What we can do about global warming?
Climatologists have been warning us about carbon dioxide levels and global warming for two decades now; governments and the international community have talked, but inertia and vested interests have stalled negotiations and few of us individually are doing anything about it. The problem seems just too big and too far away.
But the news last week of the total collapse of seabird colonies in the North Sea, due, almost certainly, to rising sea temperatures, should have made bird-watchers, at least, sit up and take notice: auks today, us tomorrow?
Governments might procrastinate, but their citizens don't have to wait; we can make a start on some of the lifestyle changes that are crucial to the future of the world as anything like we know it.
- Cut the carbon cost of travel: around a third of carbon emissions come from travel and we bird watchers are big travellers. If you can, use the train, not the plane or your car. Downsize your car. Drive with a friend and slow down. Banish 4X4s. Biofuels are beginning to be available and may have a lower net CO2 production than fossil fuels; they can help, but they are by no means carbon-neutral.
- Choose carbon-free energy: wind, hydro-electric and (dare I say it) nuclear power do not produce carbon dioxide and now you can choose suppliers who use these sources.
- Balance your carbon: Destruction of forests and steppes to create farmland releases huge amounts of CO2 and leaves us without the means to sequester CO2 from the atmosphere. By maintaining or regenerating these environments, we can ameliorate the effects of our CO2 production. Some individuals and companies are doing this: offsetting their carbon use by protecting and regenerating natural habitats that sequester carbon.
How about carbon-balancing your next twitch? Or all of your driving? For bird-watchers carbon balancing is a way of both ameliorating the negative effects of their travel and positively conserving the natural environment. We produce roughly half a ton of CO2 for every thousand miles of car travel, which could be absorbed by around an acre of tropical forest each year. Check out www.worldlandtrust.org/carbon/ to see how it works. As a Trustee of the World Land Trust, I have a special interest in offsetting carbon use this way as it enables us to protect in some of the worlds most threatened birds and their habitats.
The views expressed here are my own and not necessarily those of the ROC.