Carbon Footprint

Arjun Singhe asked:


Among all of the things that are being taught in our public schools, one thing that should have a little more time and dedication put into it is the subject of the natural causes of global warming along with the man made causes. It is extremely important to make sure that our future generations all understand that this is a serious situation that is not just going to go away on its own. We have to figure out everything that is the cause of global warming and put a stop to it.

If you ask a lot of the kids out there what they know about the cause of global warming they probably will not be able to tell you much about it at all, if anything really. This is sad truly because these are the people in the years to come that will be able to possibly help control and stop the cause of global warming and we, as a nation, are not preparing them as much as we could be. It is time for every parent and every teacher out there to make sure that we educate our young people so that they know everything there is to possibly know about the cause of global warming.

Getting Involved

If you feel that your local school district is not doing enough to educate their students on the cause of global warming then you could always attend the next parents meeting to discuss your concerns. A meeting directly with the principal is also a good way to make sure that your concerns are expressed about what our young people are and are not learning about their planet. It is vital that we teach everything we possibly know on the cause of global warming so that we can all take responsibility for our actions on the environment.

Even after you have those meetings to discuss your feelings about what should be taught if the subject of global warming you should not stop there. You should be making sure that are teaching everything you possibly can about the cause of global warming to your children in your own home. Only so much can be done within the schools so it is important to make sure that you are addressing a lot of the major issues at home to make sure that everything is reinforced. It is your job as the parent to make sure that your children receive the education that they need in order to grow into strong educated adults.

Enviro Saver asked:


A common mistake made by people who have a limited understanding about global warming will often loosely refer to the problem as either climate change or global warming. While the two have much to do with each other, they are two separate things that are related to the same cause, which is carbon dioxide put into the atmosphere by human activity. Global warming is referring to the rise in the average global temperature. It is this rise in temperature that causes the climate changes being seen around the world.

It may seem like it isn’t a big deal, but this really is something people should be concerned about. Global warming has been proven to be greatly caused by the greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide that people are putting into the air through their daily activities. These emissions are caused by cars, airplanes, factories, businesses, or anything else that burns fossil fuels. While there are other greenhouse gases put into the air, carbon is what makes up the largest contributor from human activities. Many don’t realize that global warming affects everyone, perhaps not in the most obvious way every day, but it does affect everyone. Global warming is what is causing the earth to warm, which, as mentioned before, causes the major climate changes that are being seen. What are some of these major climate changes and what does this have to do with people? Floods, severe hurricanes, odd weather patterns such as abnormally cold or warm winters; all of these are products of global warming.

Food and resources come from the natural world and if global warming causes severe drought (which it is in many places around the world), the crop yield will be much lower and money is lost. Not to mention that it’s less food available to people. Global warming is also what is warming the polar ice caps and drying up other fresh water resources. Life needs fresh water and without it, life tends to die.

It is something that people can change if they can take responsibility over it. It is possible to slow and stop the global warming, making the world a healthier place with the necessary resources available. It means that the burning of fossil fuels has to stop. Using energy sources that don’t require the burning of fossil fuels is what is needed. The sun and wind are both excellent examples of the tireless sources of energy available to humans. Saving water and producing less waste is also needed to reduce the carbon emissions. As more people turn to alternatives instead of burning fossil fuels, global warming could be stopped, which in turn would stop causing the major climate changes that have been the cause of such devastation in recent years.

James Nash asked:


This business about global warming is actually starting to look like a nightmare for humanity. It’s becoming more a ghastly proposal, not an “inconvenient truth.”

Global warming is occurring at even a more accelerated pace than what was originally predicted, many who are expert sources on this issue posit. Most are still a bit skeptical of the Global Warming issue. It’s commonplace for the press- listening and reading public to be cynical and even critical today. It’s not only that opposing views of any issue are part of the mainstream “Op-Ed” consciousness; it’s just good business and idea salesmanship to keep everything murky, dusty and convoluted.

