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.
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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.