Al Gore Nobel Prize Winner

Al Gore Nobel Prize Winner

Al Gore was awarded the noble Prize on Friday for his tireless campaigning on the issue of Climate Change.

Gore who seemed very humble and was quick to point out that he actually shared the prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Gore helped to translate the jargon of the scientists into simple terms that the ordinary person could understand, his film An Inconvenient Truth maybe suffered from Hollywood syndrome but it did so much to raise the issues and create a platform for debate in the US and around the world.

Gore will donate his entire prize money to a campaign alliance used his award to reiterate his message "This is a chance to elevate global consciousness about the challenges that we face now," he said. "The alarm bells are going off in the scientific community.

Is Climate Change now inevitable

Unseasonable temperatures in Washington, USA a huge 12 degrees higher than the seasonal average can that be right?Reading the latest news today online sends a shiver down my spine, if we are to believe what we read and i have no reason to doubt respected scientists we have now reached levels of poisonous gas emissions that had not been expected for at least another decade. The most recent research data available points to the fact that greenhouse gases emissions have now passed 455 parts per million in layman's terms this means we have reached the point were global warming is inevitable.

We seem to watch the news and listen to what we are told then do nothing when it comes to altering our lifestyles to cut down carbon emissions and I include myself in that statement. It can seem that in the course of everyday life the warnings about climate change are part of a Hollywood blockbuster and will never come true. What we do until Governments bring in legislation that forces to change is a matter for the individual or company?

Starfish on the beach.

I mentioned in my previous post that the 2 biggest polluters are the USA and China, however per head of the population each of us in the UK is responsible for a bigger carbon footprint than a citizen of China. I find it hard to be critical of China, were living standards are well below the very basics we would expect.

It may surprise you to know that in the 1970s a UK home had an average of 17 energy consuming electrical products, today however the average is a huge 47. Products that we now take as the norm include *mobile phones, answering machines, tumble dryer, dishwasher, games console, garden strimmer, extractor fan, computer, monitor, printer, digital camera, sky box, televisions in every room and often at least one plasma which requires far more energy, broadband/wi-fi, personal care products and power tools.
*Source:energy saving trust report.
http://www.est.org.uk/

In the past many of the above products did not exist or were only available to the most affulent in society, nowadays they are standard in many homes, there is some truth in the fact that electrical equipment is becoming more energy efficient but I'm sure you can imagine the sheer volume of power required to run all the above in millions of homes across the UK.

What we are do about this situation is a hard question to answer? What we can not do is to simply say there is no point us doing anything to the major polluters do something. We have to remember what we do matters.

A man was was walking along a beach and finds thousands of starfish stranded on the sea shore, he carried on walking till he came to a young boy who was picking up individual starfish and putting them back into the water. He said to the boy why are you wasting your time there are thousands of starfish and you will only be able to return a few to the water. The boy said nothing picked up a starfish and gently placed into the water, he then turned to the man and said it matters to that one.

Why change your light bulbs

If every home in the country replaced one 100w light bulb to an energy efficient one, it would be possible to cancel out the energy generated from a major nuclear power station. Whats even more interesting is that by changing one bulb you will save around £7 of your annual electricity bill.

If you sick of having to replace your light bulbs frequently why not switch to energy efficient one they can last up to 12 times as long.

The energy savings from changing just one light bulb show how easy it is to reduce our own individual carbon footprint, take a few seconds to count how many bulbs you have in your house. By changing 10 bulbs you could reduce your electricity bill annually by £70 and make a real contribution to climate change.

When i mention this to friends in passing they often point out that if China, India and America don't change then there is little point in us changing the odd light bulb, on Monday i would like to discuss this and hopefully start a positive debate.

The Great Green Debate

Had a wonderful day out walking the fells around Grasmere, the weather was superb and the views from the top of Loughrigg Fell wonderful.

I continue to work on improving the green credentials of all-rooms and i am currently trying to find a provider of green travel insurance which works in a similar way to our own £2 pledge by using a percentage of the profit to invest in carbon offsetting. There are a great deal of companies offering this sort of service not sure how many are sincere. I will let you know how i get on.

On this note if any one has any ideas on how i can improve all-rooms in relation to ethical issues please let me know.

One last thing if any one is interested Channel 4 are showing a programme tonight 'The Great Green Debate' which explores the issue of global warming, apparently the audience has been chosen for their resistance to the very idea of climate change. The programme starts at 7.30pm and may well be worth tuning in for.

Day out to the Lakes

Just a short blog today, having a break today from the PC. I'm going walking in the English Lakes which is something special for me. I find the peace and quiet and breath taking natural beauty offer a great way to relax and recharge myself. I let you know were i went and what sort of day had tomorrow.

All-Rooms.com goes green.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I have decided that for every reservation made through all-rooms.com, I will make a payment of £2 to offset the client’s travel, equivalent to offsetting 270kg CO2 which works out at 970 miles in an average family car.

Have said all this you may be asking what is Carbon Offsetting? The idea behind Carbon offsetting is to neutralize or least minimise the amount of Carbon generated by a specific activity. This is done by a Carbon offsetting organization funding a variety of projects for example replanting of trees in the rain forests to investing in renewable energy projects. In principle this sounds wonderful and certainly allows corporations and indeed individuals to relinquish any responsibility for their actions (this is it could be said is a major flaw in carbon offsetting).

When I looked into the whole subject of carbon offset schemes, it very quickly became apparent that things are not as simple as I first imagined. For a start it is far better not to emit the carbon emissions in the first place then to offset pollution and damage that has already taken place. Another problem that I quickly discovered that simply planting tress is no solution to the problem, yes trees do soak up carbon but this take many years and when the trees is eventually cut down or dies it release the carbon it has stored up back into the environment. The most disappointing and even shocking part of my research came when it was time to contact the offsetting organisations, I could not believe how difficult it was to find someone who wanted to discuss climate change, I have to say that unfortunately the majority of companies I spoke were driven by profit with scant regard to global warming or its effect on the planet.

After much research I settled on Climatecare.org, I found them to be helpful, informative with a proven track record and they also work with a number of household names such as British Airways, Yahoo and What car. They have a simple yet effective system of investing your money across a number of projects so that if one project is under performing in relation to carbon offsetting then hopefully this will be offset (pardon the pun) by another. If you wish to take a look at the projects that Climate Care currently fund you can do so by taking a look at the link below.

http://www.climatecare.org/projects/countries/