The news - especially science news - is so hazy and muddled with political and religious sources traditionally centered in spin, connotation, even stigma that trying to believe in anything today is very hard. In a society that cannot decide if a little white wine each day can cure cancer or lead to alcoholism, finding a Gregorian “middle ground” is tough.

And because science is always based in theory, it’s even more confusing to sort out good theory from bad; and just the way scientific theory is designed and argued, nothing is really set in stone and is not fact, per se, rather, scientific theory is just what its name implies — it is theory. Considering much of the fingerprint and harbinger evidences surrounding global warming, however; this theory becomes more denotatively arguable and convincing with each new day.

Most people stay convicted to their beliefs even long after their beliefs have been denigrated or sometimes even proven totally false. In the case of global warming, ever increasing scientific theory is an ongoing constant, though, and this leads to a very unsettling future forecast for Mother Earth, the human race and really, most types of species that reside here. Validation surrounding the global warming theory is so stacked it’s alarming.

One such truth: The rapid buildup of killer carbon dioxide in large lakes like Nyos in Africa (which saw an explosion kill about 1,700 people) creates stern consternation by those who are even slightly to the side of “green.” If it happened to Lake Nyos, what’s in store for Lake Superior, Erie, Huron or the “thousand lakes of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri or Finland? What’s in it for Loch Ness in Scotland? How’s about the Mississippi and Nile rivers? Can we include about every body of water here if our waters continue heating? Carbon dioxide buildup in large lakes is not the stuff impossible fictions are made of - this is a stark reality - and global warming is the root of the problem, scientists argue.

Just to reiterate and try to ring the alarm a bit louder: It’s an enigma why people aren’t up in arms about this - and if the implications behind global warming are true, it might indeed be the biggest crisis humankind has ever faced.

Scientists say the dinosaurs went extinct due to climate changes brought on by a comet hitting the earth 65 million years ago. The estimated 6-mile-wide comet slammed into the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula region “leaving a hole 112 miles wide. It wiped out the dinosaurs and more than 75 percent of the species on the planet, throwing up a cloud of dust that blocked the sun for months, killing off plants at the base of the food chain and causing ecosystems to collapse worldwide; it was a global environmental catastrophe”.

Are we going to go extinct because of our factories’ creation of plastic ornaments on lawns? Is the Earth heading for a quick demise because SUVs and trucks are two of the planets biggest polluters? Tables, chairs and houses are taking the place of rain forests; and through the rapid buildup of developing nations’ industrial revolutions, our world has been kidnapped - and there’s little that can be done to stop global warming - many who are very familiar with this issue contend.

Even the most drastic actions - which entail a global greening in very strict, drastic and complete uniformity - may not be enough to fend off the inevitable greenhouse effect that is predicted.

As things continue to unfold concerning global warming, however, a lot of us are seeing that all this fretting over the world’s environment isn’t a political trick or a smoke and mirrors routine. No. Our atmosphere is becoming more like a microwave and we’re rotating around on the big dish inside.

I’d really like to see proof to the contrary but everything coming out lately points to making valid the global warming theory. To be honest, I’m getting quite upset over the spicy forecasting that’s being done these days. With the threat of the equatorial waters getting about as hot as a chili pepper over time, what’s there to even plan in the mid-century we’re living within?

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has found that this warming is due to anthropogenic factors (mankind is cooking things up here). The Intergovernmental Panel’s Fourth Assessment Report, completed in 2007, found that even if temperatures stabilize, the world is expected to heat up during most of this millennium. The sea level has risen 4 to 10 inches (10-25 cm) on a global scale over the past 100 years. “With additional warming, sea level is projected to rise from half a foot to 3 feet (15-92 cm) more during the next 100 years.

On average, 50 to 100 feet (15-30 meters) of beach are lost for every foot (0.3 meters) of sea-level rise. Local land subsidence (sinking) and/or uplift due to geologic forces and coastal development will also affect the rate of coastal land loss. There seems to be a lack of real, viable solutions for keeping Mother Earth blue and green and not gray and black.

