In December, 2009 Denmark will host the next big global climate meeting - COP 15. The Danish Government recently launched a new website to support the event. The site is already becoming a great 'one stop shop' for climate information - see www.cop15.dk .
So what is a COP?
In 1990, the United Nations General Assembly started work on a climate change convention. Those endeavors led to 154 countries signing the United Nations Framework Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) at the UN Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Since then, 192 countries including the USA have ratified the convention. Each year, a Conference of the Parties (COP) is held, where the countries which have ratified the convention meet and discuss how the convention’s goals can be implemented in practice. One of the tools, which the parties have agreed upon, is the widely misunderstood and poorly implemented Kyoto Protocol (which has been agreed to by most countries in the world, with the notable exception of the US) which is now up for renegotiation.
The goal of the climate change convention is to stabilize the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at a level that prevents dangerous man-made climate changes.
According to the UNFCCC, "this stabilization must occur in such a way as to give ecosystems the opportunity to adapt naturally. This means that food safety must not be compromised, and that the potential to create sustainable social and economic development must not be endangered". These are tough criteria that may not be achievable without a major change in the way the world does business - at the very least I believe that we must start accounting for every ton of carbon emitted and price that appropriately!
Why is COP15 Important?
COPs establish the rules by which all countries should play their part in a coordinated global response to climate change. No one country is responsible for climate change (CC) and no one country can solve the problems of CC. A truly global effort is required, far beyond what we have previously achieved in dealing with issues such as ozone depletion! CC is happening so fast and with such dramatic consequences for us all that we can't afford to delay action - hence the expectation that COP15 will deliver a meaningful post Kyoto global action plan! In my mind, this could be the most important meeting of the millenium.
What can you do?
We'll be highlighting individual and community-level climate change response options during the upcoming ASLC CC literacy training (March 18th) to be led by Deborah Williams. I encourage you to read up on those topics before that training and to stay engaged as COP15 takes shapes.
What might the ASLC do?
Many of you have already heard my various ideas to both reduce our own carbon footprint and help Alaska make the transition to a new arctic climate regime - we are pressing ahead with an expanded set of climate change research and education projects. I believe that our research, conservation, education and rehabilitation work can help inform and support implementation of the work that will be done in Denmark at COP15, but I'd welcome your thoughts on specifics...
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Making the ASLC Experience Better for Non-English Speakers
One thing that struck me during my first visit to the SeaLife Center was the impressive signage. For a relatively compact education space, there is a lot of information and lots of opportunities to learn at levels that are appropriate to different ages. It’s one of my simpler pleasures watching 2-3 generations of visitors looking at an exhibit and all learning something unique to their interests!
However, having spent a lot of my life living in countries where English is not the main language, I often wonder how well facilities such as ours inform people who don’t speak or read English. I had the chance a month ago to test that question. I was here one weekend and a Malaysian family happened to be discovering the touch tanks. The interpretation staff were doing their usual terrific job explaining and demonstrating the various animals in the tanks (ther animals “speak for themselves” to some extent), but something seemed to be missing. So I spoke to the family in bahasa Malay (which is very similar to bahasa Indonesian, a language I learned over many years) and soon discovered that the children were interpreting to the parents and the parent felt a little uncomfortable with that ‘role reversal’. They were appreciative when I was able to share with them some more information about the ASLC that the children had not yet received and so could communicate that with their kids and restore their parental guidance role!!
That exchange made me curious about how multilingual we are and so I asked Dawn Kimberlin to survey the staff and so far she has discovered that between us we cover the following 12 languages (to varying levels – for example -今私の悪い日本語を話す – you can reverse translate that on Google):
Japanese, Russian, German, Spanish, Danish, Finnish, French, bahasa Indonesia/Malay, Javanese, Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea) and Korean (via a family connection).
That’s a pretty impressive array of language skills!
And so what might we do with these? I have asked Steve Carrick to work with the marketing and interpretation teams to assess demand and then look at options for brochures and signage in popular languages and perhaps even offer VIP tours with translation? What do you think/ ¿qué te parece?
