Melting Away

Melting away the 100 days?

Greenpeace China is going big today. 100 ice children will melt in the center of Beijing. Our Indian colleague Vinuta will speak on the spot about the importance of a Chinese – Indian climate alliance. Greenpeace India is going big today as well. The Number 100 in 12feet high letters will melt and drown a world map in the center of Delhi. Our Chinese colleague Li Yan will speak on the spot about the importance of a Chinese – Indian climate alliance. So today it’s all about 100 and about China – India and about melting.

The magic 100

From today on we have just 100 full days left till the start of the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen. Copenhagen is the capital of the small European country Denmark and becomes in December the host of the biggest climate conference ever. All countries meet there and try to agree how to deal with climate change, the biggest threat for mankind in our days. Basically it’s very simple. All countries have to act. The rich countries are much more responsible for the troubles we are in right now, so they have to do much more. That means they have to reduce significantly their Greenhouse Gas emissions. Other countries need also reduce their future emissions but should get financial and technical support to do so. Unfortunately this is not happening. And with just 100 days to go we have no time to waste anymore.

China – India

China and India are the two biggest countries in the world and are catching up in economic terms. So do their Greenhouse Gas emissions. These two countries are important to build up pressure on the rich countries to do their bit and these two countries have the political and technological ability to show the rest of the world the way to get ride of the dependence on coal and oil.

Melting away

How to link China and India. The biggest link between this two countries is the Himalayas. The source of all their big rivers which are the life lines for both countries. All their rivers are sourced by the huge glaciers there and these glaciers are melting away like ice sculptures in the sun. The melting of the glaciers is one of the biggest impacts of climate change and will destroy the livelihood of more than one billion people in Asia.

So a joint Chinese-Indian melting of 100 is a huge outcry to the world. It’s just 100 days to go to Copenhagen and we urgently need a strong agreement there. So “World leader – Act now!”