I believe that there is a strong, moral argument against the continued burning of fossil fuels even if it didn’t cause climate change. What is the basis of this belief?

Firstly, the rate of fossil fuel use is increasing year-on-year as demand from economies such as those of India and China grows. In tandem, many experts predict that we are close to (or have already exceeded) peak production of fossil fuels. Simple economics shows that increased demand and decreased supply equals increased prices. In my view, this situation will inevitably lead to further conflict as countries vie for an increasingly scarce resource. And even if we weren’t already at peak production then the conflict situation will only have been at best postponed.

Secondly, increased demand for fossil fuels is leading to encroachment into, and destruction of, natural habitats such as those in Alaska and Africa. Even offshore oil drilling is now firmly on the agenda in the US (depending on the outcome of the election). The result will be further degradation of forests, wildlife and natural habitats to feed a growing oil addication.

Thirdly, and probably the most obvious yet most overlooked point, fossil fuels are fundamentally a finite resource. It really doesn’t matter whether we are at peak production or not – fossil fuels will ultimately run out and an alternative will be needed. Talk of ‘it won’t be in my lifetime’ or ‘it will be way in the future’ is really just apathy and denial from people who lack vision. Global economies cannot simply be switched from one energy source to another – it takes many years, even generations, to make the transition. The pragmatic approach is to start the shift now from our reliance on fossil fuels to renewable and sustainable energy sources.

Finally, economies which rely on fossil fuels are becoming increasingly vulnerable. Recent events have shown that increases in oil prices can destabilise markets and send inflation soaring. Longer-term stability and economic growth cannot be sustained in economies which are heavily oil-dependent – a point now begrudgingly accepted by politicians.

Of course, if the burning of fossil fuels is a major cause of global warming as most scientists now believe, then the preceding points simply add weight to an already compelling argument!

Dr. Gary Robertshaw

The Green Providers Directory

This is not a lone voice. Speaking to people generally, my experience is that of a stubborn and persistent belief that climate change is a cyclical phenomenon unrelated to human activity. For example, I have frequently heard stories that the Earth has had ice ages and very warm spells in the distant past long before humans had evolved, and that solar and volcanic activity have more impact on the climate than man. Often, these views are not backed up by scientific evidence, but instead are perpetuated by word of mouth almost to the point that they are regarded as established fact.

Whilst it is certainly true that all the preceding phenomena affect the climate and that there are natural variations in the Earth’s climate over time, these views are misleading and dangerous for several reasons.

Firstly, it gives intuition precedence over scientific evidence. This situation is made deliberately worse by large corporations with vested interests in encouraging doubt and disagreement surrounding the debate on made-made climate change. In actuality, there is now a widespread consensus amongst the scientific community and environmental researchers that human activity is the chief cause of current global warming. The climate is changing much faster than the very long timeframes over which previous changes occurred and there is a strong correlation between the recent changes and man-made emissions.

I have often seen a parallel between this situation and that of the tobacco industry when research first suggested that smoking may cause lung cancer. The tobacco industry dismissed the claims as erroneous and suppressed its own research, while smokers themselves reassured each other that the scientific evidence was wrong. It was only after the scientific evidence became overwhelming that the link between smoking and lung cancer came to be accepted, but the intuitive misconception that smoking does not damage health still persists amongst some people today. In tandem, the tobacco industry still seeks to deny that its products are addictive and injurious to health. The oil industry is pursuing a similar strategy with respect to climate change.

Secondly, what happens when the oil runs out? There is no ‘plan B’. Many experts believe that we have passed the point of peak oil production and that steadily increasing oil prices are inevitable as demand from the Chinese and Indian economies grows. Fundamentally, oil is a finite commodity and whether you accept that climate change is linked to man-made emissions or not, alternative energy sources are going to be needed at some point in the future if we are to sustain our economies.

Finally, is it not also intuitive to believe that pumping out billions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere and clearing millions of hectares of rainforest each year might just be causing some damage to the planet? It seems to me that denial and apathy must be overcome before there can be widespread acceptance that human actions are having a harmful effect on the planet. It could well be a slow process.

Dr Gary Robertshaw - The Green Providers Directory

Users search on EcoSearch.org, just as they would on any other search engine. The results come straight from Google, but here’s the cool thing - they donate all of the profits from their ad revenue to green organisations.

Simple win-win.

As I sat there, it dawned on me that maybe society needs some help with Climate Change. Maybe society needs a little bit of Change Management.

Prosci came up with a change management model called ADKAR. They call it a model, but some may call it common sense, a Tao or even a bit of advice.

