Archive for June 2011
Waste is the new Gold
June 30, 2011 | 
Author More working together and out of the box thinking on waste would help boost the economy according to business report out today (February 14).
Launching the report called Making Ends Meet: Maximising the value of waste the UK business group, the CBI, promotes a move to a zero-waste economy.
By focusing on waste it could make it easier for more firms to sell their recyclable waste to other companies as a resource, boosting the economy.
To do this the CBI wants a full audit of waste regulation and says the Government ‘must’ recognise the importance of waste management facilities to local communities in its planning reforms.
It also calls for more cross-governmental cooperation from DEFRA, DECC, BIS, DCLG and HMT beyond the lifetime of the waste review, taking joint ownership of the delivery plan.
More energy from waste technologies to reduce our carbon use and deliver energy security, is another area where the economy could be greatly boosted,echoing calls from energy secretary Chris Huhne, who himself has commented about the fact only two anaerobic digestion plants have been accredited under the Feed-In-Tariffs (FITs) scheme.
It could, suggests the report, also encourage councils to share waste and recycling facilities, creating savings.
With 300 of the UK’s landfill sites due to close in the next decade, around 2000 new waste management facilities need to be built by 2020, at an estimated cost of £10bn.
The CBI is calling for a cross-departmental approach from the Government, in view of the imminent waste policy review, and changes to planning. This would help to source the investment needed in waste management infrastructure.
The director-general of the CBI, Dr Neil Bentley, said: “Rather than being viewed in isolation, waste management should be seen as an important part of the green economy and our growth strategy.
“Ambitious waste policies will allow the Government to hit a broad range of its objectives from cutting emissions to bolstering energy security.
“We should also be encouraging councils to share recycling and waste facilities, while businesses could be incentivised to sell their recyclable waste.
“But moving to a zero-waste economy will require government departments working together and thinking outside the box.
“There also needs to be swift action to tackle delays in the planning system. On average it takes seven years for a waste management company to get a plant up and running, of which four are spent in the planning process. That is not the way to attract investment.”
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It's here and more is coming . . . Legislation
Organisations covered by the Carbon Reduction Commitment should embrace the opportunities it creates, since as there’s no avoiding it they may as well reap what benefits it brings.
This was the core message of Julius Brinkworth, head of energy and environment at Sainsbury’s when he spoke on the CRC at a London event this week.
Addressing delegates at the Low Carbon Conference event, Mr Brinkworth said that the CRC was likely to be the first of many pieces of regulation of its kind and that those affected would do well to treat it as a learning exercise so that they will be on top of future waves of regulation.
He pointed out that it tracked absolute energy use, not emissions-by-turnover or any other metric that takes into account expansion – or shrinking – of business so argued that energy managers in successful companies could have a hard time showing energy reductions, even if energy efficiency had improved on a site by site basis.
He advised fellow energy managers to use the opportunity to look at their organisation’s performance with fresh eyes, saying that no matter how well they think they know their operations, there will always be something that can be done to improve performance further at some sites.
Sainsbury’s employs a large team of ‘really good’ energy managers, he added, but still managed to squeeze further savings of 15% on average out of each site visited and given a CRC-makeover.
“Make sure the compliance is absolutely nailed,” he said.
“This isn’t something you can avoid, it’s going to happen and you’ve got to understand it and take responsibility.”
Shoud We Offset Our Residual Carbon Emissions?
Carbon offsetting provokes a powerful emotional response in some people. They just don’t like the idea that you can pay someone else to mop up your carbon emissions. It smacks of indulgence and cheating. Critics say buying an offset while continuing to fly, or drive an SUV, or live in a mansion with all the lights on, is at best hypocritical, and at worst, downright dangerous. It simply avoids the issue, which is that we should be reducing our carbon footprint, and simply encourages the delusion that we can go on living in an environmentally profligate way.
Some even compare offsetting with the Papal indulgences of the late Middle Ages, where Catholics were offered redemptions for their sins in return for donations to the Church – buying their way out of punishment for wrongdoing. Critics say this is exactly what modern-day carbon offsetters are trying to do. They think money will buy them a clear conscience while they continue to fill the sky with fumes.
