HOST: Greetings, eco-friendly viewers to today’s episode of Planet
Earth: Our Loving Home featuring Finnish geophysicist and environmental
advocate Veli Albert Kallio. Mr. Kallio has long dedicated himself to
protecting marine and terrestrial ice in the Northern polar region.
In
2005 he launched the Frozen Isthmuses Protection Campaign of the Arctic
and North Atlantic Oceans (FIPC) and led an international movement to
regulate ice-reducing shipping practices. He is also a scientific
ambassador of the Environmental Parliament, a UK-based community
environmental action group.
Recently subglacial volcanic
eruptions, or those eruptions occurring below a glacier, have been
occurring with increasing frequency with the acceleration of climate
change.
For example, on March 20, 2010 Iceland’s
Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted, and on April 14, 2010 a second
eruption occurred, scattering volcanic ash into the atmosphere and
closing airspace across Europe.
In Iceland, glaciers and ice
caps cover 11.1% of the land mass, most of which is located above
volcanoes. From April 20 to 22, 2010, the World People’s Conference on
Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth was held in Cochabamba,
Bolivia.
More than 35,000 people from 140 countries,
representing indigenous peoples, various social and environmental
organizations and concerned citizens gathered to discuss solutions to
global warming.
The final product of the discussions, “The
People’s Agreement of Cochabamba” which outlines a new vision to address
climate change was presented by Bolivia to the United Nations.