Is it too late to stop climate change?
We've just had one of the warmest Bank Holiday Mondays in decades, and as someone who doesn't like intense heat, I dread to think the summer will be even hotter.
The amount of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere is now 390 parts per million, higher than the 350 ppm that was thought to be the danger point. So is it too late?
I guess that depends on whether we can get the carbon levels down in the next three years.
Countries like the UK, France and the USA are already well advanced in switching to renewable energy sources (Germany not so much, they're still burning lignite coal). Some countries are trying to plant trees, some people are trying to switch to a more vegetable based diet that has a smaller global footprint.
What is overlooked is that most of the waste isn't coming from private households. It's coming from indusry - especially the factories in places like China, which not only burn a lot of fuel to run, but which spew more sulfur dioxide into teh atmosphere than all the active volcanoes do put together, which is then carried around the world by the winds.
There is only one way to force businesses in places like China to stop polluting so much: we need to cut back on what we buy from them. Most of it is junk that we don't need anyway, which clutters the house.
So here is a novel way to combat climate change: go on a buying strike for the next year. In particular don't buy stuff from half the globe away that needs to be shipped over here at great fuel expense. Refusing to buy junk will not only decrease the amount of CO2 and other pollutants spewed into the atmosphere, it will close the trade deficit. Put the money towards paying off debt and saving instead.
Very few countries have stuck to the Kyoto Protocol, which was signed in 1997, so I don't think they are prepared to do what is necessary.
However a severe recession - perhaps brought about by tariffs, should reduce greenhouse gases.
A recession won't be fun though.
No - it would be better if countries managed to cut emissions without triggering recessions. Britain for example has cut emissions so much it is emitting less than at any time since 1890. Without triggering a recession.
Yes. Everyone should have started work on this during the boom times of the 1990's - that way you can do difficult things without too many consequences.
The problem is China. They are burning fuel overproducing everything from steel to cement. It's a pointless waste of energy and resources but the corruption is so strong they carry on anyway.
Yes. But they appear to be more frightened of unemployment than of what climate change will do to them, despite a lot of China turning into desert.
You have a minor misspelling in the following sentence:
It should be the instead of teh.