www.unfccc.int www.biodiv.org www.unccd.int

Statements

About Gary Braasch

Thanks to our sponsors

January
Oregon and Washington States, USA
Detail of a dune along the Columbia River in its gorge, passing between Oregon and Washington States.

February
Guangdong, China
Children kick a soccer ball in the desiccated rice fields of their village which, like many in the region, suffered an extended drought in 2005. Some areas harvested no rice. Droughts have continued in southwestern and northern areas of China throughout 2006.

March
Anchorage, Alaska, USA
Portage Lake, the former site of the Portage Glacier, which has receded 3 miles since 1914. The glacier has now moved beyond the lake and is shrinking back into the mountains. A tourist centre built on the site of the former terminus no longer has a view of the glacier.

April
Lembongan Island, Indonesia
Villagers harvest Euchema seaweed as part of the “caregeenan trade” which is used in food and laboratories. Coral reefs are crucial for substrate and protection for the seaweed. Now, sea level rise threatens this local agriculture and the reefs.

May
Great Barrier Reef, Australia
The Great Barrier Reef is an example of a healthy reef system, but the entire structure is threatened by rising sea temperatures, sea levels and the increasing acidification of the ocean.

June
Pisac, Peru
Market Day in Pisac, a village not far from Cusco along the Urubamba River in El Valle Sagrado. Traditional dress, arts and crafts thrive here and in other highland villages, while agricultural terraces are visible on the hills beyond.

July
Funafuti, Tuvalu
Children caught in waves during the high tides of February 2005 that inundated parts of Tuvalu, a low-lying Pacific Island nation. This island group with a population of 11,000 is only a few metres above sea level.

August
Chicago, Illinois, USA
In 1995, an urban heatwave in Chicago killed more than 700 people. Scientific predictions of global warming and its effects forewarned this disaster, as well as the overwhelming heatwave of August 2003 (where more than 20,000 deaths occurred across Europe) and again the heatwave in 2006 which hit the Northern Hemisphere.

September
Pangnirtung, Nunavut, Canada
Elisapee Ishulutaq, an artist who will be 81 in 2007, was born in an outpost camp near Pangnirtung, Nunavut. She said that she used to go dogsledding on Baffin Isle as late as July, but nowadays the snows clear at least two months earlier. “All the mountains were covered with glaciers,” she said. “But there isn’t any deep snow anymore.” A warming Arctic is a severe threat to the 155,000 Inuit and other cultures of the North Polar region.

October
St. Breock, Cornwall, UK
A 5 megawatt, 11-tower wind power installation situated in St. Breock.

November
Tucson, Arizona, USA
A huge “supercell” thunderstorm dumps heavy rain on the San Pedro River Valley, east of Tucson.