Thailand´s capital is gleaming. Not just because of the smiling people in the streets, but especially for the week-long  birthday celebrations in honor of Bhumibol Adulyadej, the country’s king who turned 85 last Monday. A day before his birthday, the flood in Inner Bangkok was officially pronounced over. The city’s governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra declared that the situation in eleven districts had eased and that locals could return to their homes.

Since Monday the inhabitants are celebrating, the Grand Temple and the ministries are sparkling with fairy lights, and it appears that cleaning brigades are constantly out and about to sweep the streets – at least you can´t find any litter anywhere.

Well, at first sight. Only a few meters away from the celebrations you stumble into another side of Bangkok – its grungy one. The city’s canals, like this one near the Great Palace, are nothing to celebrate about. You literally have to hold your nose when the stinky grime – including dead fish, plastic bottles and sewage – passes you by. But it doesn’t stop there: The smelly mix continues on its way into the Mae Nam Chao Phraya, the river flowing through the city – and pollutes the environment.

The Climate Reality Project, founded and chaired by former US Vice President Al Gore, will host a 24-hour event beginning on September 14 in what the organizers hope will mobilize the world to confront the reality of the climate crisis. 24 Hours of Reality will take place around the world from Pakistan to Cape Verde, and from Indonesia to Alaska.

“Extreme droughts, terrible storms, and larger floods are devastating many parts of the world,” said Gore. “Today, climate change is no longer a prediction: It’s a reality. Yet around the world, we are still subjected to polluter-financed misinformation and propaganda designed to mislead people about the dangers we face from the unfolding climate crisis.”

The former Vice President added: “The time to face reality is now. 24 Hours of Reality will bridge oceans and cultures — in every time zone — to bring the world together to emphasize the truth about the climate crisis and how we can solve it.”

24 Hours of Reality will be presented in 13 languages, with one presentation for each time zone. At 7 p.m. local time during each of the 24 Hours of Reality, a citizen activist will connect the dots between extreme weather and a warming climate, highlighting both the impacts of climate change and the inspiring solutions emerging in each time zone around the world. These local presentations will be interlaced with a studio presentation from New York City, featuring videos, live interviews and more.

The event will begin in Mexico City on September 14 at 7 p.m. Central Time, move westward around the globe, and conclude with a presentation in New York City by former Vice President Gore on September 15 at 7 p.m. Eastern Time.

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These pictures have been made during a 7-day Training programme in arctic ice. During the excursion participants learned about polar climate-related issues and, at the same time, they saw the amazing  beauty of the polar Arctic region.
The aim of this project was to raise awareness of the dramatic climate change impacts in the Arctic on an environmental, geo-political and socio-cultural level. Twenty young people from across Europe and Canada who are active in climate change projects participated on the training event.
The project was organized by the British Council and facilitated by the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme).

For more online informations visit the British Council’s Zero Carbon Centre, the Youth in Action programme and the event’s blog.

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We’ve got another study to share with you, but this time it’s a new report from Transparency International. The watchdog organization released its ‘Global Corruption: Climate Change’ report on Saturday and they had an important message: don’t let corruption get in the way of addressing climate change.

According to Transparency International, several countries need better oversight when it comes to climate projects to make sure funds are used the right way. And that’s especially important now because experts say we’re likely to see $700 billion devoted to climate change investment by the year 2020. The report also showed that the carbon trading markets and forestry industry are especially prone to corruption.

Tell us a little more about your country–do you think climate change funds are being used appropriately?

The COP16 climate talks in Cancun have entered the final stretch, but the prospect that the conference will conclude with a substantial agreement is more remote than ever. Generelly there's a sense among participants that there's increasing urgency to the issue of climate change – and a degree of astonishment at the declining importance of the topic in the media and in public perception – no matter if it's in the US or across the pond.

Among those, that are most vociferously campaining for rapid action on climate change is 350.org, a global network of pressure groups and NGOs. We talked to 350.org's Mexico coordinator Marcelo Quintanilla, who believes that there's been too much talk but that  the Cancun conference nevertheless offers a big chance for change.

Second, there's Dave Jones who works to "raise the environmental IQ of America" – the chosen tagline of his science-based communications agency StormCenter – dedicated to driving the urgency of climate change home to a US public increasingly unfazed by the issue. At the Cancun climate talks he runs a multimedia display in the US pavilion to educate visitors about the impact of climate change. Just two findings are: The oceans have measurably warmed down to depths of 300 meters and storms won't necessarily become more frequent but very much more destructive, he says.