So we have adverts saying that if we save 20% of our energy usage we will help reduce CO2 emissions. Let's just deconstruct this a little shall we? It assumes that any reduction in energy usage is directly related to CO2 but this isn't so. If all the energy available is generated by nuclear power the the CO2 output is almost non-existant. And any reduction in energy usage will (by their reasoning) reduce carbon dioxide emissions so why this magical 20% figure?
The UK is responsible for 4% of the world's CO2, the US generates 25% of the CO2 output. The UK led the world in the development of renewable energy sources but messed up big style on all fronts and we now buy the technology we developed - and we have the NIMBYs who want cheap, non-CO2, energy but rail against wind farms and nuclear power. And in terms of global warming the effect of the thermal islands caused by large cites is far and away greater than CO2 production. The argument that man is actually changing the rate at which the earth's temperature is also not completely made - we are currently (officially) in an ice age and when the last one finished and the ice melted leaving this sceptered isle cut off from the mainland of Europe it had nothing to do with CFCs or light bulbs. The Met office cannot predict weather patterns much beyond 7 days ahead so the idea that they can say that the global temperature will have increased (or decreased) by x or y degrees in 100 years is a little thin isn't it?
The best way to make your fridge more efficient is to make sure it's full - I recommend Stella Artois and champagne. The best way to reduce energy consumption is to make sure that the fridge is near where you sit so that you don't have far to travel to it.
The UK is responsible for 4% of the world's CO2, the US generates 25% of the CO2 output. The UK led the world in the development of renewable energy sources but messed up big style on all fronts and we now buy the technology we developed - and we have the NIMBYs who want cheap, non-CO2, energy but rail against wind farms and nuclear power. And in terms of global warming the effect of the thermal islands caused by large cites is far and away greater than CO2 production. The argument that man is actually changing the rate at which the earth's temperature is also not completely made - we are currently (officially) in an ice age and when the last one finished and the ice melted leaving this sceptered isle cut off from the mainland of Europe it had nothing to do with CFCs or light bulbs. The Met office cannot predict weather patterns much beyond 7 days ahead so the idea that they can say that the global temperature will have increased (or decreased) by x or y degrees in 100 years is a little thin isn't it?
The best way to make your fridge more efficient is to make sure it's full - I recommend Stella Artois and champagne. The best way to reduce energy consumption is to make sure that the fridge is near where you sit so that you don't have far to travel to it.
21 careful considerations:
& then be careful how much petrol you squander taking the empties to the bottle bank :-)
And how much gas you emit when the wheaty lager makes your botty parp.
Thought I'd commented before - but unless you've cut me off, it didn't make it. Just to say - are you saying all the climate change stuff is crap? It is happening, isn't it?
I don't use petrol Lynne - my car runs on diesel :-)
Botty parps are methane aren't they GW?
I'm not suggesting it's all crap Rob but there is a good deal of contradictory evidence. For example, the talk of rising sea levels? How many feet would the oceans rise over the next 50 years? The Medway Towns flooded and Lytham being within sight of the sea? According to the Center for Space Research at the University of Texas at Austin mean sea levels are rising by approximately 1.7 - 2.4mm/yr (http://www.csr.utexas.edu/gmsl/main.html). Antarctic ice melting? "Side-looking radar measurments show West Antarctic ice is increasing at 26.8 gigatons/yr. Reversing the melting trend of the last 6,000 years" (Joughin & Tulaczk, 2002, "Positive mass balance of the Ross Ice Streas, West Antarctica", Science 295: 476 - 80).
The climate is changing and has been since the big bang. Man is consuming the natural resources at a frightening rate but I think that the global warming debate has been dumbed down for public consumption and the realities are a good deal more complex and less clear cut.
still a green house gas!
"Lytham being within sight of the sea?" Errr...Lytham is by the sea...
I'm probably confusing it with Southport then ;-)
Story on my 'blog regarding Southport. Well Scarisbrick, which is nearby.
Southport is a lot closer to the sea than it used to be. The tide comes in now and covers the road - It didn't do that when I was little. In fact when you went to the beach you couldn't see the sea. The tide went out one day and didn't come back for something like twenty years or more.
