Hello.

At OWW we would like to thank you for funding us either through a regular donation or by making an adoption. You give us the power to invest in carefully chosen projects around the world.

Your donation has been timely: doubts about man-made climate change are almost deafening. The thought for this Newsletter’s debate is:

• How will it affect you directly? 
• Do you think about it?
• Do you care?

The climate is changing: we prove it with scientific investigation and see it with our eyes. The reduction of the Arctic's sea ice coverage year on year is frightening, and is damaging the ecosystem, already fragile due to illegal fishing, oil and gas development and shipping. It is not just the heart-rending decline of species like the polar bear, the musk ox and many species of birds, but the irretrievable impact on the earth’s climate. The situation is cascading out of control because open water absorbs more of the sun’s heat than ice does, raising its temperature, resulting in more ice melting. It is self-perpetuating. The life of polar bears is a stark reminder of how fragile the situation is, being stranded on ice floes isolated from seals and other prey, they are starving to death.

The National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) reports that temperatures in parts of the Arctic have increased by 7 degrees Centigrade. Bad news for the re-freezing of the Ocean, and further exacerbating the release of a substance which is 20 times more powerful and harmful to climate change than carbon dioxide - methane gas - stored in the permafrost.

And, for people who worry only about themselves, take heed: the melting pole means the diluted seawater could result in the Gulf Stream switching off with temperatures plummeting to Siberian levels – in the UK, Ireland, Norway, France, etc. The pump of the Gulf Stream is in the freezing waters of the Greenland Sea. Normally, as the seawater freezes the remaining water becomes denser with a higher salt content, sinking to the ocean bed and travelling to the South Pole, pulling the warm tropical seawater northwards. As the freezing lessens the salt becomes diluted ending the cycle, and with it the warmth from the tropics and our precious Gulf Stream.

The frustrating thing is that the only political party that is taking this seriously and beyond the realms of political ambition is the Green Party.

We would love to hear what you have to say on this matter. Go on, make your comments below!