Today is Blog Action Day – it’s where thousands of blogs around the world write about the one topic, and this year it’s about climate change.
With our climate on the brink of collapse, our whole way of life is under threat. A couple of degrees rise in the global temperature mightn’t sound like too much, but the impact on our climate will be catastrophic.
My understanding is that the climate changes because of the extra gases in the atmosphere. It causes the heat of the sun to get trapped in, thereby heating things up. It seems that the humans cause this extra gas, although some people say it’s the cows. The emissions are the result of our activities. The things we make and consume.
There’s a lot of chat about ETS – Emissions Trading Schemes. That’s, roughly, where companies pay a fee to emit fumes, and if they don’t need all their emissions, they can trade their left overs by selling them. All very nice, the economy grows and hopefully emissions reduce. I suspect such schemes are set up for two purposes, to either make the government load of money in licensing fees, or make the companies loads of money in trading. No doubt there will be a whole new industry just for selling smoke.
In all of the discussion about reducing the amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, there’s one very important aspect missing. Us.
The only way to reduce our impact on the environment is to stop consuming. This is the white elephant in the room. Nobody wants to even suggest that the real problem in all of this is that we love our shit. We buy it all the time, companies keep producing it because we want it.
If you want to change the world, here’s what you have to do. Reduce your consumption. Drastically. Stop driving your car, turn off a few lights, don’t leave the computer screen running, don’t buy individual portions, buy in bulk. It’s the only way.
I like my shit too, I like nice lamps, rugs, computers, computer screens, TV’s shirts, socks and so on. I’m a consumer. When something breaks, I just throw it out and buy a new one. What sort of crap is that.
So, now you know what you have to do, go do it.
Wow, I had never heard of “Blog Action Day”. Your advice is so simple and easy to do, I wish more people would follow it.
Jenna: That’d be great… will you be following it?
One good thing about ETS is that charities or whoever can buy credits from companies and not use them if they are so inclined.
JC: Maybe we can take up a collection…..