Apparently these five steps enable you to recognise what you need to do in life, to survive change (or at least make yourself feel better about it).

1. Awareness – ‘For things to make sense, you’ve got to know why change is needed.‘

- Famine, mass immigration, food crashes, economic risk, disease caused by climate change. If you think Climate Change is a left-wing conspiracy, then you really haven’t read enough. I’m not being nasty, it’s just simply the way it is.

2. Desire – ‘You must have the desire to support and participate in change‘

- As James Lovelock said in The Guardian(1) ‘Humanity is in a period exactly like 1938-9, when “we all knew something terrible was going to happen, but didn’t know what to do about it”. But once the Second World War was under way, “everyone got excited, they loved the things they could do… they had a sense of purpose - that’s what people want.” At the moment people are in denial, because they can’t relate to catastrophic climate change on a personal level. They won’t make environmental improvements until the waves are at the doorstep.

3. Knowledge – ‘Once the need for change is realised, you wonder how to change, and minimise the impact on your own life’

- GreenGirlsGlobal, GreenGuysGlobal, and all those leading the environmental on-line ‘ecolution’ can help increase your knowledge. Information about making environmental improvements has never been so widely available.

4. Ability – ‘You need the ability to implement new skills and behaviours. Can you rise to the challenge? ‘

- Recycling, growing, building, helping, engineering, discovering, complaining, campaigning. There’s something for everyone

5. Reinforcement – ‘Making change, making history. It can only happen with reinforcement‘

Once you’ve cracked all the previous points, change large enough to save the world can only happen, if you help others through the process. Don’t forget, not everyone surfs the Internet.

We are headed towards a 2-degree rise in global temperatures. IPCC scientists have told us that this is the limit of safety (2). For those of you that think this will make the summers nicer, think again. Reports from the Center for a New American Security (3) and the OECD (4) have climate change could induce: mass immigration, crop failures, disease, economic crises and international security issues. It’s not just about the sea level.

Kevin Watkins UN Development Report recently said that it require take rich countries to make a 80% reduction in Carbon Dioxide for there to be a fifty-fifty chance of the temperature not rising by 2 degrees (5).

We cannot give up on humanity now. For all the bad things in this world there are at least twice as many good things. The challenges we face together as a species are not insurmountable. We owe it to those generations that have given us our freedom, we owe it to future generations across the world.

Climate change isn’t a war, a great fire or a pandemic. But like all those challenges it requires commitment, strength, creativity and all the technological ingenuity that humanity can muster. In the words of Nelson Mandela. ‘Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation.’

(1) ‘Enjoy Life while you can’, The Guardian, 1 March 2008

(2) ‘Too late to avoid climate change’, The Independent, 19 September 2007

(3) The Age of Consequences : The Foreign Policy and National Security Implications of Global Climate Change, The Center for a New American Security

(4) OECD 2008, Environmental Outlook

(5) UNDP, ‘UN Focuses carbon burden’

Tony’s message was clear. “Democracy is not just voting every 5 years, watching Big Brother in between and wondering why nothing happens. Democracy is what we do and say. Where we live and work….”

Like anything in life if you want to use, it you need to know how to. Democracy is a lot like that, if you want to make real changes, you need to learn to use it.

Last year I visited my local Member of Parliament (MP) to find out how to use the system.

This is what I found out…

Email campaigns
You plug your name and address into a website, like magic an email wings its way to your local politician describing your disdain for whaling, climate change or the latest concern of the day.

Lots of people make a difference, but MPs sometimes treat these emails like a petition. It’s easy to sign something without giving it much consideration and MPs know this. “If you get 15 e-mails in one go, the usual reaction is not ‘this is important’ but ‘oh God, my inbox is full of e-mails!”

Effectiveness rating: *

Protests
The Orange Revolution in the Ukraine, Gandhi’s march, the Iraq war protests.

Protests can raise important media attention and apply intense pressure to political systems. They can even be used to highlight the ridiculousness of legislation, such as Mark Thomas demonstrations against restrictions on campaigning in Parliament Square.

Effectiveness rating: * to ****

Letters
I highlighted the sentiment of an email was the same as a letter but was told: “It would be better if somebody wrote a letter in their own words. Sometimes if lots of people send an email it can have an impact, but most of the cynical politicians will think ’somebody has just gathered 50 people to annoy me by filling up my inbox”.

I guess the pen is mightier than the keyboard.

Effectiveness rating: **

Face to face
Many politicians run appointments when you can go along and meet them in person. Don’t be shy, most of them are human. If you know a few people with the similar concerns go along together. If there are many of you why not invite them to come and see you.

Politicians know that issues must be really important to their constituents when they take the time to meet them.