Certain high profile stories, mainly about celebrities trying to offset carbon-intensive lifestyles, give credence to the criticisms, but it is far from the whole picture. Offsetting is something that is practiced by thousands of individuals and organizations who are neither hypocritical or delusional. Let’s look at the argument more closely.
First, let’s acknowledge that our number one priority must be to reduce our carbon output in every way possible – switching to a renewable energy supplier, insulating our homes, driving less, etc. But let’s also acknowledge that even if this is done with the best intentions in the world, most of us will reach a point where we cannot easily, or perhaps affordably, do much more in the short term. Few of us have lived our lives entirely by environmental priorities, and most of us have woken up to climate change at a point where we inhabit houses or offices, or own cars, or hold down jobs that were never designed with carbon neutrality in mind.
Even if we take whatever steps we can to reduce, recycle and reuse now, and make a commitment that our next car will run on biofuel and that we will fit solar panels to our house, etc., most individuals or organizations endeavoring to go carbon neutral will be left with a residue of current emissions. Now we have two choices – we can ignore them or we can offset.
Ignoring them might avoid having to think through the ethical issues around offsetting, but it is not going to help the planet. On the other hand, offsetting them will ensure that as long as we continue to produce emissions, they will be counterbalanced by a saving or sequestering somewhere else. It is the environmentally responsible thing to do.
We’ve been talking about the residual emissions left after taking a reduction strategy as far as we can. Now let’s go back to the case of the pop star or movie actor who appears to have no immediate intention of giving up flying, or selling their SUV, but who decides to offset. On the one hand, we could cry, ‘Hypocrite!’ and denounce them for trying to buy environmental redemption. Or we could recognize that they have at least acknowledged that their lifestyle has an environmental price. For the wealthy, this price is relatively trivial at the moment if they are simply accounting for their flying or driving, but it is the start of a cultural process – a process of accepting the cost to the planet of our actions, and building this into our economy.
Over time, the cost of carbon will rise and will be factored into all the products and services we consume, and this will begin to have greater impact on our behaviour as the price differential between our old habits and a new greener lifestyle increases. Celebrities have a part to play in highlighting issues such as climate change, and in endorsing the concept that we must pay for our impact on the planet.
We need to be realistic too. Many people are going to continue to take long-haul holiday flights, drive SUVs and run high energy households no matter what anybody says. The process of persuasion and change will be slow. Denouncing people for taking a step towards environmental awareness and carbon neutrality is counterproductive. It will discourage positive action, and polarise the debate. We should be trying to move people on in their environmental thinking, not alienate them.
Some individuals and organisations will no doubt abuse offsetting in order to indulge environmentally irresponsible behaviour, but to condemn all offsetting on this basis is to overlook the best intentions and goodwill of the majority who participate. We are all trying to find a way forward with global warming. We know it will take a combination of many individual, community, corporate, government and international efforts. Offsetting has a role to play. It is empowering at the individual level. And, unlike the Papal indulgences of the past, offsetting can have a real effect in reducing the carbon levels in our atmosphere, and slowing the pace of climate change.
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Tags: Carbon Accounting, Emissions, Offset, Residual, Shoud | 
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Fifty Ways To Save Our Planet
The Human Effect On Climate Change And Global Disasters
Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years. It can be a change in the average weather or a change in the distribution of weather events around an average (for example, greater or fewer extreme weather events). Climate change may be limited to a specific region, or may occur across the whole Earth.
In recent usage, especially in the context of environmental policy, climate change usually refers to changes in modern climate. It may be qualified as anthropogenic climate change, more generally known as “global warming” or “anthropogenic global warming” (AGW).
For information on temperature measurements over various periods, and the data sources available, see temperature record. For attribution of climate change over the past century, see attribution of recent climate change.
Human influences
Main article: Global warming
Anthropogenic factors are human activities that change the environment. In some cases the chain of causality of human influence on the climate is direct and unambiguous (for example, the effects of irrigation on local humidity), while in other instances it is less clear. Various hypotheses for human-induced climate change have been argued for many years. Presently the scientific consensus on climate change is that human activity is very likely the cause for the rapid increase in global average temperatures over the past several decades. Consequently, the debate has largely shifted onto ways to reduce further human impact and to find ways to adapt to change that has already occurred.
