The ALDEBARAN Caribbean tour - following the traces of climate change
The Expedition
As part of the "Small Island Awareness Campaign", the media and research ship ALDEBARAN wishes to call attention to the alarming situation of small Caribbean island states and their maritime environment, supported locally by many local, national, and international organisations and scientists. The ship will visit selected SIDS ("Small Island Developing States”) and AOSIS ("Alliance of Small Island States") member states such as Cuba, Belize and Bahamas in winter 2006/2007 in order to document already visible effects and possible future scenarios of proceeding climate changes.
According to current calculations of the Max Planck Institute for meteorology in Hamburg, a global rise in temperature of about four degrees Celsius, an increase of mean sea level up to 30 cm, as well as immense accumulations of extreme weather incidents are the consequences of the most dramatic change of global climate this century.
Information on the predicted increase of extreme storm incidents and flood disasters is available to governments worldwide in the "Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)" report. The small island states and low-lying coastal regions whose concerns are the main focus of the ALDEBARAN expedition are especially endangered.
The effects of global climate change will be documented directly on board and made available to a wider audience with various up-to-date features produced for TV, radio and internet. Thanks to its extensive scientific and media equipment, the ALDEBARAN offers the best conditions possible for an impressive and comprehensible documentation of the concerns of these islands. State of the art technology and equipment for research and live broadcasting are provided on board the ALDEBARAN.
Expeditions
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Main topics of the Caribbean expedition "Sinking Paradise" are the south of Cuba, the scarcely accessible mangrove swamps and the second largest barrier reef in the world off the coast of Belize. On the return journey to Europe there is a further stopover planned on the Bahamas.
Background: Climate Change
As the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) will state in its 2007 report, the global climate is changing faster than ever before in the next few years. The climate change will result in a slow increase of sea level - the mean water level might rise up to 88cm worldwide in the next hundred years. Low-lying islands and coasts are most vulnerable to the effects of global warming and natural disasters, which can additionally be amplified by certain socio-economic, ecological, or structural weaknesses.
About 40 of the states classified by the UN as "Small Island Developing States" (SIDS) collaborate in the panel AOSIS in order to design strategies to support sustainable development and to countervail the direct threats to their region, i.e. global warming, tropical storms, pollution, or coral death.
The Caribbean has a magical appeal for a great deal of people, but undoubtedly this paradise is endangered: Should the sea level continue to rise in the next years, many islands would be threatened by serious flooding – the Caribbean could change into a "Sinking Paradise" way too soon!
Timetable:
01.09. - 02.10.2006 Hamburg > Lisbon / Portugal
03.10. - 06.10.2006 Lisbon stopover
06.10. - 19.10.2006 Lisbon > Gran Canaria
21.10. - 28.10.2006 CANARIES
29.10. - 08.11.2006 Gran Canaria > Sal / Cape Verde
09.11. - 15.11.2006 CAPE VERDE (Sal, Sao Vicente)
16.11. - 09.12.2006 Sao Vicente > St. Martin (Netherlands Antilles)
10.12. - 13.12.2006 St. Martin stopover
14.12. - 22.12.2006 Antillen > Santo Domingo / Dominican Republic
30.12. - 12.01.2007 Santo Domingo > Santiago de Cuba > Isla de la Juventud
13.01. - 25.01.2007 CUBA (Isla de la Juventud, south coast)
26.01. - 01.02.2007 Cuba South Coast -> Cancun / Mexico
02.02. - 26.02.2007 BELIZE (Cancun > Belize City & Coast)
27.02. - 02.03.2007 Cancun stopover
03.03. - 25.03.2007 BELIZE 2 (Cancun > Carrie Bow Cay)
26.03. - 01.04.2007 Cancun > Havana / Cuba
02.04. - 04.04.2007 Havana stopover
04.04. - 07.04.2007 Havana > Bahamas
08.04. - 14.04.2007 BAHAMAS
15.04. - 24.04.2007 Bahamas > Bermudas
25.04. - 27.04.2007 Bermuda stopover
28.04. - 30.05.2007 Bermudas > Benalmadena/Malaga
31.05. - 03.06.2007 Malaga stopover
03.06. - 17.06.2007 Benalmadena > Palma > Livorno/Pisa