James William Smith asked:


If humans had already colonized Jupiter, Neptune and Mars, it would certainly be all our fault. In fact, the United Nations Planetary Climate Change Council would be receiving the Nobel Peace Prize right about now. Their scientific statement would refer to Jupiter, Neptune and Mars as being in danger of man-made, irreversible, global climate change due to green house gas emissions.

It would be said that all scientists in every nation would be in agreement concerning a dubious future for each of these planets with humans as the cause. There would be no skeptics or doubters. Any dissenting opinion would be dismissed and ridiculed. Of course, there would still be time to save these planets from climate change holocaust, if humans would only change their behavior.

The problem for the proponents of man-made global warming is that planets, like Jupiter, Mars, and Neptune, do not have any known inhabitants. So, humans cannot be responsible for the global climate change occurring on each of these four planets today. Just think about that for a moment. Global warming and climate change occurring on planets in this solar system that cannot be connected to any man-made cause.

Of course, the warming of the Earth during the last century is absolutely man-made if you listen to many of the devoted disciples of global warming. However, isn’t it somewhat presumptuous to assume that humans have the power to control global climate change on Earth? Isn’t it is also presumptuous to assume that global climate change is not part of a long term planetary cycle and that even the sun does not play a major role? No, the true believers of man-made global warming are devoted to a cause. Their cause is to save the planet from a global warming holocaust in the next century brought on by the release of CO2 emissions caused by the reckless consumption of man.

While many planets in our solar system are warming without any human intervention, the Earth has been experiencing dramatic cooling. Last year, dramatic global cooling was measured by all four agencies that track the Earth’s temperature (the Hadley Climate Research Unit in Britain, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, the Christy group at the University of Alabama, and Remote Sensing Systems Inc in California). It is now estimated that the Earth cooled by about 0.7C in 2007 which is the fastest temperature change on record. In addition, the global cooling trend has continued into the first five months of 2008.

Of course, faced with the current cooling trend, past climate predictions of global warming for our immediate future are suddenly at risk. In fact, as global temperatures fall, the 0.3°C global average temperature rise which had been the prediction for the next decade by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will soon have to be revised and explained. Already, some scientists are coming up with a possible reason to keep the true believers faithful to the cause. It is a sort of global warming interrupted rationalization because many researchers now expect a “lull” for up to a decade while natural variations in climate apparently cancel out the increases caused by man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

So, it now could be a much colder decade ahead even as the world continues to fight man- made global warming. Meanwhile, it will be increasingly difficult to explain to one billion starving people across the planet, that there is a global food shortage while nations grow corn to use as bio fuel to counter man-made global warming, even though the planet is in fact dramatically cooling.

However, a recent edition of Time Magazine has a recipe that may prove helpful to avoid world starvation while saving the environment at the same time. In another of their many stories on the environment and society, the magazine has a feature on eating insects. A video featured at Time.com actually shows people how to cook them.

Eating insects means the world would consume less meat. Eating less meat would result in less carbon emissions which would result in relief from man-made global warming. Time.com will show you how to cook beetles, grasshoppers, silkworms, and centipedes. Of course, eating the insects raw would use less energy and be even better for the environment.

If you want to listen to the proponents of man-made global warming, just forget the fact that other planets in the solar system are warming dramatically without any human inhabitants. Also, disregard the fact that the Earth is currently experiencing a dramatic cooling trend. So, fight to save the planet from global warming by ordering your new heavy winter coat and continue to advocate growing corn for use as bio fuel.

To the true believers of man made climate change, the next decade may be global warming interrupted but for the good of the planet people should be eating raw bugs anyway. The truth is that all of this man-made global warming hysteria continues to make very little common or economic sense to me.

James Nash asked:


There’s an old joke about how you can tell when a lawyer is lying - his lips move. Can the same thing be applied to politicians? Oops - most politicians ARE lawyers!

Is the public’s increasing apathy towards politics partly due to the perception that politicians can’t be trusted to give it to us straight? Have many of us become so jaded that we assume it’s normal for politicians to lie? Where does “spin” end and outright lying begin? Is silence on an important issue the same as lying about it? And why do politicians fail to discuss these issues with us in a frank and thorough manner?