Of most concern in these anthropogenic factors is the increase in CO2 levels due to emissions from fossil fuel combustion, followed by aerosols (particulate matter in the atmosphere) and cement manufacture. Other factors, including land use, ozone depletion, animal agriculture and deforestation, are also of concern in the roles they play – both separately and in conjunction with other factors – in affecting climate, microclimate, and measures of climate variables.
Physical evidence for climatic change
Evidence for climatic change is taken from a variety of sources that can be used to reconstruct past climates. Reasonably complete global records of surface temperature are available beginning from the mid-late 1800s. For earlier periods, most of the evidence is indirect—climatic changes are inferred from changes in proxies, indicators that reflect climate, such as vegetation, ice cores, dendrochronology, sea level change, and glacial geology.
Historical and archaeological evidence
Main article: Historical impacts of climate change
Climate change in the recent past may be detected by corresponding changes in settlement and agricultural patterns. Archaeological evidence, oral history and historical documents can offer insights into past changes in the climate. Climate change effects have been linked to the collapse of various civilizations.
Glaciers
Variations in CO2, temperature and dust from the Vostok ice core over the last 450,000 years
Glaciers are considered among the most sensitive indicators of climate change, advancing when climate cools and retreating when climate warms. Glaciers grow and shrink, both contributing to natural variability and amplifying externally forced changes. A world glacier inventory has been compiled since the 1970s, initially based mainly on aerial photographs and maps but now relying more on satellites. This compilation tracks more than 100,000 glaciers covering a total area of approximately 240,000 km2, and preliminary estimates indicate that the remaining ice cover is around 445,000 km2. The World Glacier Monitoring Service collects data annually on glacier retreat and glacier mass balance From this data, glaciers worldwide have been found to be shrinking significantly, with strong glacier retreats in the 1940s, stable or growing conditions during the 1920s and 1970s, and again retreating from the mid 1980s to present.
Percentage of advancing glaciers in the Alps in the last 80 years
The most significant climate processes since the middle to late Pliocene (approximately 3 million years ago) are the glacial and interglacial cycles. The present interglacial period (the Holocene) has lasted about 11,700 years.Shaped by orbital variations, responses such as the rise and fall of continental ice sheets and significant sea-level changes helped create the climate. Other changes, including Heinrich events, Dansgaard–Oeschger events and the Younger Dryas, however, illustrate how glacial variations may also influence climate without the orbital forcing.
Glaciers leave behind moraines that contain a wealth of material – including organic matter that may be accurately dated – recording the periods in which a glacier advanced and retreated. Similarly, by tephrochronological techniques, the lack of glacier cover can be identified by the presence of soil or volcanic tephra horizons whose date of deposit may also be precisely ascertained.
What can we do to slow down or stop Global Warming
Replace a regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb (cfl)
CFLs use 60% less energy than a regular bulb. This simple switch will save about 300 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
We recommend you purchase your CFL bulbs at 1000bulbs.com, they have great deals on both screw-in and plug-in light bulbs.
Install a programmable thermostat
Programmable thermostats will automatically lower the heat or air conditioning at night and raise them again in the morning. They can save you $100 a year on your energy bill.
Move your thermostat down 2° in winter and up 2° in summer
Almost half of the energy we use in our homes goes to heating and cooling. You could save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year with this simple adjustment.
Clean or replace filters on your furnace and air conditioner
Cleaning a dirty air filter can save 350 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
Choose energy efficient appliances when making new purchases
Look for the Energy Star label on new appliances to choose the most energy efficient products available.
Do not leave appliances on standby
Use the “on/off” function on the machine itself. A TV set that’s switched on for 3 hours a day (the average time Europeans spend watching TV) and in standby mode during the remaining 21 hours uses about 40% of its energy in standby mode.
Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket
You’ll save 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year with this simple action. You can save another 550 pounds per year by setting the thermostat no higher than 50°C.
