Amazonian Wilderness

In today's Guardian there is an article with the depressing assessment that the Amazon jungle could be lost in 40 years:

"The Amazonian wilderness is at risk of unprecedented damage from an ambitious plan to improve transport, communications and power generation in the region, conservationists warned yesterday." - Read full article.

This is in addition to a recent article by the Brazil-based humanitarian aid worked Conor Foley called 'Threatening the Amazon', which lays out in some further detail some of the things that are going wrong. Meaning, in other words, that not much has changed since we attended the RSA 2006 Angus Millar Lecture where Chris Clark, President of Associazione Amazonia Onlus, told a distinguished Edinburgh audience about the extreme difficulties conservation efforts in the Amazon face. Transcript here .

The issues facing rainforests like the Amazon will be in particular focus at the next World Wilderness Congress - which will be held in South America in 2009 - including follow-up on the Resolution on Tropical Protected Areas as adopted by the 8th World Wilderness Congress.

Now you can help by getting informed. We have a suggested starting point for your reading in preparation for the next for the next World Wilderness Congress. You may also find it useful to go through some related articles from the International Journal of Wilderness:

• An Overview of the World Wilderness Congress
• The 8th World Wilderness Congress
• The 7th World Wilderness Congress - Wilderness and Human Communities

Learn more about and subscribe to the International Journal of Wilderness

Last but not least, here's on from our archive about the very first congress: Findhorn and the World Wilderness Congress 1983

Campfire Questions with Graham Game

We grabbed Graham Game, friend of the foundation and a professional environmentalist, for a quickfire round of questions further to Wednesday night’s ‘Climate Change and Essex - Winner or Loser?’ debate:

• What are the most urgent issues facing Essex?

Essex is on the front line as far as the effects of climate change are concerned, and with our long and incredibly fragile coastline, it's sea level rise and then flooding that I'm probably most concerned about, but the face of agriculture is changing too.

We are facing a 2 - 6 degree celsius rise in temperatures, and an increase of up to 20% in winter rainfall. It's also predicted that water levels in the Thames Estuary could rise as much as 86 cm by the 2080's, while there could be a fall of up to 60% in soil moisture levels during summer.

Our rich biodiversity here in Essex is really taking a hammering as our seasons change their patterns due to climate change.

So what are we doing? Building thousands of new homes on flood plains in the Thames Estuary, turning thousands of acres of arable land over to growing non-food crops & looking to almost double our airport capacity.

• What can our local readers do to make a difference?

Here's where I take many people out of their comfort zones: I passionately believe that far too much emphasis is being placed on mitigation & nowhere near enough action is being taken to prepare & adapt for the inevitable effects of climate change here in Essex & the UK.

There simply isn't the time to play around with greenwash. With 1.32 billion Chinese, 1.12 billion Indians & 300 million Americans all hell-bent at achieving economic growth through polluting technologies, even if every one of us 60 million Brits reduced our carbon footprints it would be merely a drop in the ocean.

Set an example? To who? Yes, let's continue to push for sustainable lifestyles, but the real work to be done is adapt to survive. No more building new homes on flood plains. More coastal realignment schemes, more renewable power schemes, but most importantly we need some strong direction & leadership at the top. Finally, don't get sucked in by the Carbon Offset mindset - if you want to salve your conscience when you take your next cheap flight, give £20.00 to The Wilderness Foundation instead.

• Give us a couple of top autumn reads that’ll broaden our mind

Jay Griffiths' book 'Wild' will transport you up the Amazon for some amazing encounters with indigenous shamen, while my friend Jon Symes' superb little book 'Your Planet Needs You' is just inspirational - even for a seasoned old cynic like me!

Thanks Graham! - Graham's website can be found here: greenfuturesconsultancy.com/

Last but not least, here are a few further resources:

• RSA Ted Happold Memorial Lecture: Adapting to a changing coastline in East Anglia - Full lecture and Q&A session (21MB) / Lecture text (PDF)
• OU OpenLearn Module: Managing coastal environments (U216_1): "Coastal environments are by their nature ever-changing. This unit looks at the example of the Blackwater Estuary in Essex, England, describing how the current state of the estuary came to be."
• Notes from the 2006 Chelmsford Challenge: 'Environment vs. Development'

Arts & Ecology at the RSA

Just in from our friends at the RSA Library - an item that may be of interest...

"The RSA Arts & Ecology project , a programme supporting the work of the arts in examining and addressing environmental concerns in an international arena, is holding a conference in December 2006 entitled "No way back". Providing different perspectives on ecological issues from major thinkers of our time, and timed to coincide with the new project publication Land, art: a cultural ecology handbook." - Full story here...

Click here to access previous RSA related postings from the Wilderness Foundation.

Round up of local developments

The Wilderness Foundation UK office is based out of Chelmsford and we have previously reported on some of the activities we get involved with in our area such as the RSA Coffeehouse Challenge on Environment vs. Development where our director, Jo Roberts took part in a discussion with principals from Essex County Council - Planning, Chelmsford Environment Partnership, Countryside Properties PLC and Grahamgame.com.

One of the people who also took part in that event were Stephen Robinson, the local 2005 Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate, who in addition to blogging on local issues here: http://chelmsford-stephenrobinson.blogspot.com/ has now also kicked off a new initiative. In his own words:

"I have put together the Greener Chelmsford website as a single place to list ideas to make our town more sustainable."

The Wilderness Foundation, whilst carrying no political affiliation, applauds this initiative.

We also learnt through Stephen that the next Chelmsford Green Drinks is this Thursday, 9th November. It is an occasional get-together for the environmentally minded. Read more here.