Global warming may be the number one issue on which politicians lie. The scientific facts of global warming and its predicted adverse impacts are accepted by the vast majority of climate scientists. Opponents of taking action on the issue are using a few scientists who still have doubts - or who find financial advantage in having doubts - to try to keep global warming in the “no clear evidence” category as long as they can. But there IS clear evidence of a long-term warming trend, and the consequences of continued inaction may indeed be globally catastrophic.

Unfortunately, those who call global warming the “greatest hoax of all time” are not alone in the Global Warming Liars Club. Even those politicians who are courageous enough to fight for action on the issue are not telling us the whole truth.

The Kyoto Protocol, whose implementation was rejected by the US Senate 94-0, would have required the US and other industrialized countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 5% below 1990 levels by 2012. Given the amount that emissions have grown since 1990, that may seem like a daunting challenge. But the problem is really much worse than that, and it causes all but the bravest politicians to lie.

The Kyoto treaty, while a step in the right direction, is vastly insufficient to reverse the climate change trend. The global reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions probably needs to be more like 50% to have the desired effect, and it needs to happen sooner rather than later. Even tougher is the fact that developing countries claim the current problem has mostly been caused by industrialized nations and that their developing economies should not have to be constrained to their current low levels of fossil-fuel use.

Given the seeming hopelessness of the challenge and the level of sacrifice that would appear to be required of the US to be part of a truly effective global solution, it’s easy enough to understand why most politicians would rather hide from the issue in general or cast doubt on it, and why even the politicians who do publicly support action on global warming are loath to discuss the whole truth.

But the potential effects of global warming, such as increased bad-weather events, coastal inundation, and - most seriously of all - disruption of global food production, are all likely parts of the future that will be faced by our children and successive generations if we don’t fix the problem. The challenge to finding solutions is one of leadership - leadership that will devise programs to:

1) replace our CO2-producing cars and power plants with clean technologies;

2) reduce sources of methane (another leading greenhouse gas) by confronting the issue of large-scale animal farming operations;

3) eliminate chemicals that cause global warming and replace them with non-problematic alternatives;

4) devise innovative programs to reduce the loss of forests (which serve as “carbon sinks,” thus keeping substantial amounts of CO2 from getting into the atmosphere).

Politicians and technologists will be needed to devise and implement solutions to global warming, and we consumers will have to be supportive with our dollars and our votes. But to get there, politicians must lead, not lie.

We saved the world from waves of Nazi stormtroopers, from hordes of Red Communists, and from the very ugly, unfriendly aliens in “Independence Day.” Surely we can also save it from a few kazillion tiny greenhouse gas molecules!

Enviro Saver asked:


There is a lot of debate going on regarding whether Global Warming is actually here or not. Many of the world’s leading scientists are saying that Global Warming has already arrived, so there is very little anyone can do to stop it; however, there are steps that people can take in order to reduce the effect of Global Warming. At this point, doing as much as one can do reduce the effects is essential, which means making some sacrifices and making some big changes in how one lives their life. Whether Global Warming is already here or has not quite arrived yet, it is best to start making the healthy changes now; healthy changes that will not only help them, but will also greatly help the natural environment.

How much does one have to change their life? Really, it all depends on how the person lives their life now. If a person already lives a very green life, then they will not have to change a lot; however, a person who is used to living in a way that takes a large toll on the environment will have to make some big changes. First, a person should live in a smaller home. Larger homes are only a drain on the resources and are one of the largest greenhouse grass producers, after vehicles, businesses and factories. Getting rid of the old car and purchasing a hybrid, riding a bicycle or just walking are other things a person needs to do to reduce the effects of Global Warming. Becoming more environmental in general, by planting trees, purchasing local foods, re-using more, recycling more, avoiding plastic and paper when possible and doing what they can to their house to reduce energy consumption are all ways that can reduce the effects of global warming.

