Students on Ice, Day 10: We are family

A few hesitant hands went up. Eric showed us the numbers that answered his question: of 928 scientific, peer-reviewed articles, 0 percent disputed the man-made causes of climate change. But he also showed us the same results for the popular press: of 636 articles, 53 percent expressed doubt about the causes.
We’re sailing across the Labrador Sea today, and although we still have about a week left on our voyage, we’re reflecting on what we’ve learned, and how to communicate the need to take action when we return home. It’s a huge challenge, with public perception so widely diverging from what scientists know.

(c) WWF-Canada/Sara Falconer
My fabulous roommate, ecologist Paige Olmsted, echoed Eric’s concerns. In a recent UK study, more than half of the respondents thought that “biodiversity” was a type of detergent.  Meanwhile, we are losing species at a rate up to 100 times higher than the natural rate of extinction, as WWF’s Living Planet Report shows. Biodiversity impacts every living thing on Earth, and even though we are responsible for threatening it, many people don’t even know what it is.
It’s alarming, but not hopeless. The young environmental leaders on board our expedition can help end climate change and protect biodiversity. Later this year, Students on Ice will send a delegation to the Rio +20 talks. It’s an important step in building a future in which humans thrive with nature – after all, as Paige points out, we’re all in this together.