Record-breaking Alps postcard sends message against climate change

A massive collage of 125,000 drawings and messages from children around the world about climate change was rolled out on a shrinking Swiss glacier Friday, smashing the world record for giant postcards.

The mosaic of postcards, measuring 2,500 square metres (26,910 square feet), was laid out in the snow on the Aletsch glacier in the Swiss Alps, at an altitude of 3,400 metres (11,200 feet).

The event aims to "boost a global youth climate movement ahead of the next global climate conference (COP24) in Poland", next month, said the WAVE foundation, which organised the event in cooperation with Swiss authorities.

The display easily set the Guinness world record for the number of postcards strung together in a single image, beating the last record held by a collage of 16,000 individual postcards, WAVE said.

The individual postcards feature children's drawings in different colours and hues of white, which together spell out the messages: "STOP GLOBAL WARMING", "WE ARE THE FUTURE GIVE US A CHANCE" and "#1.5C".

The last message refers to the maximum level of global warming that scientists say should be aimed for if the planet is to remain liveable.

However, a UN climate report last month warned that drastic action was needed to prevent Earth from hurtling towards a far sharper rise in temperature.

The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) said the globe's surface has already warmed one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels -- enough to lift oceans and unleash a crescendo of deadly storms, floods and droughts -- and without action is on track toward an unbearable 3C or 4C rise.

"Children and young people have a key role to play if (the 1.5C) goal is to be achieved, both as generations that will suffer from the consequences of climate change for a long time and as a force for concrete action," the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) said in a statement.

To commemorate the Guinness world record, "a postcard will be designed and printed to dispatch the young people's words to the four corners of the globe," SDC said. It said some of the postcards would be sent from the world's highest postbox on the Jungfraujoch peak, which overlooks the Aletsch glacier, to participants in the COP24.

Related Links
Climate Science News - Modeling, Mitigation Adaptation

Tweet

Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.

SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly

paypal only

SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once

credit card or paypal

Climate control of Earth's critical zone
Boulder CO (SPX) Nov 16, 2018
We know less about the ground beneath our feet than we do about the surface of Mars, but new research by University of Colorado Boulder geoscientists shines a light on this hidden world from ridgetops to valley floors and shows how rainfall shapes the part of our planet that is just beyond where we can see. Earth is popularly known as the "third rock from the sun," yet hard rock is rare at the ground surface. Scientists have dubbed the vegetation, soil and water-storing debris that hides Earth's r ... read more