All it takes is one person to become greener in how they live. It only takes one person changing how they live to a better way of life to bring out the same kind of change in others. That one person who shares their ideas will influence others who will think the changes are a good idea and start to make the same changes in their own lives. Those people will then influence others in the same way. People will often forget the power that one person has in influencing change; one person has the power to make all the difference in the world when they put their energy into it.

James William Smith asked:


The problem with the true believer is that an issue becomes black and white. There is no room for discussion. The true believer is right and if you do not agree with him/her, you are dead wrong. The fact is the true believer is not satisfied just with the knowledge that they are right. They need you to acknowledge that they are right as well. They need to convert you. There can be no dissension. There can be no discourse. Facts do not really matter if they do not fit into the true believer’s argument.

In extreme and violent terms we have seen this behavior manifest itself throughout history. The Crusades and the misguided horrors of Nazi Germany in the Second World War are examples. Today the violent true believer mentality can be seen in the extreme elements of Islam.The true believer mentality also exists in less dramatic and more subtle ways throughout our society. It can be seen in ethnic, racial or gender discrimination. It can be seen in religious intolerance. Unfortunately, it was also be seen in the United Nations sponsored climate change event in Bali in December 2007.

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) panel’s chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, said: Climate change imperils “the most precious treasures of our planet,” and the effects are “so severe and so sweeping that only urgent global action will do.

In fact, the United Nations reports that global warming is “unequivocal”. It estimates that as early as the year 2020 between 75 and 250 million people in Africa will suffer water shortages. It goes on to state that residents of Asia’s largest cities will be at great risk of river and coastal flooding. Europeans can expect extensive species loss. North Americans will experience longer and hotter heat waves and greater competition for water.

The world’s scientists have spoken clearly and with one voice,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, “I expect the world’s policy makers to do the same.”

According to the United Nations true believers, global warming is “unequivocal” and the world scientists “have spoken clearly and with one voice”. There is no discussion. There is no dissent. All knowledgeable people now have been converted to this crusade. The reality, of course, is that global warming consensus is not the case in the scientific community.

Indeed for the Nobel winning United Nations panel (IPCC) and Nobel Prize winner Al Gore, fundamental problems with their global warming argument have already started to appear. As true believers in their global warming crusade, they will probably rationalize or ignore all facts that do not advance the cause. For the rest of us, as objective observers of the issue of global warming, the following facts should be carefully considered.

Global warming was supposed to cause frequent and violent hurricanes. The fact is that neither the intensity nor the frequency of hurricanes has increased. The 2007 season was the third quietest since 1966. In 2006 not a single hurricane made landfall in the U.S..

Since the mid 19th century, the mean global temperature has increased by 0.7 degrees Celsius. This slight warming is not unusual, and lies well within the range of natural variation. Carbon dioxide continues to increase in the atmosphere, but the mean planetary temperature hasn’t increased significantly now for the last nine years.

In fact , 2007 provides anecdotal evidence that the Earth is, in effect, cooling. Antarctica is getting colder. Snow fell for the first time in Buenos Aires since 1918. Australia had the coldest June in its history this year. It snowed in South Africa for the first time in 15 years. South America experienced one of its coldest winters in the last three decades.

The truth is that the entire southern hemisphere experienced bitter cold weather in 2007. In addition, the Canadian government has just warned that this winter is likely to be its coldest in at least 15 years. Already, this winter has been very cold in many other parts of the Northern Hemisphere as well.

We have heard about global warming causing the rapidly melting Arctic Ice Cap in the last several years. In fact, advocates of man made global warming point to the rapidly melting Arctic ice as a sign that global warming is occurring even faster than expected.

However, the facts as reported by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California last month indicate a quite different conclusion. The melting of the Arctic sea ice in this study has nothing to do with global warming. It was a natural phenomenon caused by unusual winds and atmospheric pressure.

The project studied trends in Arctic Sea Ice using satellite data , computer models and buoy observations of sea ice drift. The conclusion of the study was as follows: “The rapid decline in winter perennial ice the past two years was caused by unusual winds. Unusual atmospheric conditions set up wind patterns that compressed the sea ice, loaded it into the Transpolar Drift Stream, and then sped its flow out of the Arctic. When that sea ice reached lower latitudes, it rapidly melted in the warmer waters. The winds causing this trend in ice reduction were set up by an unusual pattern of atmospheric pressure that began at the beginning of this century”.

