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You are currently browsing the Environmental Novel: The Haymakers Survey - Our Secret Inheritance weblog archives for the day 09/11/2009.

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Archive for 09/11/2009

Five Minutes to Twelve!

Our readers may recall several mentions in our story to ‘five minutes to twelve’ and the significance of the albatross as a symbolic reminder of hope in a time of environmental challenges.  The 5 to 12 references highlight the Doomsday Clock being moved forward in 2007 by two minutes from 7 to 12 because of the threat posed by climate change.  The clock measures the degree of nuclear, environmental and technological threats to mankind. The closer to midnight the closer to a global disaster.

doomsday-clock-5-to-12.jpg

With all this in mind we have another timely reminder on the need for action as the world awaits the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in December. Put bluntly, Dr Cleo Small, an albatross expert speaking on behalf of the RSPB and Birdlife International has warned that an albatross is killed every FIVE minutes by the fishing industry.  The number of albatrosses on South Georgia has slumped by 50% since the 1960s due to fishing habits yet simple solutions are at hand which reduce the risks of the birds becoming tangled in nets. 

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