Dear Friends,

New Year's Day 2022 was the UK's warmest start to the year on record with a high of 16.2°C recorded in St James's Park, London, breaking the previous record of 15.6°C set in Bude Cornwall, in 1916. This unseasonably high temperature is just yet another example of the continuing trend of record breaking temperatures experienced all over the world, with the last seven years being the warmest yet; all caused by the global warming phenomenon. The recent COP26 summit which took place in November 2021 at Glasgow, Scotland, gave us great hopes for action against climate change, but alas it fell somewhat short of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5°C as set out by the Paris Agreement. Of course there was a lot of progress made, including the reversing of deforestation and an agreement to phase down the use of coal power, but these measures are not enough to prevent the catastrophic environmental changes that are forecast and will impact us all. According to the Climate Action Tracker group the global temperature will rise by 2.7°C by the end of the century with current policies. The temperature will rise by 2.4°C if only the pledges for 2030 are implemented, by 2.1°C if the long-term targets are also achieved and by 1.8°C if all the announced targets are fully achieved. Basically what this means is that global warming will continue, which means more frequent extreme weather conditions and a speeding up of ice melt from the polar ice caps and glaciers. Sea Level Rise (SLR) alone will affect countless populations causing trillions upon trillions of dollars of damage with major impacts on urban centers such as London, New York, Miami, Tokyo, Mumbai, Shanghai, Dhaka and many more, not to mention the possible loss of nations such as the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and even much of Bangladesh. Cutting greenhouse gasses and implementing carbon capture will only go so far so it's now the time for us to think outside the box to solve this problem! I therefore propose a new plan of action which has to my knowledge never been considered before but will go some way to slow and reduce Sea Level Rise and that is to restore the Aral Sea! The Aral Sea was once a huge inland sea in central Asia which was the forth largest sea in the world covering an area of 68,000 km2 (26,300 sq mi). It began to dry up in the 1960's when the Soviets diverted the rivers that fed the Aral Sea, for the irrigation of cotton crops. The Aral Sea catastrophe is an environmental disaster in it self which has largely been forgotten. However out from the Aral Sea disaster comes our opportunity to slow down and reduce the oncoming Sea Level Rise disaster. What I propose is for the construction of a pipeline from the Black Sea to the dried up Aral Sea basin and pump sea water to refill the old Aral Sea. It doesn't take a genius to realize that if you take water out of the ocean that it will reduce its overall volume. What's more once the Aral Sea is restored it will return the local weather patterns to the region and this will undoubtedly have a knock on effect at helping to stabilise the rest of the world's weather too! Plus once the ecological systems are re-established, plankton will absorb CO2 out from the atmosphere and help reduce the rate of global warming. I therefore call upon your support to sign my petition and call for the UK government to seriously consider my suggestion and organize an environmental conference with other Heads of State and marine and climate scientists to restore the Aral Sea. Of course there are many problems to overcome, not just the planning and construction of such a monumental project but also the many political challenges and tensions that exist between nations in the region. The engineering know how already exists, so if the politicians can rise above such indifferences and engage in committed dialogue and work together on this pipeline which would thus serve as a symbol of peace and hope between nations, then it might just be the thing to give the world extra time to prepare for the environmental catastrophe that is just around the corner. Your support is needed! Make it happen, please sign the petition today!

Yours Sincerely

H.R.H. Lord Robert Newland of the Royal House of Newland