Global warming proponents have pointed out that records showed that 1998 was the hottest year on record in the United States. Several of the years surrounding 1998 were very warm and near the record as well. It certainly appeared that the climate was warming due to these historical records. However, it has just been discovered that the records were erroneous. A Canadian blogger named Steve McIntyre audited the NASA records and found errors. When he reported his findings to NASA scientists, they conducted a review that showed he was correct.

This led NASA to recently revise the data published on its website. The errors change the historical facts concerning the global warming argument. The hottest year in the United States is no longer 1998, but 1934. 2001 is no longer in the Top Ten. Instead, four of the top ten hottest years are in the 1930s.

Global warming is an issue that needs to be looked at objectively. It is an issue for rational discourse concerning science and facts. However, it has become a crusade for environmental true believers. Despite the United Nations rhetoric, scientists do not speak with “one voice” and man-made global warming is not “unequivocal”.

The danger in blindly following the United Nations global warming crusaders is that we become far removed from the facts of the issue. Indeed, these same United Nations true believers could one day be wearing winter coats in tropical Bali asking Gaia, (the goddess of nature), for increased global warming. Such perversity happens when an issue becomes a crusade.

Diana Trimble asked:


It’s not just the planet that’s hotting up, it’s the whole debate about global warming. Especially now that we can see and feel its effects every day. Yet you’ve probably noticed that when it comes to taking action, the focus always seems to be on what each of us can do personally. We the people must use energy-saving light bulbs, fly less, recycle, use green energy, take our appliances off standby, and so on. But perhaps, like me, these entreaties leave you feeling a bit ripped off. Perhaps you, too, are wondering what part business, industry and governments have to play? It’s certainly true that there are things individual citizens can and must do, but surely really significant reductions ultimately depend on tough, international legislative action. After all, if personal responsibility were all that has ever been necessary to solve problems, why were political systems and governments invented in the first place? Once we’ve taken individual action, is that it? Or is there more to be done? What really seems to be needed is a way of acting collectively to ensure that governments around the world start co-operating to solve global warming instead of talking more hot air while the planet burns.

In his film, An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore rightly points out that collective action depends on political will, but this, he says, is in short supply. Right again! The reasons for its scarcity, he suggests, are that it’s simply not in the short-term interests of the main polluting nations and their industries to take substantive action. So far so good, but the cartoon image he uses to hammer his point home is an unfortunate one: a pair of scales with gold bars on one side and the entire planet on the other. Gore uses this to demonstrate the absurdity of those who see economic prosperity and a healthy planet as an either/or choice: after all, what value could gold bars have if there’s no habitable planet in which to enjoy them? It’s plainly ridiculous, and so too, suggests Gore, is the reluctance of some to give up the gold bars.

But rather than ridicule those who fear for their short-term interests, shouldn’t we be trying to look at what may be their perfectly legitimate point, and trying to understand the forces that keep it relevant? Gore may have faced the inconvenient truth of global warming, but he is yet to face a second inconvenient truth: that stiff action on the part of the rich countries WILL have adverse economic effects, at least in the short term. And if global warming is dealt with in isolation, those costs WILL fall heaviest on the USA and on other big polluters. To deny the barrier to action that these short-term costs and disincentives represent, as Gore seems to, is to fall into the same trap as those who deny global warming itself.

I laughed along with everyone else when I saw the gold vs earth cartoon, but making fun of those who are wary of economic backlash is hardly likely to elicit the consensus Gore seeks. It also seems like a cheap shot when you keep in mind that had Gore actually become President in 2000, he would inescapably have joined the ranks of those he’s poking fun at. The president of the U.S. has only four years before facing another election, so Gore’s popularity and tenure in office would have been directly influenced by his corporate funders and their support for short-term gains to the US economy.

