Andrew Barnes Green living, done ethically.
whilst any and all efforts (perhaps with the exception of biofuels) are to be applauded and are very important, I worry that governments as well as well-minded global citizens are ignoring the elephant in the room.
CO2 takes 100-150 years to impact global temperature. Anyone with half a smidgen of common sense can see that we are now feeling the effects of greenhouse gas build up. Erractic weather patterns, ice-melt and rising sea-levels, particularly effecting low-lying pacific islands. Do we imagine that the cause of all this was just 3 years ago? No, of coourse not. These are the first effects of the first dramatic increases in the Industrial revolution of 150-100 years ago. Why then do governments theink that reducing CO2 emmission to pre 2000 levels by 2015 will have the slightest impact on anything except the global temperature in 2110 and later? Whilst continuing to reduce emission for future generations must continue, we, as a global community need to put in motion radical measures to deal with the changes already caused. Even if major progress were made straight away, we still have at least one hundred years of raising temperature to deal with first. The world WILL change and most major cities will be lost, not to mention many entire nations, but will our governments do anything.... As long as we, the people, vote with our wallets, the answer is no. It can't be fixed without massive investment. Investment that you and I aren't willing to make.... Think on!
Dec 30th 2012 16:16