Let me start this particular blog post by acknowledging two things: –
Thing 1 – Simon and I do not recycle. This is because until about a year ago recycling was not made available to the apartment dwellers at Belfast City Centre. Then, once it was, we discovered that our buildings recycling room was locked from about 430pm to 9am Monday through Friday and 24 hours on the weekends. In other words, it was only open when we were at work. So we had no where to put our recycling. Now that I don’t work, I suppose we could start.
Thing 2 – Adam wears disposable diapers. Because they are easier for me. And I already do enough washing, thank you very much.
Those two things being said, I would suspect that Simon and I have a fairly low carbon footprint anyway. We don’t own a car. We go everywhere either on foot or on the bus with the occasional taxi ride. We rarely fly any where (yes, we are going to California for Christmas, but our last trip on a plane before that was to Tuscany for Simon’s sister’s wedding in September 2008 and the one before that was Florida 2.5 years ago. So maybe we fly once a year? Maybe?). We are both obsessive about turning off lights, not leaving the TV on standby etc. Our biggest electrical expense, we imagine, is the washer/dryer which is on nearly every day thanks to baby vomit etc and our dishwasher. We have lived without, and will probably again live without, a dishwasher. But we are enjoying it while we have it!
Now that that’s out of the way…
I have some serious doubts about what we are being told about climate change. Yes, I’ve read both sides of the story. I’ve seen the charts that show the average rise in temperature over the past 100 years or so. And about the melting of the Polar Ice Cap. I am still not sure I believe it.
Why? Because I have been told many many things over the past 40 years by so called experts about our planet that haven’t come true. I remember being told in elementary school that by the time I was out of school there would be one long city stretching from New York to Florida. Where is it?
I was told in high school, by my father, who worked for Kennecott Copper Corporation (who were purchased by SOHIO in the early 80s which was in turn bought by BP in the late 80s) that we would run out of copper by the beginning of this century. I still see an awful lot of copper top batteries about. And copper wire.
I was told, also in elementary school, that we would run out of fossil fuel just about right. Now. Funny, still seems to be flowing.
So how on earth is anyone truly suppose to believe that the world might be in real trouble in another 40 years? Especially with the language that is used. Might. Possibly. Could.
Nothing is definite. It can’t be. There are too many variables.
And what about this summit that is starting?
Well, first of all, why isn’t it being done via teleconference and over the web? I read recently that the carbon footprint of the conference? Is equal to the amount of carbon being put into the air by Luxembourg over a year. So they are off to a great start, aren’t they?
I am not precisely sure what they are hoping to get out of the summit, although I have heard that it is a do or die sort of situation. That all the governments must come to an agreement about carbon emissions or the world will end in, maybe, 40 years. Yeah. That’s gonna happen. Cuz all the G8 Summits have been such big successes (really really need a sarcastic font!).
And, honestly, the planet is going to be fine. The human race may die out, but maybe we deserve that. But the planet will recover. Its been around a very long time. And will be here long after we’re all gone.
Maybe that’s a weird attitude for me to have. If it all happens in the 40 years they predict I will probably, based on my genetics, still be alive. And my son will be 40. So why am I so blaise about it?
The same reason a lot of people are. Because even 40 years is a very long way away. Its the entire time I’ve been alive. My whole life. To me? That’s a very long time.
So until they (ah the infamous they!) can give me, and many others, a definite answer that something horrid is going to happen in 40 years if we don’t change our ways, we aren’t going to change our ways.
Sorry.
Personally, what I really hope? Is that this mythical occurrence in 40 years will give mankind the push it needs to truly reach for the stars and colonize other worlds. Even if I don’t get to go.
Did you hear about the “Climategate” scandal? From I can gather from the few news outlets that have reported on this, data for Al Gore’s book “An Inconvenient Truth” was manipulated to make it look much more cataclysmic than it is.
And in trying to leave less of a carbon footprint, sometimes we actually leave more. For instance, hybrid cars use far less gas and their emissions levels are much lower, but what happens to the car batteries when these cars go to a junkyard?
And so it goes. Besides, the world is ending in 2012. 🙂 Gotta love those Aztecs!
I am with you completely. I try to do my part, of course – we do recycle to a point, we are a one-vehicle family (Daniel takes the train to work), I do a good job of consolidating ventures out of the house and so on. We’re both careful about energy consumption and regularly bring our usage down, or in line with previous use if it was already low. I have the same doubts about stuff that you do.
One thing that has -always- gotten in my craw is the “we’re going to kill the earth” tirades. NO. We will NOT kill the earth. Yes, indeed, we will probably die out as a species at some point, wah wah. We’re just another parasite on the Mother. She’ll keep on turning and grow another species or two or a million which will die out for one reason and another.
I don’t think of that as license for us to do what we will – to me reasonable “reduce, reuse, recycle” is just prudent and common sense. I think what you and Simon do is very prudent and positive and in keeping with your lifestyle, and anyone who gets in your face about it is silly. I remember a few years ago when G. was little and Daniel was just starting out with his band, someone looked at our mini-van and chided me for not buying a Prius. At that point there were no larger hybrids, and the actual value of hybrids is still hotly under debate. I looked at the person in shock and asked them how I was going to tote a child, groceries and band equipment all at the same time in a Prius? We’re careful, we only drive one vehicle, we carpool whenever we can… I think we’re pretty darned prudent -given our lifestyle-.
What is comes down to is that it’s -all- a big “maybe”. Getting hysterical about any of the above just doesn’t make sense, common or otherwise.
I don’t know. I’ve been concerned about climate change for some time. It seems that the people who are in a position to know the scientific facts of this matter are concerned (such as @Union of Concerned Scientists), while politicians, or those who benefit from a status quo, are not, or are less so. Tuvalu is being covered with water. Species dependent on warm weather are moving northwards. Snowpacks are lower, glaciers are receding. Part of the problem from ice melt is that the more water in the oceans, the less light is reflected, and the dark oceans then function as solar cells, exacerbating the heating issue. It’s not just that someone sees snow in his backyard and can go, no global warming here, but the circuits that form our weather and the system in which current species thrive will change irrevocably. That will affect the resources that are dependent on them, which seems like big trouble. (DISCLAIMER: foregoing is anecdotal on my part at this point, since it’s stuff that got stuck in my brain over years of dipping into the subject.)
I do not, however, think that there is a solution. Sorry to sound hopeless, but I don’t think anything short of truly massive upheaval is going to change anything. Recycling is great, but how much of what we throw in there really gets used? As far as I know, such things as black plastic, in which food can be heated, is taken out of the recycling stream. There’s a lot of it too. Changing to fluoro bulbs uses less electricity, but what does the average person do with the mercury-ridden bulb when it’s dead? Nuclear power doesn’t produce carbon emissions, but what happens to the spent fuel rods that will be radioactive nearly forever? We aren’t at the point of short-term solutions.
I agree to a large extent that having a big meeting on the subject, complete with a huge carbon footprint and accompanying gala parties is absurd. Is it like the organizers thought it’s better to keep the problem in the news and this is the only way they could figure out how to do so? It’s like they can’t think of a better way to deal, so they’ll do this thing that really doesn’t offer any changes. Makes me glad I’m not any younger.