Today, there may only be few people who still cling to denying global warming. But knowledge and acceptance can’t effect change by themselves. What is urgently needed is a means to unlock the short-term barriers and disincentives that prevent decisive collective action - nationally and internationally. Make no mistake: in today’s globalised and largely borderless world, capital and jobs generally move to wherever in the world environmental and social costs are lowest and profits therefore highest. Any government moving first to significantly increase environmental costs or regulations in a bid to reduce emissions would definitely see investment and jobs moving elsewhere, thus making the nation uncompetitive. That’s why nothing changes except the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere just keeps on rising. Prime Minister Tony Blair at least seemed to recognise these realities when he pointed out that “The blunt truth about the politics of climate change is that no country will want to sacrifice its economy in order to meet this challenge”.[i]

Unlike Gore, Blair clearly recognises this second inconvenient truth and he should not be blamed for stating it. But his statement only holds true IF nations fail to act together. This is the barrier that keeps the gold bars firmly on one side of the scales. However, if all nations co-operated, the necessary regulations could be implemented without any nation fearing capital or employment flight because there would be no low-cost haven for them to run to. Corporations, too, would have nothing to fear because all corporations would be subject to the same additional costs, so maintaining their relative competitiveness and their relative profitability. Think about that for a minute.

But there is a further problem: the biggest polluter, the USA, would have the biggest adjustment cost, so it has the least incentive to sign up to any cooperative agreement. This is why the Kyoto Protocol is not supported by the USA and Australia, another big polluter. It is also why the provisions of the Kyoto agreement are so mild and relatively ineffectual. Because if the nations supporting Kyoto agreed to tougher, more significant curbs, the costs involved would make them uncompetitive with nations, such as the USA and Australia, who refuse to participate.

The net result is a recipe for missed targets and an intergovernmental dead-lock of a kind which raises the third, final and most important inconvenient truth; this time one that concerns not so much governments or businesses but each of us as individual citizens. It’s a truth which all citizens around the world must urgently take on board: that we can no longer abdicate responsibility for taking collective action to politicians and governments alone. If free-riding governments are to be compelled to co-operate, then it must be citizens who force them to do so. We have no choice but to take the initiative, and stop assuming that politicians are in the driving seat of the global economy. It’s time to grab hold of the steering wheel and find a way of driving our politicians and governments toward co-operation. What’s needed is a method of achieving cooperation which removes the barriers and objections, takes away the fears of being uncompetitive, and replaces those fears with an enthusiasm for shared problem-solving.

When Al Gore became fully aware of the dangers of global warming, he travelled far and wide to gain a deeper understanding of the science and its real-world effects, and justifiably so (although I do hope he planted plenty of trees to personally offset his carbon emissions). But Gore and the rest of us have so far failed to embark on another, far more urgent line of enquiry. If we genuinely wish to solve global warming and other global problems, we need to gain a deeper understanding of the barriers to collective government action under globalisation. For the deeper truth is that global warming and many other global “problems” are not the real problems at all. They are merely symptoms, albeit terrifying ones, of our failure as a global human society to co-operate. Until we understand the dynamics of co-operation and how to achieve it, and what we as citizens can do to unblock the barriers to it, international inaction, missed targets and deepening chaos will continue and global warming may well destroy human civilisation.

The Simultaneous Policy, a global citizen’s initiative, claims to have begun this vital journey and to offer a plausible and effective way that citizens can use their right to vote in a new way that drives the politicians of all parties and nations to collectively implement the measures we so desperately need. It seems that political representatives would find it a welcome relief to be freed from the restrictions that keep them beholden to big business interests and confined to wholly inadequate policies dictated by the need to keep their nations “internationally competitive”. This is reflected in the fact that already politicians from opposing sides of the spectrum - nationally and internationally - are pledging their support for the Simultaneous Policy as a result of voter pressure and/or enlightened social responsibility. Check it out for yourself at www.simpol.org - as Noam Chomsky commented, “Can it work? It’s certainly worth a serious try!”

Alwyn Myburgh asked:


Global Warming - Information and Tips regarding Global Warming

 

Definition of Global Warming:

 

Global Warming is the increase in the average measured temperature of the Earth’s near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century, and its projected continuation.

