Climate Change Activists are people who take action to fight Climate Change. Our action is not to march or to agitate but rather to plant trees.
(MOTTO: We don’t march, we plant trees)
The sun warms our planet. Then, when the planet is warm, it radiates some heat energy back into space. 
Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere absorbs some of the escaping heat, acting like a warming blanket.
For life to thrive on Earth there needs to be a balance. This is provided naturally by the carbon cycle:
- When there is an excess of carbon dioxide there is more photosynthesis in plants, and the plants grow larger and store more carbon in the soil. This reduces the amount of carbon dioxide in the air and so less energy is prevented from escaping. The planet cools.
- When there is too little carbon dioxide, plants do not do so well and less carbon is stored. This leaves more carbon dioxide in the air so more energy is prevented from escaping. The planet warms.
In this way, balance is maintained.
For the last 800,000 years, up to 1900, the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere has varied between 200 ppm (parts per million) and 300 ppm.
In the mid 1800s Man began to burn fossil fuels in large volumes. Fossil fuels are basically coal, gas and oil. Burning fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide. We have burnt a lot of fossil fuels and added so much carbon dioxide that there is today 417ppm of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This has put the system way out of balance. Trees today are 30% larger than 200 years ago. This would cool the planet, but we are still burning fossil fuels. The level is still going up. The excess carbon dioxide is storing more and more heat energy.
This is why to stop runaway climate change we must (1) STOP BURNING FOSSIL FUELS.
But that is not enough. Even if we managed to stop burning fossil fuels today, there is already so much carbon dioxide up there that combined with tipping points, it will finish us off if we don’t do something about it. Therefore, we must (2) PLANT TREES to draw the excess carbon dioxide down.
The effects of doing nothing are difficult to quantify. Left unchecked, climate change would cause much more severe weather events (wildfires, storms, tornadoes, storm surges, floods and heatwaves), which would kill many people and make large areas of the planet uninhabitable. For those who remain, not only would there be less habitable land, but there would be intense competition for the much-reduced food supply and for fresh water. In such circumstances, intense civil unrest would reduce the level of civilisation in societies, probably drastically.
It was hoped that CoP26 would be the Governments of the World agreeing to sort out (1) STOP BURNING FOSSIL FUELS, but there is still not the political will to do that. It is now hoped that (2) PLANTING TREES will help convince politicians that (1) STOP BURNING FOSSIL FUELS is what the people want.
At an increase of 1.5°C:
- The Greenland Ice Sheet melts – raising sea level by 7.5m,
- The West Antarctic Ice Sheet melts – raising sea level by 3m,
- The Permafrost melts releasing 7.5 trillion tons of carbon – increasing the rate of climate change, and
- Coral reefs die – fish stocks crash, removing the food supply for a billion people.
We are currently on course for an increase of 2.5°C. If that happens:
- We lose Arctic sea ice,
- We lose mountain glaciers, and
- The West African monsoon is disrupted.
Since 1990 we have dumped more CO2 into the atmosphere than all the CO2 we have dumped before.
30M people were displaced by climate change in 2020.
At current rates, by 2070, 18% of the planet, home to 3B people, will be uninhabitable.
HOPE COMES FROM ACTION
IF WE ACT, THEN THERE IS HOPE
Sir David Attenborough (on fighting climate change):
The best that an individual can do is to plant trees
COME TO A PLANTING SESSION
Planting trees helps sequester carbon and convince politicians that we are serious about wanting to stop burning fossil fuels.
Our MP, Dr Andrew Murrison, came to our planting day in March 2022. If he can, you can 🙂 There is something for everyone to do – if you can hold the end of a piece of measuring string,, this is for you!
If you give us your email on our Contact Us page, and ask us to notify you when we are going to have a planting day, we will let you know when they are going to run.
To see what is involved in a planting day, click here
THE VISION
The vision is a national response to Climate Change that will inspire the world. We need many millions of trees to draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The situation is severe. According to Sir David Attenborough, we are facing our greatest threat in thousands of years. Sir David goes on to say that the best that the individual can do is to plant trees.
