Apocalypse Now!

I know it’s old news now but a few weeks ago a chunk of the Arctic circle, 3 times the size of Manhattan fell into the sea, some 100 square miles of glacier couldn’t hang on any longer! This piece fell off the Petermann Glacier near Greenland and it is feared may be heading into the shipping lanes of the North Atlantic.

Bizarrely this coincided with my son Lewis (8) and I watching the disaster flick ‘ The Day After Tomorrow’. I decided best not to tell Lewis about this development, as he was quite uptight after watching the film.

You may recall the film explains how a rapid ice age may occur, the fresh water from the melting ice caps, desalinizing the Atlantic Ocean and preventing the circulation of the warming tropical currents which regulate the Earths temperate climate. I love the movie as it tackles some of the biggest climate puzzles and offers some reasonable answers, and just like the movie itself many scientists rubbish the films theories on global warming and climate change. What we must remember is that many scientists aren’t independent and receive funding from political organisations!

Lewis asked me if it was going to happen like the movie, to which i replied no-one really knows, I then explained to him the that the planet is getting hotter because of greenhouse gases and the importance of saving energy.

The debate rages on about whether global warming is fact or fiction, but there’s no doubt in my mind at all, it all makes perfect sense to me and the signs are there for us all to see; if we care to look!

Pakistan and China are witnessing disastrous amounts of rainfall, the ice caps are thinning and breaking up, Russia is suffering one of the driest summers on record, which is severely damaging their crops. The weather is changing and who knows where it’s heading?

In the film only one scientist understands the signs and makes his predictions for climate change, his warning is ignored and the disaster unfolds. The key word here is ignorance. Many scientists argue that global warming is real and happening, yet an equal amount argue that the opposite is true! Therefore many people don’t know who to believe and so choose to do nothing, placing their trust and hope in their governments; who really have the environment too far down on their agendas.

Ignorance is Bliss: Ignore the lot of em I say!

I know that our behavior, as a species, is detrimental to the planet and I don’t need a scientist to tell me why it’s bad to chop down the Amazon or pollute the air / sea / soil / outer space, because it’s bloody obvious! Come on surely we all understand this??

There’s a famous saying in my country ” You don’t bite the hand that feeds you!”  Well I’m afraid we are and pretty soon the planet will struggle to support human life!!! More and more famine will occur and in parts of the world that aren’t accustomed to it too! This will see migration of people and civil unrest will follow, wars over soil – not oil will ensue.

We mustn’t wait for the scientists to agree on this we must take this upon us to do our bit at home and work now, we must pressure our leaders into doing more! Insisting on more public transport, tax breaks for non car families, free cycles for people to ride in towns and cities, lobbying for more green energy (solar being a preference please). Etc Etc Etc.

I hate it when lazy bastards throw rubbish on the streets, rather than finding a dustbin! (think about how much energy we waste just picking up other peoples filth!!) Not to mention the horrid effect on our environment!

I haven’t seen Al Gore’s film the ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, why? I don’t think I need to see it because I’ve already accepted this truth and I fear it may upset me watching it…… maybe that’s the whole point of it? Well I think I’ll get a copy all the same……….

Good Luck wherever you are and I hope the weather is kind to you!

Respect and Peace!

@dam

Carbon Reduction Commitment

After my earlier post this week i thought i’d pick the brains of our continuous improvement team at work, who are currently, heavily involved with a power reduction project. It’s obvious i know very little about all this carbon neutral business, lol.

So what did i find out?

All businesses in the UK, that consume over 6000Mwh of electricity a year will have to, by law, take part in the CRC Energy Reduction scheme. Briefly, this means that these businesses have to purchase their carbon footprint allowance at £12 per tonne of carbon dioxide! This scheme starts this year and has a 3 year introduction phase where you buy your allowance at this £12 rate, but in 2013 it becomes an auction! Businesses will have to bid for their allowance and there will be a capped amount of carbon credits, so with a restricted supply you will see the price rise from £12 per tonne quite rapidly.

This of course is the intention of the government and the incentive for businesses to reduce their footprint. The revenue generated by the auction is then rewarded back to the best performing businesses, with regards to carbon emission reduction. This will be done on a league table basis and all the businesses are then in competition with each other for the kick backs, which will be substantial and may go some way to justifying the improvements a business makes. Which, after it was explained to me, makes a lot of sense and should work quite well.

Carbon Credits go 'under the hammer'.

The one thing i’m a little disappointed with is that even though this scheme is forcing business to reduce it’s carbon impact; it’s hardly encouraging businesses to go down the carbon offset route. You’ll remember, that companies can purchase carbon credits in a bid to become carbon neutral. These credits can be purchased and come in a range of forms, most commonly, the purchasing of trees or protecting areas at risk, e.g. the Amazon.

I think there has been some skepticism and abuse of the offsetting process, does it encourage business to reduce it’s emissions? Probably not. Does it allow businesses to claim carbon neutrality? Certainly does. In my opinion it’s a good thing, that a company can do this, as it helps maintain and even replenish our forests and other areas that are covered under the credit scheme (approx. 200 credit types or areas are covered)

But a comment that my colleague gave me summed up the enormity of our situation, John said this “There’s a school of thought that without drastically reducing our emissions quickly, it wont matter how many trees we plant, we’ll all be stuffed!”

Respect and Peace

@dam

Eco Warrior…….Why not?

Today I joined the WWF

I’ve been considering this for a little while, but watching the ‘Ross Kemp in the Amazon’ documentaries was ‘the straw’ so to speak.

I’ve been doing some research into Bioremediation and I’m going to contact the WWF and Greenpeace to find out what they know about this interesting field of science.

Interestingly, we have just up the road a mushroom farm, who very shortly will be getting a visit from this newly formed ‘Eco – Warrior’……lol.

The way I see it, if we don’t get involved now, then before long it’ll be TOO late!!!

Children will look at their parents and wonder why we didn’t love them enough to protect their world for their future!!

It appals me to see what we have done to this beautiful planet! There is a very real risk that the planet may become so polluted and toxic; that it cannot actually support human life. Now that I have kids, I understand how important it is to get involved and at least try to be part of the solution and stop being part of the problem!

Respect and Peace!

@dam

Warning!!

Disturbing Images of the human Blight of this Planet!

Deforestation

Gorilla Hunting!

Whaling

Elephant Tusks

Oil Spill

Seal Kills

Desert in the making!

Mining

Japanese river of Blood

Melting ice caps

What are we doing!!!!