 

Average measured temperature is the instrumental temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans as measured by temperature sensors. Currently, the longest-running temperature record is the Central England temperature data series that starts in 1659. The longest-running quasi-global record starts in 1850.

 

IPCC:

 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes “most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-twentieth century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations via an enhanced greenhouse effect.

 

These basic conclusions have been endorsed by at least 30 scientific societies and academies of science, including all of the national academies of science of the major industrialized countries. While individual scientists have voiced disagreement with these findings, the overwhelming majority of scientists working on climate change agree with the IPCC’s main conclusions.

 

Effects of Global Warming:

 

According to projections made by the IPCC, the average global surface temperature will rise a further 6 degrees Celsius during this century. Although most of the studies and predictions are made up to a certain century, warmer temperatures and the rise of the sea level are expected to continue for more than a 1000 years even if greenhouse gas levels are brought down.”

 

Some of the effects of Global Warming include:

 

1.      Increase global temperature and that causes sea levels to rise.

 

2.      Increase in the intensity of extreme weather events decreasing tropical areas and increasing the amount of deserted places.

 

3.      Agricultural cycles changes.

 

4.      Mass species extinctions.

 

5.      Increase of disease spreading.

 

Some of the uncertainties are the amount of warming that will take place in the future and how it will differ from region to region around the world.

 

Governments are trying to make a difference and most of the national governments have signed the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the International Framework Convention on Climate Change and it is aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

 

So as you can see, Global Warming is happening and is happening now. It seems that the future of our children looks dull, but we as parents, leaders and decision makers can still make a difference. We need to change our thinking and our daily habits. This is not an easy thing to do, but we can and must do it. There is lots of information and tips that we can use in our daily life to live a greener live. There are even products we can buy to implement in our lives that can help saving energy and be more environment friendly.

 

For more Tips and Products on helping Global warming go to www.globalcause.us . There you will find Tips at the Office and products for a greener living.

 

Some Green Products include: Battery Reconditioning, Carbon Trading and Green Book of Natural Healing

I am a professional sportsman and I am outside in the sun everyday and I know how important a clean environment is for me and our children. Go to www.globalcause.us NOW.

 

Arjun Singhe asked:


Many people believe that global warming is caused solely by the human beings that are on the planet.  It may be surprising to know that global warming is also a naturally occurring event.  It can easily be argued that whatever global warming occurs naturally on the planet is a fraction of what humans are capable of contributing. 

The human causes of global warming have been occurring for many years.  The various methods in which humans contribute to global warming include everything from driving cars to simply breathing.  Natural causes of global warming can be on a much larger scale that could be from sources outside of our planet.  Whether the cause is natural or human, global warming is a serious problem that everyone should be aware of.

Different Natural Causes Of Global Warming

One natural cause of global warming involves the sun.  Overtime explosions are generated on the surface of the sun and the impact is felt all the way back on Earth.  The impact comes in the form of higher temperatures which directly affect global warming.  These eruptions occur quite normally on the sun and the planet can be regularly subjected to the increased temperatures that result.

As both the Sun and the Earth orbit there are certain times that the two come closer to one another.  When this happens it is normal to see an increase in temperatures on the planet.  This is a great example of a natural cause of global warming. There is nothing we can actually do to prevent this from happening as it is part of the natural course of the universe.

Earth has numerous volcanoes that litter its surface.  Some actively are erupting while many others sit dormant waiting for their next opportunity to unleash their fury.  When these volcanoes do erupt they send numerous gases, ash, and smoke into the atmosphere of the planet.  As this happens the temperatures will slowly decrease.  This is because the sunlight that would typically shine in the area is shielded by the smoke released by the volcano.  Once the effects of the volcano have subsided the planet will naturally warm itself back up.

Any change that might occur in the planets ocean currents can effect global warming as well.  It is thought that these changes in the current can be influenced by the sun.  Depending on the location and the degree of the change in the ocean current, temperatures can increase dramatically which contributes to global warming.