Yes, I can remember being disappointed by Southport & wishing we'd gone to Blackpool or Morecambe instead, where there was proper sea!
Finally! Someone who can see thru all the hype. If there is to be a disaster of oceans rising it is more likely to be a Greenland event than Anarctica anyway.
Beside, who the hell wants the Earth to be colder? If natural climate changes hadn't happened in the past, the upper parts of the US would be under ice. The climate changes all the time, throughout time. Back when there was Dino's, back when man first stood up and now while I type.
There will be Ice Ages and not. That is the Earth, not cow farts.
LOL
This post ought to be a poster with your picture on it. You'd sell a million or more and be rich in no time ;) Heck, i'd buy several!!
What? You can see the sea at Southport?
Memories.
They built an artificial lake there between the coast road and the arcade because there was never any water. That lake had lots of swans on it. You could walk to Blackpool across the sand (almost) sometimes. The beach was used by people with fast cars. I was stung by a jellyfish there.
Southport has a flower show.
*sigh*
memories.
Try this. Is it true?
The sea must have been in at some point GW, if you got stung by a jellyfish. Either that or you walked a long long way out. :-)
Global warming or not, I don't think it is a good idea to use up the earth's resources at a super fast rate. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. That doesn't mean to say you should sit almost motionless by the fridge Nogbad. Get some exercise!! :-)
I think the jellyfish was crawling around looking for the sea.
Use up Earth's resources? Like, human beings? Burn 'em inna furnace! Soylent Green!
Nogbad. I hear they deliver toilet rolls to your door in Kirkham. That'll save a bit of energy.
Free toilet rolls at that, GW. I should have asked if they were recycled. ( No! Not recycled toilet rolls - Recycled paper. )
Wendy - I think your Canadian neighbours might be a little tenser about encroaching ice than, say New York! That said I spent a long time working with a development team based in London, Ontario and I know for certain sure that they all lived in igloos and spent their leisure time doing unspeakable things to seal pups. I've just read on Mouse's blog that she goes hunting trees and frankly I can't see the sport in that - even when startled trees don't usually run around so they can't be too difficult to catch can they? And now Mouse wants a picture of me to go on the wall? I think she's been sniffing the anti-freeze again :-)
My memories of Southport are much as yours GW - is that also where they have those wonderful sand dunes? I agree that someone has photoshopped that map, they've either added the sea or moved Southport nearer to the coast!
Kat - I agree about the wisdom of using up the earth's resources and I do my bit by not expending more energy than is absolutely required. Strangly my electricity supplier follow the same philosophy, I've just recieved a letter saying that they are having problems gaining access to read the meter and could I do it for them. Given that I'm here most of the time they haven't tried too hard! I'l read the meter and invoice them for my time I think :-)
Being a child during most of my time in Southport, my memories involve tea & cake shops, toy shops, trains, ducks and jellyfish. Oh, and an unfortunate event involving public toilets which has left me mentally scarred for life and causes me incredible pain most mornings on the way into work.
I linked to a timeline of environmental history on my 'blog and it had a piece about a travelling circus in the 1800s cutting down a 2,500 year old sequoia just to cart it around the country to show how amazingly big this tree was. There's also an article on register about the ice sheet in the middle of Greenland getting thicker, i.e. the edges are shrinking but the frost is piling up, a bit like what happens when you leave the freezer door open.
Verification word: koyeo
a bit like Kyoto isn't it?
NOG - Holy Jesus Mary & Joseph, you spent time in the city where I live working with a development team??!! Who was it and what were you doing here?? Too cool. Now THAT is proof right there that the blogosphere is a small world indeed. lol
p.s err...so now you know that when I write about hating living here... uhh...well, let's just keep that our secret m'kay? I don't want retaliation from the anally conservative natives here. ;)
No I didn't work there Mouse, I was in the UK and they came over occasionally but we did most of the work online using email and video conferencing. They were called ISRetail and they were a great bunch of people - and I notice that you didn't deny the stuff about living in an igloo and the seal pup stuff! :-) Although I didn't make it to Canada I did get a week in LA with that company, learning another software application we were selling over here.
I learnt some Canadian talking to them, one of my main contacts used to say "Get outta town" whenever I said anything that shocked her. Cute!
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