Brain Wanted
19th February 2008
Readers of Eco may have followed the BBC documentary "Tribe Wanted" with interest. It certainly made good television, and is a fascinating social experiment. But an "eco" community as the "Tribe Wanted" site proclaims? Sorry, but no.
To make this claim betrays an extraordinary lack of awareness of how air travel is wreaking irreversible damage on the world's climate, pumping vast amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and already leading to the melting of the polar icecaps. The flights made by members of this village "community" will ironically contribute to the sea levels rises that will see the island of Fijian Vorovoro sink beneath the waves in a few generations.
It is all very well using solar and wind power on the island, and having composting toilets, but as Dick Strawbridge's son pointed out on visiting to advise the islanders, the fact that you fly to get there outweighs any effort to be "green" once on the island. It is rather sad to see that renewable energy company Ecotricity seem to have been taken in by the eco claims, and are advertising on the "Tribe Wanted" site.
Even if one ignores the impact of flying, it was apparent that little of the island's food was being grown on the island, and large volumes of waste were being created that did not exist until the western visitors arrived.
So yes, it made great television, but please don't abuse the word eco when describing what is happening on Vorovoro.
Spread the Word
The internet is an incredible tool, and properly used, can be used as a tremendous force for good. It is capable of spreading a message around the world in a fraction of a second. To prevent catastrophic climate change we need a peaceful revolution in awareness and action now. The situation is urgent, and we need to get people out of their cars, to stop flying, and to consume less. Peaceful revolutions can happen overnight. It happened when the Berlin Wall was pulled down by People Power, something that was unthinkable for a whole generation. Eco calls on its readers to help spread the green message via the internet, and to make a peaceful green revolution happen.
All you have to do, is to send details of Eco to everyone in your email address book-
ECO
Do you get it?
Be Part of the Solution
and Spread the Word!
Please do it now. Tomorrow is too late.
When
less means more
The relevance of this section to the reader will depend on how you live, and your consumption of energy and material goods. To a pensioner shivering in a barely furnished flat, a beggar on the street, a family on a brutalised high-rise estate or to someone scraping a living in the “Third World”, exhortations to consume less are insulting.
While aware of the many exceptions, there is a broad continuum of lifestyles:
low impact
low consumption………………high consumption high environmental impact
The further to the right of this continuum you are, the greater the benefit if you join the Green Revolution to the Planet’s ecosystems, and ultimately to you, your friends and your family. Those of us with a high consumption lifestyle have most to gain because we have most to lose if the planet’s life-supporting ecosystems that support our lifestyle collapse. It is far easier to cut back now in a gradual, voluntary way, and still have those ecosystems in place, than to face starvation and degradation due to violent climatic change, confronted by famine, floods storms or deserts, when it is too late to change anything.
The reason that giving up some materialist trappings is not such a sacrifice is because there is a trade-off. They separate us from family, friends, real culture, traditions and nature. Material things can make us independent at the expense of community. Laundrettes, libraries, public transport, and live entertainment bring people together, unlike washing machines, personal stereos, cars and television. Moreover, if we consume less the less we need to earn, meaning we may not have to work quite so hard or such long hours. If some of our wealth goes to those in greatest need, there may be a reduction in discontent and crime. Everyone wins.
The Green Revolution does not mean giving up everything and wearing a hair shirt for the sake of it. It is not Luddite. It is just recognition that beyond a certain level, the cost of high consumption to you, to society, and to global ecosystems, is greater than the benefit, and that level is much lower than we have often been willing to recognise until disaster stares us in the face. |
|
Greenland's ice cap confirms the need to act now
Satellite study shows melting has doubled in last five years
Evidence showing the Greenland ice cap is melting at faster rates than feared adds greater urgency to the need for action, according to Keith Taylor, Green Party Principal Speaker.
"This new satellite evidence has shortened the timeframe for action significantly," he said. "What this study has shown is that by the time the solutions the government are advocating - new technologies such as carbon capturing or old mistakes like nuclear power - materialise, the palace of Westminster will be underwater, along with large portions of the world.
"Avoiding taking any meaningful action to reduce carbon emissions, such as halting aviation expansion and investing heavily in renewable non nuclear carbon free energy generation is a betrayal of future generations. We have to show that decisive action is not only essential but desirable - that the people's and planet's well-beings belong at the core of sustainability.
"We need legislation to ensure the necessary cuts are made and increased funding for efficiency and microgeneration, not voluntary codes and a paltry, under-publicised renewables fund. We need a reduction in air travel through a tax on the aviation industry and a moratorium on building cars with inefficient engines, not airport expansion and a continuation of the £9bn per year public subsidization of airlines.
"We would do well to look at the bold and visionary actions of braver governments, like Sweden's and Iceland's, who are demonstrating there is a future free from reliance on oil."
Notes:
The Green Party's energy campaign, 'Green Energy Works', is at: www.greenenergyworks.org.uk
The campaign aims for 2 million people to sign up to green electricity by the end of 2006 to show the government that people want more investment in energy saving and renewable energy generation, not nuclear power.
The Green Party is also conducting its own public consultation on the future of energy in the UK between 1 February and 15 April 2006.
Suicide Pact
All the warning lights are flashing red. The polar ice-caps are melting. The seas are warming, killing off the plankton on which the whole oceanic food chain depends. The tundra containing massive quantities of frozen methane hydrates is starting to melt - remember methane is many more times more powerful a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. The threat of runaway global warming is staring us in the face. And what do we do? Nothing. We are carrying on as usual. Are there urgent Government announcements of emergency measures? Do we limit car use to absolutely essential use only? Do we start turning off all the unnecessary lighting, heating and air-conditioning?
Any pilot or train driver who ignored all the flashing red lights would be labelled as reckless and negligent. The current lack of action suggests a sort of conspiracy of silence, a suicide pact on a massive, global scale. Do you want to be part of it? Did anyone consult you? If you want to stop us sleepwalking into a nightmare future, help us spread environmental consciousness through letting all your friends know about Eco. The Third World War is happening, right here, right now. Our generation is not asked to go over the top of the trenches into the face of machine gun fire. We are asked to cut back on our extravagent, greedy, and wasteful lifestyles. Your planet needs you. Which side are you on? If you are not panicking about climate change then you haven't realised the extent of the problem. Have you signed up to the suicide pact, or do you want to help spread the message of a peaceful green revolution? The time to act is now. No more talking and procrastination. Tomorrow is too late.
|