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Global Warming
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| This problem is real and it is not going away. The words climate change and global warming are perhaps too soft. What we are talking about is severe atmospheric pollution.It is all part of man’s inability to live sustainably. What will bite us first, polluting our atmosphere, using up our oil reserves, destroying our fisheries? The list is long. We need global action now. Targets for 2050 are ridiculous; it may be all over by then. |
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Recommended Reading
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| “The Last Generation” – Fred Pearce “The Weather Makers” – Tim Flannery “Climate Change: The Science, Impacts and Solutions (2nd. edition), – Barrie Pittock, 2009: http://www.publish.csiro.au/pid/6010.htm.“Storms of My Grandchildren” – James HansenThese books are about global warming and what it means. Barrie’s book is like a textbook. There are lots of facts which by themselves, coming from a person of Barrie’s calibre, are frightening. Tim Flannery’s book is excellent and well known but I think Fred Pearce’s is better and it is more recent. If you can take the science and want the absolute best and latest information then Storms of My Grandchildren is the best read. |
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Some of the politics of what went wrong
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| “Scorcher” – Clive Hamilton This is about Australia and the politics around global warming. It makes you understand why Australian policy has been what it has.“The American Denial of Global Warming” – Naomi Oreskeshttp: www.uctv.tv/search-details.asp?showID=13459 This is an hour long video. There are many ways to reach it but the above is a link. It details some history and makes many things clear.Keep up to date with www.skepticalscience.com“This Changes Everything” – Naomi Klein. Use it like a text book. It is scary but very detailed, honest and gives some hope. |
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What you can do
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| Many sites have a list of things that you can do. Our list is short.1. Buy green power. Do whatever it takes to get your electricity supplier to provide electricity from renewable energy. Lobby your authority to make it easy for consumers to do this. Convince your friends to buy green power. If you don’t do anything else – do this.
2. Use less fuel. This means driving as little as possible and flying as little as possible. 3. Think about the word sustainable. Try to live your life in a sustainable way. |
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Fossil fuels
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| There is no doubt. The pollution is caused by releasing energy captured over millions of years in the space of a few centuries. Clean coal is like a healthy cigarette. It does not exist. Many things are bad. Coal is perhaps the worst of the worst. Instead of spending valuable research on capture and storage of the pollutant, which under best conditions is five times the volume of the original coal extracted, research should be directed to renewable energy. Coal seam gas is not a transition fuel. It is a perpetuation of everything that is bad in relation to climate change. Additionally, we simply do not know the effect on groundwater despite confident assertions by “experts”. Unless the well casings can last forever, all ground water will be connected to a poisonous gas. About 5-10% of well casings fail immediately, 50% over 30 years, and the probability of the rest lasting forever is zeroThe technology to solve global warming is available now. The will to do so is not. |