Friday, May 11, 2007

Some issues - well, three of many...

Sometimes a second chance would be good...

.

.

.

Global temperatures have risen

Consistently for 140 years

This change is linked

To greenhouse gas emissions

That have increased with industrialisation

And burning of fossil fuels.

Some areas will be warmer,

Some cooler,

Sea levels may rise,

Polar ice caps may melt,

Deserts might spread across Europe

And extreme weather events

May become more frequent.

Global temperature will rise

By as much as 6°C this century.

.

A person's global footprint

An amount of productive land

And sea needed to sustain their lifestyle.

Global footprints vary massively across nations.

For example in the UK,

The average footprint is 5.35 hectares,

In the US it is 9.70

And in Mozambique, just 0.47.

.

Habitat destruction is a danger to wildlife.

Habitat loss is harmful

Not only to a single kind of animal

Or plant

But to entire ecological communities.

There are few parts of the world

That have not been altered,

Damaged

Or destroyed.

11 comments:

stu said...

Got a bit of a bee in my bonnet on this one.

There is no evidence to support the statement that burning fossil fuels is directly linked to climate change.

managing environments successfully is pretty much impossible, seeing as they are naturally in a state of flux, and in most cases 'managing' means 'keep the same' which of course, is unnatural.

also, 5.35 what?
that's like me saying that your eyes are 18, and mine are only 6.

not that i'm against us getting off our addiction to fossil fuels, or against the protection of natural environments, i just think we have no idea how to do it, and i believe that we will eventually find a replacement to fossil fuels.

and then i'm certain that we'll find problems with the solutions.

stu

Inconsequential said...

imo

the only answer is to remove man from the equation.

kill 'em all :)

I did included lots of mays and mights...

Inconsequential said...

by the way 'hectares' it does say it in there...

:)

ren powell said...

There is actually pretty good evidence. Not to get into a conspiracy theory state-of-mind, but the two countries that tried to suppress the UN report and demanded changes just happened to be the two most dependent upon their current energy solutions.

The problem is what anyone, or even anyone collectively, can do about it.
All the talk is getting to be incredibly annoying because no one comes with tactics. Focus on the problem, like watching the meteor coming and talking about it 24 7 without finding your car keys. . sorry to go on. Do they have an emoticon for blushing?

ren powell said...

oh- I certainly didn't mean your post was annoying- blushing again.

Crafty Green Poet said...

whether burning fossil fuels is directly linked to climate change or not we're approaching peak oil, the point where there will be less oil to sustain our lifestyles. We can hope to find alternatives to fossil fuels but some are mirages (biofuels from palm oil for example would mean cutting down the rainforests destroying biodiversity and carbon sinks. I think posts like this are important because they make people sit up and think and that's the start we need. Whether we can all learn to live with fewer cheap flights and household appliances before the point where we're forced to, well that's a different question.

Inconsequential said...

Thank you Ren & Green
Both of you may rant as much as you like here, same for Stu, if you wanna discuss it all...

:)

Steve Isham said...

Is it a kind of popular religion that sees this offence against Gaia as the penultimate offence? Bad as our abuse of the good earth is, (and it is bad) is it possible there are worse offences for which this hullabaloo is a distraction? Like maybe our rapidly eroding freedom of speech?

Rob Kistner said...

Such a distressing and inconvenient truth. Keep your voice raised, someone might hear someday.

Pod said...

tis all our fault one way or the other.

quit smoking inc. do your bit!!
;0p

Clockworkchris said...

Very good post. I think Stu is funny-its like the tobacco industries trying to deny that cigarettes are linked to cancer. Your argument was strong, to the point, and had lots of real merit. Everyone else seemed to get it. I don't know Stu, so I should shut up before he hunts me down. LOL
Someone I know always asks me if the world will be overtaken by water, polution, bombs, asteroids, etc... and which will happen first. I always tell him that AI will take over and kill all the humans, and one day when the earth is beautiful again God may come to collect the souls-but the other things are not big deals because there will never be enough humans that care to make a difference. You are right with the answer that taking out humans is the solution.