Move your fridge and freezer
Placing them next to the cooker or boiler consumes much more energy than if they were standing on their own. For example, if you put them in a hot cellar room where the room temperature is 30-35ºC, energy use is almost double and causes an extra 160kg of CO2 emissions for fridges per year and 320kg for freezers.
Defrost old fridges and freezers regularly
Even better is to replace them with newer models, which all have automatic defrost cycles and are generally up to two times more energy-efficient than their predecessors.
Don’t let heat escape from your house over a long period
When airing your house, open the windows for only a few minutes. If you leave a small opening all day long, the energy needed to keep it warm inside during six cold months (10ºC or less outside temperature) would result in almost 1 ton of CO2 emissions.
Replace your old single-glazed windows with double-glazing
This requires a bit of upfront investment, but will halve the energy lost through windows and pay off in the long term. If you go for the best the market has to offer (wooden-framed double-glazed units with low-emission glass and filled with argon gas), you can even save more than 70% of the energy lost.
Get a home energy audit
Many utilities offer free home energy audits to find where your home is poorly insulated or energy inefficient. You can save up to 30% off your energy bill and 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. Energy Star can help you find an energy specialist.
Cover your pots while cooking
Doing so can save a lot of the energy needed for preparing the dish. Even better are pressure cookers and steamers: they can save around 70%!
Use the washing machine or dishwasher only when they are full
If you need to use it when it is half full, then use the half-load or economy setting. There is also no need to set the temperatures high. Nowadays detergents are so efficient that they get your clothes and dishes clean at low temperatures.
Take a shower instead of a bath
A shower takes up to four times less energy than a bath. To maximize the energy saving, avoid power showers and use low-flow shower heads, which are cheap and provide the same comfort.
Use less hot water
It takes a lot of energy to heat water. You can use less hot water by installing a low flow shower head (350 pounds of carbon dioxide saved per year) and washing your clothes in cold or warm water (500 pounds saved per year) instead of hot.
Use a clothesline instead of a dryer whenever possible
You can save 700 pounds of carbon dioxide when you air dry your clothes for 6 months out of the year.
Insulate and weatherize your home
Properly insulating your walls and ceilings can save 25% of your home heating bill and 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. Caulking and weather-stripping can save another 1,700 pounds per year. Energy Efficient has more information on how to better insulate your home.
Be sure you’re recycling at home
You can save 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide a year by recycling half of the waste your household generates.
Recycle your organic waste
Around 3% of the greenhouse gas emissions through the methane is released by decomposing bio-degradable waste. By recycling organic waste or composting it if you have a garden, you can help eliminate this problem! Just make sure that you compost it properly, so it decomposes with sufficient oxygen, otherwise your compost will cause methane emissions and smell foul.
Buy intelligently
One bottle of 1.5l requires less energy and produces less waste than three bottles of 0.5l. As well, buy recycled paper products: it takes less 70 to 90% less energy to make recycled paper and it prevents the loss of forests worldwide.
Choose products that come with little packaging and buy refills when you can
You will also cut down on waste production and energy use… another help against global warming.
Reuse your shopping bag
When shopping, it saves energy and waste to use a reusable bag instead of accepting a disposable one in each shop. Waste not only discharges CO2 and methane into the atmosphere, it can also pollute the air, groundwater and soil.
Reduce waste
Most products we buy cause greenhouse gas emissions in one or another way, e.g. during production and distribution. By taking your lunch in a reusable lunch box instead of a disposable one, you save the energy needed to produce new lunch boxes.
Plant a tree
A single tree will absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. Shade provided by trees can also reduce your air conditioning bill by 10 to 15%. The Arbor Day Foundation has information on planting and provides trees you can plant with membership.
Switch to green power
In many areas, you can switch to energy generated by clean, renewable sources such as wind and solar. In some of these, you can even get refunds by government if you choose to switch to a clean energy producer, and you can also earn money by selling the energy you produce and don’t use for yourself.
Buy locally grown and produced foods
The average meal in the United States travels 1,200 miles from the farm to your plate. Buying locally will save fuel and keep money in your community.
