State of Emergency
If you are not panicking you have not understood the science. The threat of catastrophic climate change is upon us now. Not in 10, 50 or 100 years’ time. Now. There is no further time for denial, debate, and policies. We need urgent carbon rationing. We either act NOW or it is too late.
The only logical action for governments worldwide is to call a state of emergency, and to mobilise citizens to change their lifestyles or face extinction. We have to stop driving and flying.
The battle against climate change is a strange one. The gases causing the threat to our existence are invisible, but by increasing their concentration in the atmosphere we are destroying our home. The enemy this time is not another nation. It is us. We are the enemy within. We either change, or we, our children, and our grandchildren will perish.
New Year resolutions for how to save the planet
Forget the usual New Year's resolutions to lose weight or stop smoking - make one which will really make a difference by pledging to help save the planet in 2008. "No-one can go green overnight but by taking on a couple of our New Year's resolutions you know that you will be part of a global movement to tackle climate change," said Colin Butfield, head of campaigns at WWF.
"If everyone generated carbon emissions and used natural resources as we do in the UK we would need three planets to support us. If we all pledged to take just one green action in 2008 we could move towards a one planet future."
Top ten ways to be green
- Set yourself an annual target to reduce your carbon emissions and monitor your progress
Footprint calculators such as wwf.org.uk/calculator can help you do this. Small actions can make a difference - for instance if everyone in the UK installed one, energy-saving light bulb we would save enough CO2 to fill the Albert Hall nearly 1,200 times!
- Install loft insulation
This is one of the most significant actions we can take in our homes - if your loft isn't insulated, up to a third of your household heat will escape. If everyone that could, fitted loft insulation to their home we'd save over 3 million tonnes of CO2 - that's enough to fill nearly 17 million double decker buses.
3. Reduce your car use
Over a quarter of all car journeys made in the UK are less than two miles. Its estimated that road transport makes up around 21% of total man-made CO2 emissions in the UK.
4. Buy more seasonal food
Air freighting fresh produce has more than trebled in the past 20 years and although we could meet over 70% of our eating needs from food grown in the UK, we import more than half of the food we consume. Seasonal produce also requires less oil and gas to heat greenhouses, water and pesticides.
5.
Give help to others through groups or clubs
All over the country, groups and clubs are forming to help us share skills, resources, and help motivate one another. These groups can range from Freecycle to car share clubs.
6.
Fly less
Think about the other options to flying within Europe - trains, ferries and Eurostar. By taking one return flight to New York you'll release as much CO2 as you would driving an average car for a year, and one person's return flight to Australia will emit the equivalent amount of CO2 as it takes to run an average UK home for two years or a fridge for 128 years!
7.
Use your kerbside recycling collection
Recent research shows up to 40% of a regular household shopping basket can be recycled. You can reduce your waste by avoiding excess packaging and buying products that will last.
8.
Campaign against climate change
In the UK the Climate Change Bill, which will set the UK on a legally binding path to reduce emissions, is one of the most important pieces of legislation ever to go before the UK Parliament. However, as it stands, the latest scientific research says it is not strong enough. Organisations like WWF need your support in calling for stronger, effective climate change legislation.
9.
Purchase energy efficient appliances
Instead of looking at the price tag, look for its energy efficiency label. An energy efficient washing machine uses a third less energy than an old, inefficient model, saving us money and water.
10.
Home compost
On average every person in England now produces seven times their own weight in waste a year. Kitchen scraps, such as vegetable peelings, apple cores, egg shells and most garden waste biodegrades in a compost bin into a rich fertiliser which can be used in gardens or allotments.
Wake Up Call!
The first step in the Green Revolution is to recognise that there is an urgent and catastrophic environmental crisis that threatens our existence, caused by the way we live. To talk to many people, or to see the way many of us live, it is quite clear that this message has not sunk home.
Our approach to the environmental crisis is rather like how we deal with other crises. If the roof blows off our house, we treat it as an emergency, and get it fixed the same day. Neighbours may rally round. We are relatively good at crisis management and responding to dramatic events. However dry rot may eat away at the structure of our house for months, or years, causing thousands of pounds’ worth of damage, and although we may have our suspicions, we may ignore the signs, until someone falls through the floor!
The way that news is reported also masks the true extent of the global crisis. When Chernobyl nearly blew up, or thousands of seals started dying, or the ozone “hole” was discovered, this made news headlines. However the sort of environmental crisis that is like a dripping tap, slowly getting worse, tends to get ignored. There is also news management, whereby if bad news and doom and gloom hit sales or viewing figures, problems are ignored or glossed over. So a lot of the real environmental crises simmer quietly, only surfacing when they become too obvious to ignore, or when here is an important conference. At the present time, many people seem to be carrying on blissfully unaware of what climate change is going to mean for us all, sleepwalking their way through life as though business as usual is a real option. The melting polar ice-caps must act as a wake-up call. Business as usual is not an option. |
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Please do it now. Tomorrow is too late.
"Four by fours must be taxed off London's roads" say Greens
13th Feb 2006
Congestion charge and parking fees for large-engined vehicles should rise
Londoners are buying more four by fours than anywhere else in the country according to a new survey, even though they need them less. The Greens on the London Assembly have reacted to the news that 16 per cent of new car sales next year could be four by fours, by calling for both the congestion charge and parking fees to rise for large-engined vehicles. This follows a similar call by the RAC Foundation for a new top rate to be introduced for the annual road tax.
Green Party Member of the London Assembly, Jenny Jones, said:
"The Government are unwilling to take action on climate change, so it is up to us in London to do something to stop the rapid growth in larger engine vehicles. All the positive work we are doing to encourage cycling and introduce green buses is being cancelled out by selfish people driving big cars on London's polluted streets. For the sake of the environment, four by fours must be taxed off London's roads. We need to double the congestion charge for these gas-guzzling monsters and introduce a sliding scale of residents parking charges which reward low emission cars and punish the polluters."
To join or donate to "The Green Party": Green Party
Spectators at a funeral
Our present situation seems rather surreal. We know we are destroying the world we live in, whose climate and eco-systems we depend on. We have scientists who are telling us in the minutest detail how the icecaps are melting, and the rainforests being chopped down. But we, a supposedly intelligent species are doing next to nothing about it. We are still driving around in our cars, taking flights around the world, consuming the world’s resources at an unsustainable rate. Our world is slowly dying before our eyes.
When we have bought the last cheap air flight, when the last four by four car rolls off the production line, then we will realise, too late, that money cannot stop the ice-caps melting. Then, a growing world population will inherit less land to occupy as the sea level rises many metres, and a descent into barbarism seems inevitable. The sea will be too acidic for life, and radioactive with the waste from the many nuclear power stations that have been swamped by the rising sea. Not a pretty picture. If you share a desire to avoid this future, please help Eco spread this awareness and a desire to start doing something. Now. |