Friends of the Earth
Action Briefing April /May 1999
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Birmingham Friends of the Earth Action Briefing April /May 1999 |
Its official, no longer is Climate Change a myth or prediction by scientists, it is actually happening, here and now. Who says? Well the Environment Agency and the government are monitoring thirty-five signs of climate change and they indicate a change in weather patterns conducive with past prediction's. Spring is arriving earlier - in fact up to two weeks earlier, according to the orange tip butterfly and the oak tree, who are emerging earlier due to warmer weather. Some birds, such as the Blackcap, are now over-wintering here and in Devon termites have been nesting in the woodwork of residents houses. Last year also saw the highest ever financial cost of weather related damage. The worldwatch institute estimates that $89bn of damage has been done by drought, hurricanes and freak weather conditions, not of course forgetting that 32,000 people have died and over 300m people have been displaced. But we don't need to look as far as Nicaragua or the desertified areas of sub-Saharan Africa to appreciate there has been a change in the weather. All too often conversations about the much favoured English subject of the weather stray to words like yes, the weather has been changing over the last few years. In fact when I was young I remember being snowed in to a small cottage in coastal North Devon, not a weather phenomenon that has even been seen since 1979. So what are we to do about it. John Prescott has been leading the charge on the international stage, committing Britain to a 20% reduction in CO2 and five other greenhouse gas emissions. He, and other forward looking world leaders, have managed to goad the rest of the world into accepting national cuts in pollution levels. However there have been many get out clauses that will enable wealthy countries to export their emissions cuts, generously helping the third world to tackle their pollution problems. Aid in the form of pollution abatement equipment and funding for national parks and reforestation projects will all count towards the American 8% reduction target for example. This so called Clean Development Mechanism assumes that the developing world is dirtier than the West but recent figures are beginning to undermine this thinking. China, the dirty man of the world has increased its GDP significantly but Chinese carbon emissions would be 50% higher if they had not taken some conservation and environmental action meaning energy demand has grown less rapidly than GDP. This leaves their per capita efficiency between New Zealand and Belgium - and well above their Capitalist enemy. The US is so reluctant to tackle these issues because much of the big business interests believe it will damage their industries and profits. From a traditional point of view this may well be the case, however, more enlightened business thinkers are seeing opportunities where others see losses. The British wind turbine industry is set to boom for example, if government gives it the support it needs. The technology is there to build offshore wind turbines and the UK is blessed with a large area of windy sea around it. Not only this: the technology used to make marine turbines is similar to that used in ship building, a dying industry seeing redundancies by the thousand. Already wind turbine manufacturers have asked for planning permission in ship building areas around the Humber offering much needed jobs. Finally the government is beginning to see opportunities where used to lie nothing but environmental kill-joys. But how? Unfortunately they have only got as far as the consultation phase asking questions Friends of the Earth have answered long ago.
Related Web Sites
The Environment Agency
The Centre For Atmospheric Science at Cambridge University
(includes the European Ozone Research Project site.)