Well, that is what I think anyway. I have flown around the world enough now to realise the problem of carbon in the atmosphere is only part of the problem. It is amazing, but at 40,000 feet you can really tell there just aren't very many forests left.
A number of years ago, the big debate was all about deforestation. Now, it seems the goalposts have been shifted. Now it is all about carbon offsetting. What a crock of %$^$. It is true that we have taken millions of years worth of stored carbon and thrown it into the atmosphere. Which is the apparent cause of the global warming problem. The problem is in the short term actually, loss of diversity. We are losing species. Global warming is an issue I agree. But that has to do with our extravagant lifestyles, not to do with anything else. But simply because of the way our society has evolved. The media are hugely responsible for this. The consumer driven way of life has created the problem.
I like advances in technology, I fervently believe we need to advance, because after all our time on this planet is not infinite. We need to advance if we want our species not to become extinct. So to that end this consumer society in which we live has furthered our technological advances, but I am talking exclusively about the short term. We do not necessarily need to back pedal, but what we do need is to start addressing some of the areas where we can help.
I liked hearing that Richard Branson was giving a prize to a good idea for helping solve the problem. One of my ideas is to use young people from all over the world to go to egypt and build another pyramid. Out of plastic, after all isn't plastic made of long carbon chains. I mean surely this would in effect act as a carbon sink? A bit of a silly idea, but even silly ideas when the intention is good, is worthy of discussion.
To expand on this idea for instance, say you set rules at the work camp where all the young people would stay, you could set rules. Ie...no tellies, board games, yes, talent shows, yes, etc. In that way you could actually argue that by taking a young person away from New York for example and plonking them in Egypt for 6 months, you have managed to save x amount of wasted energy, even if they did fly there. I mean the whole thing could easily be worked out by the huge number of clever people we have at our disposal. Do you get me?
But what is really annoying me, is that now it is apparently all about reducing emmissions. And yet, you take a train from London King's cross and half the train is first class, you go to currys and you can buy a telly that is absolutely massive. I mean come on solar panels and wind turbines are not helping to reduce emmissions, because we just keep coming up with more ways of wasting the energy we have acquired. If we are really going to get serious, the class system needs to go. You could get a lot more people on a plane for example if you ripped out first and business class. Flying is not comfortable, and I often crave some extra space myself, but if we are going to really make a difference, then I am afraid, we are all in this together.
Deforestation, and lack of diversity I belive is a far more pressing issue in the absolute immediate short term, than global warming, yes, global warming may cause sea level rise, it may cause disruption and suffering to millions of humans, but don't we have that already. In the meantime we are causing the reverse of one of the fundamental laws of the universe and that is covered under the subject of ENTROPY.