Buy fresh foods instead of frozen
Frozen food uses 10 times more energy to produce.
Seek out and support local farmers markets
They reduce the amount of energy required to grow and transport the food to you by one fifth. Seek farmer’s markets in your area, and go for them.
Buy organic foods as much as possible
Organic soils capture and store carbon dioxide at much higher levels than soils from conventional farms. If we grew all of our corn and soybeans organically, we’d remove 580 billion pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere!
Eat less meat
Methane is the second most significant greenhouse gas and cows are one of the greatest methane emitters. Their grassy diet and multiple stomachs cause them to produce methane, which they exhale with every breath.
Reduce the number of miles you drive by walking, biking, carpooling or taking mass transit wherever possible
Avoiding just 10 miles of driving every week would eliminate about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year! Look for transit options in your area.
Start a carpool with your coworkers or classmates
Sharing a ride with someone just 2 days a week will reduce your carbon dioxide emissions by 1,590 pounds a year. eRideShare.com runs a free service connecting north American commuters and travelers.
Don’t leave an empty roof rack on your car
This can increase fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by up to 10% due to wind resistance and the extra weight – removing it is a better idea.
Keep your car tuned up
Regular maintenance helps improve fuel efficiency and reduces emissions. When just 1% of car owners properly maintain their cars, nearly a billion pounds of carbon dioxide are kept out of the atmosphere.
Drive carefully and do not waste fuel
You can reduce CO2 emissions by readjusting your driving style. Choose proper gears, do not abuse the gas pedal, use the engine brake instead of the pedal brake when possible and turn off your engine when your vehicle is motionless for more than one minute. By readjusting your driving style you can save money on both fuel and car mantainance.
Check your tires weekly to make sure they’re properly inflated
Proper tire inflation can improve gas mileage by more than 3%. Since every gallon of gasoline saved keeps 20 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, every increase in fuel efficiency makes a difference!
When it is time for a new car, choose a more fuel efficient vehicle
You can save 3,000 pounds of carbon dioxide every year if your new car gets only 3 miles per gallon more than your current one. You can get up to 60 miles per gallon with a hybrid! You can find information on fuel efficiency on FuelEconomy and on GreenCars websites.
Try car sharing
Need a car but don’t want to buy one? Community car sharing organizations provide access to a car and your membership fee covers gas, maintenance and insurance. Many companies – such as Flexcar – offer low emission or hybrid cars too! Also, see ZipCar.
Try telecommuting from home
Telecommuting can help you drastically reduce the number of miles you drive every week. For more information, check out the Telework Coalition.
Fly less
Air travel produces large amounts of emissions so reducing how much you fly by even one or two trips a year can reduce your emissions significantly. You can also offset your air travel carbon emissions by investing in renewable energy projects.
Encourage your school or business to reduce emissions
You can extend your positive influence on global warming well beyond your home by actively encouraging other to take action.
Join the virtual march
The Stop Global Warming Virtual March is a non-political effort to bring people concerned about global warming together in one place. Add your voice to the hundreds of thousands of other people urging action on this issue.
Encourage the switch to renewable energy
Successfully combating global warming requires a national transition to renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and biomass. These technologies are ready to be deployed more widely but there are regulatory barriers impeding them. U.S. citizens, take action to break down those barriers with Vote Solar.
Protect and conserve forest worldwide
Forests play a critical role in global warming: they store carbon. When forests are burned or cut down, their stored carbon is release into the atmosphere – deforestation now accounts for about 20% of carbon dioxide emissions each year. Conservation International has more information on saving forests from global warming.
Consider the impact of your investments
If you invest your money, you should consider the impact that your investments and savings will have on global warming. Check out SocialInvest and Ceres to can learn more about how to ensure your money is being invested in companies, products and projects that address issues related to climate change.
Make your city cool
Cities and states around the country have taken action to stop global warming by passing innovative transportation and energy saving legislation. If you’re in the U.S., join the cool cities list.
Tell Congress to act
The McCain Lieberman Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act would set a firm limit on carbon dioxide emissions and then use free market incentives to lower costs, promote efficiency and spur innovation. Tell your representative to support it.
