Climate
change
Some
years
ago,
it
was
quite acceptable to deny that the world's climate was changing.
People would say, "I need more evidence. Lots of scientists tell us
there is nothing to worry about. The earth will look after
itself. It's only scaremongers who spread stories about
catastrophes and uncontrollable changes in the earth's climate. I'm not
going to give up my comfortable life style just because a few weirdos
wearing woolly hats say that we're heading for disaster."
Those
days
are
now over. The proof is everywhere :
glaciers are melting,
deserts are spreading, temperatures are changing, the weather is
becoming more extreme, the oceans are rising.
We
should
no
longer listen to the man (or
woman) in the pub. After a bit of cold weather, s/he will tell us 'This
climate change stuff : it's a load of garbage'. The micro-climate is
always changing; the day-to-day weather has little relevance to global
climate change.
These
days,
anyone
who denies that climate change is
happening is challenging the expert opinion of thousands of climate
scientists. The facts are clear. If humankind goes on living in
the same old wasteful and destructive ways, we shall be unable to stop
or reverse the changes.
Here
is
just
one quote which leaves us in no doubt :
"Global warming is happening and presents unprecedented risks to the
planet" - Professor John Beddington, the U.K. Government's Chief
Scientific Advisor.
The first 'extreme weather event' which has been
proved to be the result of human climate-changing behaviour is the
European heat-wave of 2003. It killed more than 30,000 people.
So
the
important
question now is
not
'Is it
happening ?' We should be asking 'How can we get the message over to
people ?'. The scientists are telling us things that we don't
want to know. So people bury their heads in the sand. It's no fun
delivering a message of doom and disaster. So let's look at things in a
different way.
You
can
fly
to Florida on holiday if you want.
Nobody is stopping you. But if you decide to have a local holiday in
Britain instead of burning tonnes of fuel flying thousands of miles,
you'll certainly feel good ! And you might enjoy the holiday just as
much.
Thousands
of
people
drive four-wheel drive cars even
though they never use them to cross muddy fields or climb mountain
roads. If people nag you about the amount of CO2 which you're
releasing, you will probably tell them to get lost. But nobody is
forbidding you from buying a four-wheel drive. You're free to do so.
If
you
decide
to go to work on a bicycle, you'll may
feel that this makes you feel healthier. You're saving money and
reducing pollution and greenhouse gases. Tell your mates or your
neighbours. Maybe they are already reducing their driving and you can
share the feelgood factor.
You
can
set
your thermostat as high as you like :
70°F or 75°F or 80°F. If someone nags you and tells you to
lower the temperature and wear two pullovers, you're not likely to
listen. But if you realise that setting your heating to a lower
temperature will reduce CO2 emissions and also cut your fuel bills, you
might feel that if even one person makes that decision, more people
might follow your example and this would make a real difference.
There's
no
need
to punish yourself in order to be
'green'. You can't carry the whole future of humanity and the world on
your shoulders. Just try to take it easy ! Millions of people all
making small
contributions to reducing climate change could just swing things in the
right direction.
Essential
viewing - 'An
Inconvenient
Truth' - DVD - 'a global warning' from former U.S. Vice
President
Al Gore
Climate change and you Guardian
Campaign against Climate Change
Climate Institute
Denying the facts ?
Cutting your carbon footprint
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change
Kyoto
2 - the
next stage in managing climate change - www.kyoto2.org
Manchester Climate
Forum
Meteorological Office
Monbiot's hard-hitting confrontations
with climate-change deniers
Renewable
energy
West Lancashire Borough Council's Climate
Change
Strategy
World Meteorological Association
Worldwatch Institute
Worst-case scenario
350.org - Action on climate change