We need a response at the same level shown in World War 2. In World War 2 we only stood to loose our freedom. The threat from Climate Change is so great that we will loose not only our freedom, but much of our food and way of life. We need gardeners to grow saplings from seed, land owners to allow us to plant and planters to plant the saplings.
Our children and grandchildren are relying on us. If we don’t stop burning fossil fuels and start drawing down more carbon, they will live in a terrible world.
This website is called Climate Change Activists because it is for those who will become active in fighting climate change.
We also support The Queen’s Green Canopy. Her majesty was quite vocal that we all need to get on with addressing climate change.
The best way to plant trees is in a planting group. Working together we are much more productive. But if you can’t, then the below might help:
(Click on any of the four items above for more information)
LINKS
- Find out why Sir David Attenborough said that planting trees is the best thing we can do to help, click here.
- You can also help by getting to know the science – see our Science menu option – and then discussing it with others.
- Read what Greta says here.
- If you are involved with planting trees in towns or cities, you can access Forest Research’s Urban Tree Manual from here.
The original vision was that others would see what we were doing and say “Hey, I want to do that!” So, if you feel the call, go for it. Start your own planting group. There is basic advice here, and you can always email Chris at info@climatechangeactivists.org
You can volunteer via the Contact Us menu option.
Finding land is the most difficult part. If you know land owners, talk to them about letting us come and plant to create beautiful wooded walks. Then let us know!
Click on the tree icon below to visit our Facebook page
Links:
2022 Extreme Climate Events
- Heat dome over North America cooked fruit on the trees and roasted shellfish on the rocks.
- Wildfires in Australia and California.
- Heatwaves in the Arctic and Antarctica.
- Floods in Europe, China and South Africa.
The number of wildfires in England and Wales in 2022 had exceeded the number for the whole of 2021 by the end of April. (National Fire Chief).
Climate change models predict that as climate change bites harder, there will be an increased frequency of more extreme weather events. UK towns and cities have ben hit by flash flooding 51 times since 2007.
In March, the north and south poles had record temperatures.
In May in Delhi, it hit 49°C.
In June in Madrid, it hit 40°C.
General
- Climate change means spring is now happening on average 8.4 days earlier. This is catastrophic for blue tit chicks, who hatch later than the caterpillars they feed on. Woodland Trust.
Recent Climate Change Events
WILDFIRES
* The largest wildfires ever recorded in the US states of California and Colorado.
* The “black summer” of fires in E Australia.
* Air temperatures of 38°C within the Arctic Circle, accelerating the melting of sea ice and delaying the Arctic freeze by almost two months.
* Land temperatures of 45°C in the Arctic Circle, accelerating the thawing of permafrost causing the release of carbon dioxide and methane (both greenhouse gasses).
STORMS
* Storm Christoph: one month’s rain in two days.
* Tropical Storm Fred: devastating floods in SE USA.
* Hurricane Grace intensified to a Category 3 major hurricane.
* Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana at Category 4 and caused catastrophic flooding across the NE USA.
* Hurricane Larry peaked as a Category 3 hurricane, striking Newfoundland.
STORM SURGE
Storm Ian caused a storm surge of 3.6m in Florida and then dropped 30cm of rain over a wide area. A storm surge is a high-speed wind pushing water towards the coast over a long stretch. This causes water to pile up above the normal tidal level. When the high water reaches land, it floods the coastal areas, and because it is higher than the rivers emptying at the coast, the salt-water flows up the already full rivers and bursts their banks. Salt-water wrecks farmland.
FLOODS
* Flash floods in the UK
* Floods in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Romania and Switzerland.
* July and August saw many floods occurring at similar times, with flooding also occurring in Turkey, China, India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, USA and New Zealand.
HEATWAVES
* 2021 saw the hottest (or joint hottest) October days in recorded history for Iran (46°C), Morocco (43°C), China (39°C) and S. Korea (32°C).
2015-2021 the hottest 7 years on record – see YouTube video here
Global warming is turning landscapes into “tinderboxes”, according to a new United Nations report warning wildfires are expected to happen more often and become more intense when they do.
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