Make sure your voice is heard!
Americans must have a stronger commitment from their government in order to stop global warming and implement solutions and such a commitment won’t come without a dramatic increase in citizen lobbying for new laws with teeth. Get the facts about U.S. politicians and candidates at Project Vote Smart and The League of Conservation Voters. Make sure your voice is heard by voting!
Share this list!
Send this page via e-mail to your friends! Spread this list worldwide and help people doing their part: the more people you will manage to enlighten, the greater YOUR help to save the planet will be (but please take action on first person too)!
The Future of Wind Power
(April 16, 2008) Christina Archer, consulting assistant professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University, discusses the importance of win power in a clean and renewable future. The Energy Seminar meets weekly during the academic year. For a list of upcoming talks, visit the events page at the Woods Institute for the Environment website. Stanford University www.stanford.edu Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford: woods.stanford.edu Christina Archer www.stanford.edu Stanford University Channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com
Green Jobs Bonanza in UK
Energy and climate change secretary Chris Huhne has revealed plans to “insulate the economy” in an attempt to bolster the economy and save the environment.
In a speech this morning, the minister pledged £90 billion in a new domestic scheme aimed at revamping 14 million of the country’s most energy-inefficient homes.
The scheme is part of a ‘Green Deal’ which aims to reduce carbon emissions and create thousands of new jobs.
Mr Huhne said energy saving is “the cheapest way of closing the gap between demand and supply” but that it is the “Cinderella of the energy ball”.
He criticised current energy policy, saying “we may as well be burning £50 notes outside our front doors”.
“With professional marketing from trusted brands, we ought to make energy efficiency as attractive as broadband or satellite TV,” Mr Huhne added.
The Green Deal will allow each project to claim up to £6,500 towards the cost of better insulation, lowering carbon emissions and reducing energy bills for the householder.
The cost of the work can be claimed back through consequent reductions in energy bills, relieving the householder of any financial burden.
The legislation will be put before the Commons in the autumn and will be the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s first bill under the coalition government.
Help Your Business In Enterprise Carbon And Energy Management
Energy efficiency and reduced energy consumption takes away the limelight of business accounting as initiatives on carbon footprint reduction is becoming the focus of attention. Economies of the future now consider carbon as a commodity, as it is a liability for enterprises in the entire world.
Soon, legislation shall create markets for carbon trading, which could add another column on the balance sheet. As the society is already becoming very much aware of the adverse effects of carbon to the environment, pressure from the society for companies to be responsive to their energy consumption and carbon footprint will continue to increase.
Corporate environmental sustainability may not be handled by a department or administered by the role of a junior vice president. Rather, carbon emissions must be addressed as a critical element of an organization’s existence. To slow down the already felt impacts of climate change, sustainable resource planning should be measurable, visible and real being part of each corporate requirements.
Collaborative approaches in enterprise energy and carbon management are now starting to emerge as the traditional systems are just not that holistic in approaching the problem. Sustainability resource planning software is an example of a software-as-a-service approach and is a way that distributed organizations can address this issue from the ground up as they move toward compliance.
The new-age enterprise energy management and carbon management systems will be heavily software-based that could monitor, report, and manage emissions which are consequences of energy consumption. A variety of IT systems already exist within the typical organization, designed to handle employee, customer, financial, raw material and finished product management. Enterprise carbon and energy management systems will become a critical addition to existing software systems and will be based on the need for greater operational efficiency, enhanced communications, mandated compliance and reputation differentiation.
Traditional methods of accounting are no longer acceptable in addressing problems of enterprise energy management and in reducing consequent greenhouse gas emissions. To create a structured information database and to aide analysis of multiple assets across an array of operational areas, a system must be created and executed in proactive management and performance assessment.
Distributed organizations are able to use carbon and energy management software to gather data from the asset level, calculating the true cost of ownership for all their assets, engage energy supply and demand management products, analyze and process utility bills, manage carbon emissions and other critical resources.
According to a market overview of enterprise carbon and energy management systems, released by Forrester Research in November, 2009, these systems are in the early stage of adoption, but such sustainability software will become a high priority as energy management in general becomes a clear focus of attention.
