Google
Web eco site
 
suggest article | suggest link
news comment science business society recreation talk
COMMENT PAGE 1 | PAGE 2 | PAGE 3 | PAGE 4 | PAGE 5 | PAGE 6 | PAGE 7 | PAGE 8
An increasing body of observations gives a collective picture of a warming world and other changes in the climate system.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2001

Looking for Salvation

6th May 2008

As the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere creeps ever higher, it is increasingly difficult to see where salvation is going to come from. In the recent council elections millions of English citizens had the opportunity to vote for Green Party candidates. They were not required to give up their cars, sacrifice their foreign holidays, or cut back on luxury goods. Just to put a cross next to the name of the Green Party candidate. They did not do so in any number to make a perceptible difference. The Green Party made a net gain of just 5 seats. In the Greater London Assembly there was no change in the number of members elected to represent the Green Party. The Green candidate for mayor got a few thousand more votes than last time, but given the pace of climate change, the planet will be burnt to a cinder before we get a Green Mayor or a Green Government. The message to the mainstream parties is clear. Voters are not ready for green policies. Salvation is not going to come from politicians if the public does not elect the right people. Already the government is back-tracking on "pay as you throw" plans to tax people for the amount of rubbish they dispose of, and withdrawing the already delayed 2 pence on a litre of fuel. Conservative Mayor Boris Johnson is going to "reform" the Congestion Charge, and is opposed to the Kyoto Treaty.

The public is carrying on life as normal. People are driving, flying and consuming with little or no thought of the consequences. A small percentage of the population has grasped the seriousness of climate change and is altering their lifestyle, but unless nearly the whole population changes, the actions of a few thousand individuals is meaningless. So salvation is not going to come from public sacrifices.

Which begs the question, if politicians are not going to take a lead, and the public are not ready to change, what hope is there?

Tackling climate change will involve the most immense exercise in public education ever undertaken, and a mobilisation of the public on a scale not seen since the Second World War. Every day delayed is a day wasted. Eco calls on its readers to use the internet to spread the green message. The internet offers the means to spread a message faster than at any time in Mankind's history. Let 10 people know about Eco, and before you know it, there could be a peaceful green revolution, that brings about change just as quickly as the Berlin Wall fell. No-one thought that was possible, but it happened overnight. We need a green revolution in a similar timescale, and we cannot wait for politicians to take a lead.

Further reading: BBC comment "Green Movement forgets its politics"


In need of guidance

I have a friend at work. Lovely person, ever so kind to anyone upset or having a bad day. My problem is this. Each year she takes at least three foreign holidays, obviously flying to get there, and pumping out untold tonnes of carbon dioxide in the process. Skiing holiday every winter, and holidays in the sun with the kids.

Should I say something or am I being a killjoy? Her latest eco-crime is the acquisition of a top of the range BMW, equipped with a sat-nav system, which she proudly told the office, costs £2,000. That's right £2,000. Enough to save a village of starving African children, or preserve 5,000 acres of rainforest. But no, the money will be spent on a system that will tell her where she is. No longer is a map sufficient, it has to be a ludicrously expensive, high-tech gadget.

So it occurs to me, that this gadget is a symbol. Not just is my friend lost in a geographical sense, but in a spiritual sense also. I don't claim any superiority in being able to provide spiritual guidance, and I am far from perfect myself. But somehow we need to get the message across to all these "nice" people, that over-consumption in the Western world has consequences, often not for the person doing the consuming, but at the sharp end of climate change, in an Africa desert, or in low-lying Bangladesh. Guidance is needed. And not from a gadget costing £2,000.


 

 

Nightmare on Wall Street

Environmentalists, most notably Edward Goldsmith, founder of "The Ecologist", have long warned of the "Limits to Growth". They argue that the Earth has a finite capacity and resources, and rising population and human consumption will come up against those limits, with potentially serious consequences. At the time these warnings were made they were dismissed as alarmist, and technology seemed to offer the means to defy natural systems, and allow the potential for limitless expansion. In Harold Wilson's time in the 1960's, scientists caught up in the white heat of technology promised electricity too cheap to meter. The alarmist predictions did not prove correct, or at least not in the timescale Goldsmith envisaged.

But in the current economic climate of Peak Oil, rising energy prices and inflation, dwindling natural resources, and soaring population, the recent crash in the money markets may be a sign that Goldsmith and others like him were right after all. There are limits to growth, even for the world's greatest economy, and when America catches a cold, the rest of us will too.

Science may yet deliver more growth, through the development of new energy sources and GM technology. But it will have to do so with incredible rapidity to keep pace with Western levels of consumption, to which the developing world aspires. If technology fails to deliver, then the limits of natural systems will impose their own correction, and we are all in for a bumpy ride.


Top 10 tips to Save the World

by Hilary Stokes

“Saving the world” is not going to be easy. The steps suggested below are therefore not the typical “boil less water in the kettle” variety, but ones that might actually make a difference in timescale required, i.e. within the next 10 years, before the predicted tipping point, before it gets too late to make any difference.

Consume less – Not the most fun idea, but however unpopular, consuming less is a key message to damaging the planet less. Hence the sequence: reduce, re-use, and recycle. Reduce is top of the list. If at the same time we compete with each other less, and share round what we have more fairly, we will find that in the words of Ghandi:
“There is enough for everyone’s need, not for everyone’s greed”.
We need an upper limit on global per capita consumption. Discuss!

