Positive futures

   This week the World Bank released a new scientific report that paints a sobering picture of our future if we fail to “Turn Down the Heat” (http://bit.ly/UO5GNq) and put the brakes on climate change. With greenhouse gas emissions still rising, the world is barreling down a path to heat up by 4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. That could trigger cataclysmic changes – extreme heat waves, crop-choking droughts, rising seas and floods affecting hundreds of millions of people.

 

   This isn’t a future any of us wants for our children. The World Bank commissioned the report by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research to help us understand the science and the potential impact of a 4-degree world.

   One conclusion was that the poorest countries and the poorest people are expected to suffer the most. The report foresees inundated coastal cities, increasing risks to food production, water scarcity in many regions, more frequent tropical cyclones, and irreversible loss of biodiversity. Some of the most vulnerable cities are in Mozambique, Madagascar, Mexico, Venezuela, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

 

Via Peter Hoeve

Anyone can change the world but few do so. At Synapse School, our Six Seconds lab school, it is our mission to create those who do, the change makers of our world. This guiding principle strikes at the heart of everything we do there and with the work of Six Seconds. I would like to share with you six basic tenets I think all change makers, young or old, need to have in order to make a real difference in this world. They aren’t ground-breaking or difficult, yet they are rare:

 

Key Concept #1: Only change yourself.

Key Concept #2: Don’t assume; ask.

Key Concept #3: Take risks.

Key Concept #4: Wait before deciding.

Key Concept #5: Know that hard work and character triumph over high-test scores.

Key Concept #6: Remember friends are more important for long life and happiness than any other element.

 

Via Peter Hoeve