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How Can You Help To Go Green?
You may consider that climate change and fixing environmental issues is a huge undertaking and that you as an individual can do nothing to assist with keeping our planet green. Well there are a large number of things individuals can do, to ensure that our environment stays clean, green and sustainable.
Firstly, lets look at your home. Do you consume large amounts of electricity and water? Do you think you could reduce your water consumption? Could you survive with having half the amount of shower time? Is your garden suitable for your climate, or does it consume large amounts of water?
These are some of the areas where water savings can be made and therefore reducing your water costs and also saving the environment. The recommended level of water consumption is approximately 140 litres per person per day. Do you exceed this level?
Look at ways of reducing your water consumption. Take shorter showers, turn the water off when brushing teeth and only back on to rinse off. Plant drought resistant plants, or suitable plants for your climate that don’t require large amounts of water. Remember if you reduce your water consumption you also reduce your water rates and taxes, thereby saving you money.
Next let look at electricity consumption and whether or not you can reduce your energy needs just by managing the lights around your home, and turning off appliances that are not in use, just don’t leave them on stand-by. There is a wide range of energy efficient appliances and star rating systems that let you know which appliances and devices are energy-efficient and to what level. When buying new appliances, choose an appliance that displays high star energy rating that will not consume as much power as other models.
Have you replaced all your light bulbs with energy efficient ones? Just by replacing the light bulbs in your household will reduce your energy consumption. Also look at turning lights off, as soon as you leave a room and perhaps not have as many lights on in your home. Yes, it might be nice to light up your garden at night, but unless you are entertaining is it necessary to have them turned on every night? Think about the money you will save, just by saving electricity in your home. And remember electricity is set to increase by 30% over the next few years and possibly more once the carbon tax is introduced in Australia.
Other ways of assisting the environment is to choose products and services that have been certified green and environmentally friendly. You don’t need to stop purchasing items, but just choose products that assist with the environment. Here is a list of things you can do which are easy to achieve and all assist with keeping our environment clean and green:
Purchase your fruit and vegetables from local markets and choose organic produce. Avoid buying fruit and vegetables from the major supermarkets where the produce has been stored for up to 6 months using additional electricity and a range of chemicals to keep it fresh.
Reduce your electricity consumption and offset the costs by buying green power which comes from renewable energy sources such as solar power, wind power and even natural gas.
Reduce your water consumption and utilize water savings devices where possible.Look for green products when buying. Green products include products and services rated as carbon neutral. Carbon neutral products and services have offset their carbon footprint by purchasing carbon credits in green projects and schemes.
Buy organic foods, skin care and personal care items. If we increase the demand of organic products not only will the cost come down but the range and variety of products will increase and eventually become mainstream.
Only use re-useable shopping bags. Never use plastic ones, or if you do make sure you use them again as garbage bags. Never let plastic bags be disposed of in water ways.
Consider walking or riding your bike to the shop instead of driving. Not only will your health and fitness benefit from this, it will save the environment, reduce wear and tear of your vehicle and save you money as well.
There is a wide range of things that you can do, without having to change your habits too much, that assist in keeping our environment green and clean. Do you want your children to live in a healthy environment or one that is polluted? It is the little things that matter and if we all contribute equally we can make a change. We can assist in climate change and can make a difference to our environment.
Climate Change Factoid
Buffers are found in all ecosystems. Why should you care enough about that to invest time reading this? I think the exercise will explain a lot about how and why climate change will affect your life as it continues to increase in its intensity. It is not particularly complicated.
The dictionary defines the word buffer as: A person or thing that lessens shock or protects from damaging impact, circumstances, etc The buffering capacity of an ecosystem (and all ecosystems have this, including our atmosphere), is much like the bumper on a car. On a car, the bumper is there to absorb the minor impacts experienced in everyday driving but, no one believes it will provide much protection in a full on accident. The size or capacity of any physical feature of a natural system, buffers included, is determined by two rules of the natural world: the Use it or lose it, rule and the other, the What you need is what you get rule. A buffer that is either seldom or, infrequently tested, will see its buffering capacity shrink over time while on the other hand, a system constantly attacked by forces equal or greater than the size of existing buffers, will see its buffering capacity increase. The Vostok Ice Core studies established that our atmosphere has been remarkably stable for several million years. That being the case we should expect the use it or lose it rule to have reduced the atmosphere’s buffering capacity to a minimum.
