by
Les May
CLIMATE
CHANGE
is nothing new. Where I am sitting now was covered by about a
kilometre of ice at the height of the glacial maximum 18,000 years
ago. Ultimately the Earth’s climate is controlled by the slight
‘wobble’ in the inclination of its orbit, the elliptical nature
of its orbit and the way these interact with the seasons. Together
these allow the Earth to absorb sometimes more and sometimes less of
the energy reaching us from the sun. What
is new is that human activity is bringing about changes in the
climate on a time scale measured in tens of years not thousands. We
do this by burning so called ‘fossil’ fuels and releasing the
carbon they contain back into the atmosphere as Carbon Dioxide.
Although this gas is present in the atmosphere at concentrations of a
few parts in 10,000 it is
this gas which traps heat radiation leaving the Earths surface which
would normally be lost to space. The trapped heat radiation causes
the temperature of the atmosphere to rise. As the sea/atmosphere
system act like a kind of ‘steam engine’ and
putting more heat energy into it makes our
weather systems more energetic, they
become
more extreme.
The
above paragraph sets out the problem, but it also sets out the
solution. To halt climate change we need to stop pumping carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere and if possible reduce the amount already
there.
We
burn fossil fuels to move things from one place to another, e.g.
planes, cars, trains, buses, and to change one thing into another
e.g. iron ore into cars, oil into plastic. Changing one thing into
another also includes the reclamation of recycled materials e.g.
plastic bottles, aluminium drinks cans. If we are to pump less
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere these
are the things we
need to do less of.
In
other words WE
need to CONSUME
LESS.
The
problem is that we live in a ‘consumer society’
and we need to keep on consuming to keep that society functioning.
And
it’s OUR
problem which
we cannot shift onto anyone
else. It’s no use blaming politicians or capitalism which is
really only one way of satisfying OUR
demand for material goods or new
experiences.
Are
you
willing to consume less? Three
possible scenarios are offered below.
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