Give way to pedestrians - All nations should introduce a new law that vehicles should give way to pedestrians wanting to cross a road. It’s radical, but so is runaway global warming. This principle would be extended to all human activity. Any harmful activity in conflict with a sustainable one would be obliged by law to give way until a sustainable compromise is reached.

Travel less – Travel is fun. No doubt about it, but unless we go everywhere on foot, public transport (not including planes), or push bike, there is a lot of damage done to the environment. Another damaging aspect of our mobile life-style, is that it damages communities. Witness the fact that small island communities usually have very low crime rates per head, compared with large cities. We need to learn to appreciate more what it on our doorstep.

Ration fuel – Unlike many who advocate a pricing mechanism to prevent people travelling so much be car and by plane, using price as the deterrent is inequitable. The rich would just carry on as before, and poorer people would be penalised. Much fairer would be a system of fuel ration, with a legitimised market in “carbon vouchers”. Best of all, it would give the bureaucrats something useful to do.

Buy some rainforest – OK, not everyone will want to own their own bit of jungle, but by purchasing a few acres of pristine rainforest through one of the charities set up to preserve it, the forest becomes more valuable preserved than chopped down. To buy some rainforest click here!

The local person gets the job – Not always of course, but the distance and mean of travel needs to be factored in to selection criteria when making choices about employment. We are all hopefully heading in the direction of favouring of equal opportunities now, but if there are two candidates with similar qualities, the distance and mode of travel to work needs to factored in as a legitimate selection criteria.

Buy local – If we have to consume, it makes sense all round to buy goods at the most local outlet possible, to reduce pollution from transport and unnecessary food miles.

Change the tax system - Compliment the existing standard taxes with ones based on how much goods benefit or damage the environment. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) needs to be replaced with a system of measuring real worth, as highlighted in Richard Douthwaite’s “The Growth Illusion”. It’s all very well saying that our national economy is (temporarily) growing at say 3%, but if we are rapidly consuming the Earth’s limited resources without allowing for their replacement, such growth is not sustainable, a lesson we are likely to learn the hard way unless we wake up to what is really happening on to our world.

Environmental Auditing - Not many people love auditors, but they could finally have found a useful role in life. Our activities need to be audited according not only their financial cost, but their environmental one. A school outing from the United Kingdom to Washington, for example, would be fantastic fun and very educational, but hardly sustainable. Goods and services need to reflect their true cost. So the two or more foreign holidays a year involving air travel, that some of us are starting to see as “our right because we have worked hard”, are unfortunately out of the question until someone invents and aeroplane that will run on carbon dioxide. Don’t hold your breath.

Love your neighbour – Don’t get carried away, but if we are going to find a way out of the environmental mess we have got into, we have got to start learning to understand each other better, be more tolerant, and make the most of everyone’s skills, and apply them in a positive way.


Something Better Change!

 ECO

Do you get it?

http://www.ecozine.co.uk

Be Part of the Solution and Spread the Word!

Please do it now. Tomorrow is too late.

 

 


Visit The Green Network


 

Front page: home page
News: page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
Comment: page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
Science: page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
Business: page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
Society: page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
Recreation: page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
Talk: page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Visit The Green Network


The Tories are not for turning Keith Taylor, Green Party Principal Speaker

Keith Taylor 05
New Tory policies will be hard to reconcile with traditional beliefs.

Green Party Principal Speaker Keith Taylor today said that David Cameron's slick talk about Britain's social and environmental problems is merely the latest attempt to disguise the smell of the Tories' 'business first' approach.

Commenting on Mr Cameron's appearance on the Today Programme, Mr Taylor said: "We would welcome this more socially responsible Conservative party if we believed for one minute it was genuine. Sadly, the slightest glance at the small print shows the new polish is simply hollow opportunism, just as Blair's was.

"Even before he confirmed it (on the Today Programme) it was clear the Tories would not be abandoning their big business sponsors' interests for something as insignificant as the environment or social justice. As recently as November he was telling the CBI we need a 'concerted programme of road building'.

"Now he reaffirms his belief in voluntary corporate responsibility ahead of regulation. It may be a cynical point, but publicly listed companies are obliged by law to maximise profit. This should be remembered when considering the motives behind Mr Cameron's examples of companies wanting to do good (Nike and Sky).

"Deregulation fails to achieve its goals wherever it is employed... well, its stated goals at least. And we can see in the US how successful voluntary schemes are; the Kyoto Treaty being a case in point."

Mr Taylor also criticised Mr Cameron's 'Environment and Quality of Life' policy group: "Cameron's choice of chairman for the group speaks volumes. Not everyone has forgotten John Gummer's appalling record as Secretary of State for the Environment, where, among other sins, he organised the construction industry to lobby more effectively against his own department.

"David Cameron has already said the party will not be bound by the group's findings. I suspect this group's formation has more to do with appearing to care than actually being prepared to make the necessary changes to our society.

"The supposed change in attitude of the Tory party raises interesting questions for its membership, just as Blair's New Labour did for the old left. How much are they prepared to compromise in the push for power? Can the Tory party abandon its long-standing belief in, say, liberal economics, or minimal regulation, without morally bankrupting its old members? If not, it will find these beliefs hard to reconcile with Cameron's environmental and socially responsible vision."

To join or donate to "The Green Party": Green Party