Arctica: The Vanishing North by Sebastian Copeland

Sebastian’s new book–Arctica: The Vanishing North  is commercially available in Europe today. The book will be available in the US September 15th, with pre-orders available on Amazon or here

Representing ten years of travel in the Arctic spanning Greenland, Alaska, Northern Canada and Norway, not to speak of the Arctic sea ice on the way to the North Pole, Arctica: The Vanishing North is a visual testament of the far north. Contributors include Sir Richard Branson, who penned the foreword, Mayor Eric Garcetti, Dr. Andrew Weaver, Dr. Ted Scambos both IPCC lead writers, Sheila Watt Cloutier (Inuit Advocate) and Børge Ousland (Norwegian explorer).

Coming at a whopping 7.9 pounds, this volume was made carbon neutral by Climate Partners. Says Sebastian: “I am very proud of this book. It is my most accomplished work. It is a visual tour of a part of the world that hardly anyone has ever witnessed”.

The book is released globally by the TeNeues Publishing, and will be available in international markets from Fall 2015.

You can see a preview here

One small victory at a time. Oil giant Total has warned against Arctic exploitation citing the natural conditions and high risk for a disasters like Deep Horizon. Shell still in the game.

LA finally makes the only responsible choice and bans single use plastic bags. It is just a matter of time for the rest of the nation to follow suit. But when?

There are plastic gyres around the world, floating in the ocean, some exceeding the size of France or Texas in square footage. It is a disgrace.

This is one step in reducing that waste and forging a path towards sustainable living. Well done Los Angeles!

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-plastic-bags-20130618,0,6576624.story

400. That is the symbolic milestone of concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere in parts per million. It is increasing at the rate of 2.5 PPM per year and seems to accelerate. Not in at least one million years has the planet seen such high concentration of carbon dioxide and other heat trapping gases in the atmosphere.
If you wonder what it means, this is the most direct threat to humanity and most living species that have thrived on this planet for the last 65 million years.
We cannot grow in perpetuity in a finite environment. It is time to have less and do more, and do more intelligently with what we have at our disposal.

Read more here: http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/10/us/climate-change/index.html

The Chukchi and Beaufort Seas are temporarily saved from devastating drilling as Shell Oil is postponing its plans again for another year, making this the second consecutive postponement for drilling in the region. This after the coast guard found multiple and potentially disastrous violations of safety protocols, and after one of Shell’s platforms run aground. The decision confirms what scientists and environmentalists alike have been arguing for decades: drilling in the Arctic is unsafe, and too hazardous to risk long term devastation for short term gain. This issue has not gone away, but it is a breath into an ongoing battle for life. The solutions to our problems do not lie at the bottom of the Arctic ocean in its stored reserve of greenhouse creating fossil fuels; they exist in the air that we breath, the sun that reaches us, the oceans and the currents: it is time we commit to recycling the power of nature into our energy needs, and a market transformation to a sustainable future.

http://ens-newswire.com/2013/02/27/shell-oil-cancels-offshore-alaska-drilling-for-2013/