The second day of the ICLS European Seminar was dedicated to the investigation of the effects of Climate Change with factual presentations delivered by Shiloh Fetzek, Research Associate and Co-coordinator for Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI), and active workshops led by Heather Blakey from the International Centre for Participation Studies.

Here are a few of the worrying facts and predictions:

· There will be more intense storms due to a rise in sea temperature – think of Hurricane Catrina.

· Heat waves in Europe in 2003 in which many people died

· 1/5 world’s population lives within 10km of the coast – sea levels rising will affect these people, as well as the economic infrastructure in these areas

The key issue here is around resiliency. The deaths across Europe because of the heatwave in 2003 and the devastating effects of Hurricane Catrina, as well as the flooding in the UK last summer (whether or not this is climate change related) reveal our need to be able to cope not just with extreme weather events, but also with unpredictable weather.

There are also global implications for security and instability:

· Access to water and food security

· Population movements , what are beginning to be called environmental refugees – 1 billion by 2050 according to Christian Aid

· Health – as temperatures rise, malaria spreads to higher altitudes and moves north, it could start to become a problem in Southern Spain.

A striking comment from the President of Uganda:

“Greenhouse gases are an act of aggression against the developing world”

There is a definite imbalance between the carbon dioxide that developing countries emit (minimal) and the effects of climate change they will see (devastating).

Despite the gloomy details, there is hope. We have a choice. We can either squabble over resources – for example, the potential row with Russia over their attempt to claim the Arctic for its fossil fuel reserves, or, we can co-operate, we can assist developing nations to ‘leap-frog’ over the dirty stage of development and move directly to clean technologies. Not only will this help keep carbon emissions in check, but also education and development are ways to help manage population growth, another hot topic at the moment. The world population is currently at 6.5billion, and will rise to 9billion by 2050.

This evidence reinforces the importance of:

• acting out of hope rather than fear
• continuing the building of peace through developing intercultural understanding
• striving for social, economic and environmental justice
• active citizenship, holding the government to account and not being complacent about living in a democracy