The challenge of the New Year
Its traditional at New Year to make a resolution, or at least to reflect. To help that process, its become traditional for my wife to give me a book or two at Christmas! :) I've just finished reading Heat by George Monbiot, a book about Global Warming and how we are able to respond to the challenge of reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Or at least, how the UK could respond to the challenge there. I mention this in the cruzbike blog because the cruzbike design process has been fuelled by a personal need to try to contribute at least something to the challenge of switching to a very low carbon emitting lifestyle while retaining as much of life's pleasures as we can. Monbiot tasks the humble bicycle with replacing 40% of car mileage over the next 15 years. So a very relevant design question is how do we make the bicycle more useable, more efficient and more suitable to the human physiology. How do we make the bicycle a better transportation tool?
Monbiot explains that after the earth warms two degrees, natural stores of CO2 will no longer hold and so we will pass a climatic tipping point. After that, the situation would be irretrievable and sea levels would rise - no matter what the level of human carbon pollution.
Do we care?
Its a very simple moral question: do we care about human suffering and tragedy, on an unprecedented scale? Of course we do, that is the virtue of being human. It is not about whether we would prefer to take the car or the bike today, it is about whether we make a connection between our carbon pollution today and the impending human catastrophe that we are building up to. Are you conscious of that connection?
2006 is probably notable as the year global warming became a mainstream issue (in Australia anyhow) and skeptics shrank away. It was a revelation to read Monbiot's expose on how Exxon was able to fund some small but effective 'scientific' groups to frustrate the efforts of real scientists to communicate the seriousness of our global situation. That chapter alone makes the book a must read for anyone who prides themselves on not being hoodwinked. The back cover says: "If you want to find out whose green credentials are phoney, find out at www.turnuptheheat.org".
A 90% reduction in our CO2 emissions is urgently required. Anything less is to play a game of chance with around one billion human lives. Ninety percent! This is a huge challenge! But to his credit Monbiot works his way through all the various technologies to weave a technically and socially viable solution for the UK and thus creates a demonstration case for others to study. Each country must find its own approach.
I commend the book to you.
The west has had a rather nice time, thank you very much, since the Second World War. Look as we might, we have not realised what WW3 is about. It is not the threat of nuclear war. The war on terror is as fundamentally stupid as the grammar of the phrase itself, so its not that. The third world war is even more insidious than corrupt ideology. The third world war is the War On Carbon and will be the first to engage all resources available to all people in all countries. Its outcome will shape our future like no other war will or ever could in the future.
But take heart, winning the War On Carbon will not be as difficult as winning in Iraq, or winning the Second World War, and not one life need be lost in the battle. But it does need your political action, your must give political effect to your desire to keep a billion lives and a planet that we have grown oh so fond of.
And it does require your personal response. Keep riding your bike! And keep working on reducing your own CO2 score or the CO2 score of your family. Read Heat!
Monbiot explains that after the earth warms two degrees, natural stores of CO2 will no longer hold and so we will pass a climatic tipping point. After that, the situation would be irretrievable and sea levels would rise - no matter what the level of human carbon pollution.
Do we care?
Its a very simple moral question: do we care about human suffering and tragedy, on an unprecedented scale? Of course we do, that is the virtue of being human. It is not about whether we would prefer to take the car or the bike today, it is about whether we make a connection between our carbon pollution today and the impending human catastrophe that we are building up to. Are you conscious of that connection?
2006 is probably notable as the year global warming became a mainstream issue (in Australia anyhow) and skeptics shrank away. It was a revelation to read Monbiot's expose on how Exxon was able to fund some small but effective 'scientific' groups to frustrate the efforts of real scientists to communicate the seriousness of our global situation. That chapter alone makes the book a must read for anyone who prides themselves on not being hoodwinked. The back cover says: "If you want to find out whose green credentials are phoney, find out at www.turnuptheheat.org".
A 90% reduction in our CO2 emissions is urgently required. Anything less is to play a game of chance with around one billion human lives. Ninety percent! This is a huge challenge! But to his credit Monbiot works his way through all the various technologies to weave a technically and socially viable solution for the UK and thus creates a demonstration case for others to study. Each country must find its own approach.
I commend the book to you.
The west has had a rather nice time, thank you very much, since the Second World War. Look as we might, we have not realised what WW3 is about. It is not the threat of nuclear war. The war on terror is as fundamentally stupid as the grammar of the phrase itself, so its not that. The third world war is even more insidious than corrupt ideology. The third world war is the War On Carbon and will be the first to engage all resources available to all people in all countries. Its outcome will shape our future like no other war will or ever could in the future.
But take heart, winning the War On Carbon will not be as difficult as winning in Iraq, or winning the Second World War, and not one life need be lost in the battle. But it does need your political action, your must give political effect to your desire to keep a billion lives and a planet that we have grown oh so fond of.
And it does require your personal response. Keep riding your bike! And keep working on reducing your own CO2 score or the CO2 score of your family. Read Heat!
