the destruction global warming is already causing,” said Bill McKibben, who wrote The End of Nature, the first book about global warming for a general audience in 1989, and the co-founder of 350.org. “People everywhere are saying the same thing: our tragedy is not some isolated trauma, it’s part of a pattern. It’s time for the fossil fuel industry to take responsibility for the damage its carbon is causing, by cleaning up its act before this spreads any more widely.”
Photos from events all over the world – http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/
Questions? Get in touch with the organizers of the events (contacts below) or 350.org Coordinator in the region. Yuliya Makliuk, 38 097 144 03 12 (tel. in Ukraine), [email protected]
# # # More information can be found at http://www.climatedots.org. 350.org – is an international climate campaign in more than 180 countries. “350″ is named in honor of the 350 parts per million (ppm) – the upper limit of safe CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Today the concentration is 392 ppm, and continues to grow.
List of Climate Impacts Day events in EECCA countries and links to photos:
| State, City | Organizer | Phone | Event’s name and link to description | Problem to focus on | Link to photos |
| Russia | |||||
| Moscow | Natalia Belokopytova | 79262664908 | Stop the Fuel Economics | Greenhouse effect increase due to fossil fuels combustion | http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/6999436474/ |
| Moscow | Alexander Muzhichkov | 79268135991 | High attitude turbine test | Little use of alternative energy sources | http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/7145531687/ |
| Sankt-Petersburg | Alexei Egorov | 7 921 418 38 27 | Actions ‘Separate Collection!’ | Waste utilization at landfills leads to greenhouses gases pollution of the atmosphere | |
| Bratsk, Irkutsk region | Natalia Molchanova | 79025473278 | Cleaning up the City Park ‘Our City is a Living Organism, Let it be Healthy!’ | Lots of rubbish on the territory | http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/7143930555/ |
| Yakutsk, Sakha Republic | Ekaterina Evseeva | 79 246 602 005 | Forest Fires in Central Yakutia and Climate Change | Mass forest fires | http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/6998001476/ |
| Kydymkar, Komi-Permyak region | Petr Korolev | 73 426 041 561 | PP – parma party | Massive forest fires and extreme winds | http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/6998430204/ |
| Ukraine | |||||
| Kyiv | Inna Datsiuk | 380 631 551 932 | Let’s put all the dots over I in climate change | Glaciers melting all over the world | http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/6999057812/ , http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/6999027114/ |
| Donetsk | Irina Gambarian | 38 050 789 99 02 | Connect the Dots – Connect the Slagheaps | Air pollution because of coal industry | |
| Dobripillja, Donetsk region | Vladimir Oros | 38 050 935 98 35 | Dubcrossing | Slagheaps with too little trees | http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/7145556679 |
| Tajikistan | |||||
| Rasht | Kurbonali Partoev | 992 935 700 721 | Round tables in 5 villages in Rasht region | Glaciers melting and threats to the mountain agriculture | http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/6986023354/ , http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/6986017254/ , http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/6986037332/ |
| Dushanbe | Aziz Kasymoff | 992 372 278 118 | Climate Impacts Day in Dushanbe | Glaciers melting and threats to water supply | http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/7144842071/ , http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/7144842411/ , http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/7144842503/ , |
| Georgia, Kutaisi | Nugzar Kokhreidze | 995 593 180 746 | Remember Circle | Climate change effects all over the world | http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/6998483532/ , http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.355251087872494.89700.133754236688848&type=3 |
| Tbilissi | Tinatin Meskhi | Climate Change Kills | Dangerous effects of climate change to human lives | http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/6999180238/ , http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/7145266349 | |
| Azerbaijan, Ismayilli | Ruhiyye Mahmudova | 519360710 | Climate Impacts Day | Landslides due to more heavy rains | http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/6999750282/ , http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/6999642014/ |
| Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek | Nurgul Esenamanova | 996 312 43 86 26 | Me + Climate Change | Floods and others climate change impacts | |
| Kazakhstan, Shakhan, Karaganda region | Irina Moskvicheva | 77 022 688 318 | Climate Quest | Air pollution due to coal fueled oven heating | |
| Almaty | Azizzhan Turganov | 77272929953 | Ecological Patrol | Different effect of environmental crisis on Almaty people | http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/7141602415/ , http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/7141609989/ |