c. Janet Driver All the recent news about the IPCC report has prompted me to show you more photos of my stained glass window on Climate Change. Thinking back now to when it was commissioned a few years ago, it seems amazing how much of what this window predicted has already come true [from the Boxing- Day Tsunami to all the recent wild fires & flooding] and yet we are so slow in responding to this crisis ! A fter all the protests, why is our government so slow ? Why are we still subsidising fossil fuel companies instead of switching to green options? The really good news is that scientists have been beavering away & working on the technologies necessary for us to move forward...we can do this... if only we get going quickly... so what is holding us back??

if you wouldlike to see more on this, please access the web-page format, then scroll down the headings on the right hand side & click on "climate change"...

Friday June 5th : World Environment Day

stained & etched glass ready for window below c. janet driver

climate change window commissioned by the School of Life Sciences, Whitelands College  & made by Janet Driver 1998/9

This year the 45th United Nations World Environment Day is seeking to raise awareness of biodiversity issues worldwide... 

at the same time thousands of people are petitioning the UK government to prioritise green initiatives when it plans to kickstart the economy after the Covid 19 lockdown... 

and this all reminded me of how my research for this climate change window raised my own awareness... 

and just how many of the scenarios we then envisaged “some time in the future” have actually happened much earlier...during the last 20 years...

what can you see in that window ?

...a large part of it foretold the tsunami... & continual problems with flooding...immigration... terrific wild fires so recently in Australia... & far more...

45 years...20 years...    can the next 5 years after this pandemic make all the difference ...?

African Mirage, glass panel c Janet Driver

Climate Change

Climate Change Window

designed & made by Janet Driver in the 1990s

It must be nearly seventeen years since I was designing & making this stained glass window commissioned by the School of Life Sciences at Whitelands College, now part of Roehampton University, London.

In the 1990s Climate Change was already firmly on the agenda of the Environmental Studies Courses, and so my design includes visual predictions of increased volcanic activity, displacement of large numbers of people, tsunamis & rising sea-levels, to name just a few of the abstract images.

Even as far back as 1970s I remember discussing possibilities of alternative energy with university students; concerned young people, who realised it wasn't only a matter of curbing lead in fuel emissions, but how vital it is for the future that we move right away from fossil fuels...

... something the Guardian is now re-emphasizing with its 

 "KEEP IT IN THE GROUND" 

CAMPAIGN 

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/series/keep-it-in-the-ground

We were actively aware of the need for action on climate change at least thirty or forty years ago... how slow we humans are to adapt and take the necessary steps so vitally needed to prevent catastrophe.

Even just in the 15+ years since I made this climate change window, many of these predictions have become alarmingly true:

 first the tsunami that shocked us ten years ago,

& since then earthquakes have devastated Haiti, Japan & now Nepal...
rising sea levels still threaten the Maldives... & floods have become much more frequent worldwide...
...& then last week I heard on the TV News that the current conflict in Syria was sparked off through climate change causing fighting among farming families which escalated...

... a wake up call we dare not ignore!

and if you are still unsure, I came across an excellent book, written by an eminent Climate Scientist,
& highly readable...I mean if you are a non-scientist, like me...
 

In the Eye of the Storm: Sir John Houghton

                            ....we have just a short window of opportunity ...