Five Chinese sculptors have shaped 100 child-sized ice sculptures to be on display in Beijing as a start to the 100-day countdown until the Copenhagen Climate Summit begins in 100 days. Together with Greenpeace Southeast Asia, this exhibit marks the start of a new campaign—TckTckTck—which is working to shine the spotlight on the importance of action to slow climate change. In particular, it hopes to raise awareness about the environmental injustice that is climate change.

The Tipping Point in the Himalayas

The effects of climate change are being felt around the world due to the burning of fossil fuels and destruction of the world’s forests, but as a general rule the impact of this potentially catastrophic environmental shift will be felt most acutely in developing nations. The people living in the Himalayas perhaps will be some of the first to experience the devastating effects of climate change.

That’s because the Himalayan glaciers are melting faster than originally thought. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has speculated that these glaciers could shrink by as much as 80 percent by the end of our century, the consequences of which will be disastrous for people living in China and India. Experts are predicting that as many as 1.3 billion Asians who live in the shadows of the Himalayas and the rivers that flow in that region will be without water unless something is done to slow climate change.

Activists are urging global leaders attending the Copenhagan Climate Summit to set ambitious goals to reverse the effects of this environmental nightmare. Their hope is that the summit will result in a commitment from developed countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 (their feel a 15-30 percent reduction in emissions by developing nations in the same timeframe is more realistic).