To be considered destabilized, an ecosystem must have experienced a sufficient amount of unintended change or, disruption in its operation, that it can no longer return to its original stable form. If the change or disruption had been within the capacity of the ecosystem’s buffers, it would be able to reestablish its equilibrium just by doing what it had always done and you probably wouldn’t even notice that there had been a problem. However, once an ecosystem becomes destabilized, its elements begin to thrash about as they seek out new relationships that could lead to establishing a brand new ecosystem. That struggle would be readily apparent to an observer since it would be characterized by a severe increase in the extremes of behavior of its various members. Bottom line: Once you exceed an ecosystems buffering capacity and destabilize its operation, it is no longer possible to return it to its original form by simply removing or reducing the source of the instability.
Applying all of that to climate change; has the 40% increase in atmospheric CO2, exceeded the buffering capacity of our atmospheric ecosystem? If the answer is no, then we should still be able to reestablish equilibrium by eliminating our greenhouse gas emissions. That would allow the atmosphere to continue doing what it has always done (as mentioned above) and the currently high levels of CO2 would naturally decline and things would return to normal. If the buffers have been exceeded, destabilizing the atmosphere then reducing our carbon footprint will not solve the problem even though it might be an important component of a strategy for long term survival on earth.
Given the evidence, all solid, believable stuff, there shouldn’t be the slightest lingering doubt that the atmospheric ecosystem has exceeded its buffering capacity and is now fully destabilized. One of many the signs should explain. For the past 17 years earth’s temperature has been steadily increasing. Over the same time frame the total quantity of ice (polar caps, glaciers, etc) has been in decline as melting exceeds new snowfall most years. Add to those to events the fact that CO2 levels will remain at their current, unstable level for thousands of years and you have the “no going back†scenario described above. More heat less ice no relief in sight before the ice is all gone. You don’t need to figure out the rest of it, do you?
Posted in Climate Change | Tags: Buffers, Change, Climate, Factoid, Natural, series, Systems | No Comments »
Plastic Bag tax in Wales, how long before rest of UK follows?
Welsh plans to introduce a mandatory charge for disposable plastic bags similar to the Irish ‘plastax’ look set to bear fruit next spring.
Wales is proposing a 7p tax to be levied on every disposable plastic bag at the point of sale, to encourage shoppers to take their own bags with them and reduce the waste created by carrier bags.
Driven by Welsh Environment Minister, Jane Davidson, the fee is expected to dramatically reduce the number of single-use carrier bags used in the country.
More than 400 million single use carrier bags are currently given out to Welsh shoppers each year.
Most of these end up littering our country or in landfill where they release harmful greenhouse gasses into the environment and take between 500 and 1000 years to degrade.
“Carrier bags are an iconic symbol of the throwaway society in which we live,” said Ms Davidson.
“Whilst I know that reducing our use of single use carrier bags is not going to solve all our environmental problems, the charge delivers an important message about the need for us to live much more sustainable lives.
“I believe the seven pence charge is high enough to encourage consumers to change their shopping habits but not so high that it will stop impulse shopping or create a significant burden when we have forgotten reusable bags.
“I am confident that the Welsh public will embrace the carrier bag charge and see it as positive step towards preserving our beautiful countryside and helping Wales to reduce its carbon footprint.
“It’s important to remember that no one has to pay the charge; it can be simply avoided if we remember to carry reusable bags when we do our shopping.”
The Environment Minister will launch a second consultation on the carrier bag charge today, Friday June 4.
It will ask for public views on:
Whether the charge should be on all single-use carrier bags – including those made of paper
If there should be exemptions for certain types of bags such as those used to carry unpackaged food like loose vegetables or pharmacy medicines
Whether there should be a voluntary agreement with retailers to ensure that profits from the charge are passed to environmental or community projects and good causes.