A failure to reduce CO2

Just after the new year I calculated my carbon footprint, and I came out as producing up to five and half tonnes of carbon dioxide. I say up to as it depended upon what site I visited and it ranged from two and half tonnes to four and half tonnes using these sites. However I did my own calculations and included all the hidden CO2 that these sites often exclude and five and half tonnes is a figure that I would say is most accurate.

That is more than half of the average in Britain and nearly a fifth of the average American who emits a whopping twenty-five tonnes of CO2 per year.

Therefore I know that I am doing as much as I can to use only what I need. If I had more money I know I could do more. There are no convenient outlets to buy local food for me. Those that are around require me to travel there adding to my travel and carbon costs. Add to that often the price of produce at the Farmers markets etc is extortionate. While I am prepared to pay for quality, the prices are not reflective of any fair trade. The farmers criticise the supermarkets for excessive profits and can have mark ups of four or five hundred percent upon the price that the farmer gets paid. So why then is it right for farmers to then try charging, in some cases, double the price the supermarkets charge?

Equally I am trying really hard to not use plastic bags or any plastic packaging at all. But it is nearly impossible to buy goods without loads of plastic. As one of the shops in the UK, Marks & Spencer's announces that its going to start charging for plastic bags as a way of reducing the 1700,000,000 that we in the UK use each year, it makes me realise just how far we have to move to stop the effects of pollution and climate change.

Therefore, it did not surprise me that the big switch off day produced no noticeable effect. Those people like me who take climate change seriously are already doing what they can. And while locally I have helped a small number of people towards reducing their energy bills, I know that none of them would have done anything if it had not been for a hike in gas and electricity costs here. Further not one of them really cares about the environment.

Even many of the people who say they care about the environment and global warming still drive cars and must have their holidays in the sun, taking flights, as well as consuming all the latest gadgets. These people loose their concern for our planet as soon as it starts to impact upon their way of life or their freedom to pollute.

Then there is the hard core majority that don't care at all. Or delude themselves that some technological fix will come along and we can do all the things we have always done, and us environmentalists are just doom and gloom merchants.

While I am a pragmatist and realise that we do need lighting heat and power, there is so much that we could be doing. Take plastic bags as one example; around the globe we use one point two trillion of these per year. If we stopped using plastic bags that would save the equivalent of twelve million flights from Heathrow London to JFK New York. That's 12,000,000 all those zeros. That simple action alone would save well over four hundred million tonnes of CO2 per year.

Recently I have been talking to a tree about Low energy light bulbs. She posted on her Blog about mercury vapour in the bulbs. I pointed out that the amount was minuscule and there is no real danger from them, yet products like these need to be recycled and disposed of properly. However, the real point is we all need light and as these bulbs are much more energy efficient we should all be using them. As well as turning off lights that are not needed.

It will not be until we clearly see the effects of Climate Change that the majority of people will even start to take action. By then it will be to late. Sir David King the former chief scientist in the UK said that Global Warming was a greater threat than Terrorism, on that he was spot on.
The reality is that unless we all stop polluting we will all suffer. Not only that we will make our children suffer. While there are many projects that are aimed at reducing CO2 emissions, we all need to reduce our CO2 emissions by changing our behaviour.

Further reading on the switch off day