Effectiveness rating: ***

Political systems are different in every country. The guidance above will help you get started, but it is by no means exhaustive. All politicians are different and vary in the type of communication they take most notice of. Different countries have different forms of democracy. The more liberal a democracy is, the more accountable the government to the people, the increased civil and political rights people have and the freer and fairer elections are. (Dahl, 1989)

I know people that give up even before they’ve tried, they tell me their concerns, ‘One person can’t make a difference’. I believe they can. Florence Nightingale, Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln. History is full of individuals and groups making a difference.

Over the last few weeks I’ve decided to see my MP about Climate Change. I’ve dusted off the notes from my Environmental Science degree, boned up on the latest developments from the IPCC, and have taken it upon myself to give my MP a grounding in the climate science basics.

The first meeting went well. Once we had finished our ‘Save the World’ talk, I took it upon myself to complain that it takes 5 years in my town to get an allotment. A giant leap from the melting permafrost, or destruction of the rainforest, but I’ve come to realise that everything is connected to everything.

Effectiveness rating: ? Watch this space

References:

Dahl, R. (1989) Democracy and Its Critics, Yale University Press, New Haven

Links:

In the UK you can find out who your local MP is at http://www.WriteToThem.com

Mark Thomas - Mass lone demonstrations : Against legislation to prevent free protest around British Parliament http://www.markthomasinfo.com/demo/default.asp

The IPCC assesses the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of risk of human-induced climate change. http://www.ipcc.ch

After a successful weekend at the south bank, the WWF giant boat & plane with thousands of names on them have been delivered to the House of Parliament. Let’s hope that MPs will get the message and support a truly effective Climate Change Bill.

To understand this we will have to look at one element that makes life well alive. Carbon is the central element that makes us move and to have energy to do things. We are a Carbon-based life form. Carbon is a very special element because it can be found practically anywhere it’s in pencils, paper, plants, coal, the food you eat and even in you and down to the smallest cell in your body. Carbon is even unique because of it’s strong force known as a bond. When a Carbon bonds with another element that bond between them has a very strong force holding them together and with in that bond there is stored energy. A professor at MIT says that even when something dies the Carbon bonds still keeps its energy even with death. In fact if you went back a long time ago you would have found a sea in what we call middle east in this sea there were zooplankton and many other creatures that lived in the sea and when they did die there corpses piled on top of corpses compressed over several thousands of years to form this mush we call today Oil which is fossil fuel or ancient life just liquified. Coal is fossil fuel but in a solid form.

Now back to Oil. Oil is used in most anything from Cars to plastic. The only way to break this carbon bond is to excite the carbon and this can be done by a spark or a flame or a some other way. for example if you were to light a piece of paper has carbon with in it and the heat coming off is the excitement of the Carbon, when you eat a apple you break a carbon bond which converts into energy for you to use, when you turn on a gasoline engine the spark ignites and excites the Carbon atoms to break apart and off you go. When you break a carbon bond it almost immediately finds a new partner and whats better than having a stable element such as Oxygen but not just one but two Oxygen. When you break a bond it doesn’t matter if it is a piece of paper, gas or a apple you release CO2 in to the atmosphere. CO2 is a colorless and a odorless gas. CO2 or known as Carbon Dioxide is one of several greenhouse gases which makes about 75% of all greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Most of the greenhouse gases are from cars and industrial plants and power plants. yourself may release CO2 but its in a smaller form so humans are not really part of the problem. When traveling from here to there either using cars, planes, buses, boat to many other things like mowing the grass and shipping items thats when us humans effect our environment. So you could blame the Oil industry for polluting the environment, and they were the ones that killed the electric car but they only wanted to make some money or you could blame your self for not being educated on how the things we do each day effects our atmosphere. Whatever it may be we all effect this atmosphere either in small or big way.

There are things we can do now that will help because there may be a point in time where there may be no point of no return to a better environment which we don’t want to happen right? and think about our future generations to come. Something we can do now to limit our carbon emissions can come very simple as transport. you could cycle to where you have to go, you could walk, you could roller skate/skateboard, you could carpool instead of driving alone you would be transporting one to about eight coworkers/school mates. For food you could buy organic foods that are within 0-100 miles of where you live, buy foods that don’t come in plastic containers unless it has a recyclable sign, you could support your farmers market and don’t have to wonder if your food came from new Zealand or some odd place, you can bring your own canvas bag for items bought from the places where you buy your food.

There are a lot of things you can to limit your carbon emissions but there are so many things that I may not even know about yet but I try to tell you about most anything I find out or have come across with each week and will post about it with a tip of the week.