However, having spent a lot of my life living in countries where English is not the main language, I often wonder how well facilities such as ours inform people who don’t speak or read English. I had the chance a month ago to test that question. I was here one weekend and a Malaysian family happened to be discovering the touch tanks. The interpretation staff were doing their usual terrific job explaining and demonstrating the various animals in the tanks (ther animals “speak for themselves” to some extent), but something seemed to be missing. So I spoke to the family in bahasa Malay (which is very similar to bahasa Indonesian, a language I learned over many years) and soon discovered that the children were interpreting to the parents and the parent felt a little uncomfortable with that ‘role reversal’. They were appreciative when I was able to share with them some more information about the ASLC that the children had not yet received and so could communicate that with their kids and restore their parental guidance role!!
That exchange made me curious about how multilingual we are and so I asked Dawn Kimberlin to survey the staff and so far she has discovered that between us we cover the following 12 languages (to varying levels – for example -今私の悪い日本語を話す – you can reverse translate that on Google):
Japanese, Russian, German, Spanish, Danish, Finnish, French, bahasa Indonesia/Malay, Javanese, Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea) and Korean (via a family connection).
That’s a pretty impressive array of language skills!
And so what might we do with these? I have asked Steve Carrick to work with the marketing and interpretation teams to assess demand and then look at options for brochures and signage in popular languages and perhaps even offer VIP tours with translation? What do you think/ ¿qué te parece?
Monday, February 9, 2009
No Pick and Click, but You can Still Give!
In 2008 a new law was passed that enables Alaskans who receive the Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) to directly allocate some (or all) of that dividend to their favorite Alaska charity in 2009 - some 330 non profits are now registered and eligible which is terrific, particularly given the current state of the national economy and recent declines in philanthropic endowments.
Unfortunately the Alaska SeaLife Center is not eligible to be on that list.
So why can't we pick, click and give to ASLC?
The requirements to participate in this program were set out by the Alaska Legislature in the new law and included provisions such as being a designated 501(c)(3) in AK for at least 2 years. The ASLC meets all of those requirements, except for the provision relating to Board membership - the law requires that the charity must be... "directed by a voluntary board of directors or local advisory board whose members are residents of the state". (see http://www.pickclickgive.org/)
Two of our ASLC Board members are not Alaskan residents - one, who works for an Alaskan corporation and is a regular visitor to AK, is based out of MD and the other is a senior scientist at the Monterey aquarium in CA. Both provide expertise and knowledge which is not readily available in Alaska and also serve to connect us with the larger national marine and education community which is important given the ecosystems we share. We don't think it reasonable nor advantageous to 'drop them' from our Board despite the potential attraction of being eligible for PFD funding.
So I'd ask us all to remember two things when you contemplate your own charitable giving or are discussing charitable giving with your friends and family. First, the ASLC is no less an Alaskan institution by not being on this list - our work benefits Alaskans first and foremost. Second, even though you can't give to us via the PFD online system, our fundraising team is open for business 363 days a year to explain why our work matters, what our priorities are and accepts checks, cash and online donations directly via our website!
Unfortunately the Alaska SeaLife Center is not eligible to be on that list.
So why can't we pick, click and give to ASLC?
The requirements to participate in this program were set out by the Alaska Legislature in the new law and included provisions such as being a designated 501(c)(3) in AK for at least 2 years. The ASLC meets all of those requirements, except for the provision relating to Board membership - the law requires that the charity must be... "directed by a voluntary board of directors or local advisory board whose members are residents of the state". (see http://www.pickclickgive.org/)
Two of our ASLC Board members are not Alaskan residents - one, who works for an Alaskan corporation and is a regular visitor to AK, is based out of MD and the other is a senior scientist at the Monterey aquarium in CA. Both provide expertise and knowledge which is not readily available in Alaska and also serve to connect us with the larger national marine and education community which is important given the ecosystems we share. We don't think it reasonable nor advantageous to 'drop them' from our Board despite the potential attraction of being eligible for PFD funding.
So I'd ask us all to remember two things when you contemplate your own charitable giving or are discussing charitable giving with your friends and family. First, the ASLC is no less an Alaskan institution by not being on this list - our work benefits Alaskans first and foremost. Second, even though you can't give to us via the PFD online system, our fundraising team is open for business 363 days a year to explain why our work matters, what our priorities are and accepts checks, cash and online donations directly via our website!
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