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Ocean Health

Climate Change Voices

In the last 18 months I have traveled through five continents reporting about research on, and impacts of, climate change. In Europe I reported on the heatwave of 2003, which scientists say was made more likely by Earth's rising temperatures. I interviewed researchers who predict more and warmer extreme heat events in the coming decades. In India and Bangladesh I reported on the impacts and possible responses to rising sea levels caused by melting glaciers and warming sea water.

Interviews in Copenhagen

In the last 18 months I have traveled through five continents reporting about research on, and impacts of, climate change. In Europe I reported on the heatwave of 2003, which scientists say was made more likely by Earth's rising temperatures. I interviewed researchers who predict more and warmer extreme heat events in the coming decades. In India and Bangladesh I reported on the impacts and possible responses to rising sea levels caused by melting glaciers and warming sea water.

Conversations from Copenhagen

For two weeks Copenhagen was the world capital of climate science and policy. Journalist Dan Grossman spoke with many climate science and policy experts. The blog posts that follow about his conversations—containing text, photos and videos—tell part of the story of who was there and what they said. Read excerpts below.

Copenhagen: Reports from COP15

"Copenhagen: Reports from COP15" is a gateway to stories from Pulitzer Center-sponsored journalists working from the ground in Denmark to cover the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.

This December, the Conference of the Parties (COP) is meeting with the challenge of instituting a new global climate change agreement to take over after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. Join these five reporting teams in Copenhagen as they report on the difficulties and triumphs of crafting an agreement with global ramifications.

Off to a Running Start

The Copenhagen Conference, where I arrived today, is hard to describe, because so much is happening here and the stakes of this climate negotiation are so high. Outside, a persistent crowd of protesters chanted environmental slogans. Two young Asian woman strutted in chicken suits. Many others men and women of all different races and nationalities waved placards and signs. A bus-size screen showed environmental movies. (Look at my video of one activist promoting vegetarian eating to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas produced.

Bangladesh Reels from the Impact of Climate Change

Last year, rising tides destroyed more than 300 schools in Bangladesh leaving children with no place to learn. In response to the worsening floods, social entrepreneur Mohammed Rezwan created 28 "school boats" to bring school to Bangladeshi children. Rezwan, NGOs and governments in poorer countries are trying to address the impacts of climate change now.

Bangladeshi Presence Strong as COP15 Gets Under Way

As the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change began today, a group of leading Bangladeshi members of parliament and internationally renowned climate change experts held a press conference in Copenhagen's Bella Center to raise awareness of their country's vulnerability to global warming, and its readiness to put adaptation funding to immediate use.

COP15 Struggles to Handle the Crush

Overwhelming global interest in COP15 ("Convention of Parties") led to a few glitches as conference attendees descended on Copenhagen over the weekend of Dec. 5-6. On Dec. 1 the organizers announced they were no longer accepting applications from media to attend, having already reached a maximum of 5,000 (later it was announced this was cut to 3500). 34,000 people in all were attempting to participate in the conference, but the Bella Center, a vast, somewhat makeshift conference complex just outside of Copenhagen, has a capacity of 15,000.

Introducing Climate Change Science Blog

The world will be watching Copenhagen between December 7 and 18. The Copenhagen Climate Conference is the most important meeting of climate negotiations since the Kyoto conference in 1997. The Kyoto Accord that came out of that conference expires in 2012. Kyoto, it is widely acknowledged, did not succeed in achieving its goal: reducing carbon dioxide emissions. A new regime is needed. Many scientists say humanity must act very soon lest the impacts of global warming become not merely bad but absolutely catastrophic.

Rising Waters: India's Sunderbans

As global warming melts the world's ice, and heats the oceans, sea level is rising. It could go up 3 feet by the end of the century. Some coastal areas, such as the low-lying coastline off the Bay of Bengal, where the Ganges, Meghna and Brahmaputra Rivers meet the Indian Ocean, is already threatened.

The Slow and Steady Climb

Bangladesh, home to 150 million, is the seventh most populous country in the world, although it's only about the size of Louisiana. Most of Bangladesh is less than 40 feet above sea level. For many months each year more than ten percent of the country's surface area is water. In 1988, and again in 1998, more than half of the country was flooded. With sea level expected to rise up to three feet in this century, an additional ten to twenty percent of Bangladesh could be permanently lost, displacing millions of people and destroying farmlands and fresh water supplies.