Wipe Your Carbon Footprints – Climate Change and Global Warming
Effects of Climate Change
by millytant
Even though Japan, the US and Europe release more than 40 percent of global emissions, the effects of climate change have a far bigger impact on communities in developing countries which don’t have the resources to protect themselves – and who are contributing least to the problem.
Carbon Footprint
As we are made increasingly aware of our carbon footprint and the destructive impact travel can have on the environment, it makes it increasingly difficult to enjoy guilt-free holidays.
The future for developing countries
People living in poverty face a future with more frequent and unpredictable floods, droughts, hunger and disease. If we don’t take action now, by 2080 sea levels will rise 50cm, according to Oxfam. This will leave twice as many people exposed to serious flooding, mostly in South and South-east Asia. Global warming creating water shortages will leave three billion people in the Middle East and India desperate for water. And droughts and floods will cause severe food shortages, help spread infectious diseases, devastate communities, and take away their livelihoods.
What we can do to help slow global warming
Reducing car use and home energy use home helps to reduce our carbon footprint and the onset of global warming, but it’s probably only a tiny minority who are willing to convert to being committed ‘non-flyers’. For the rest of us the prospect of kicking the flying habit entirely is a step too far. The alternative is to at least donate money to offset your carbon emissions – or to support organisations that deal with the fallout from climate change and global warming.
Wipe Your Carbon Footprints
Offsetting carbon emissions
When you book your flights or a holiday, some travel companies and airlines now offer you the chance to balance your carbon use by donating to organisations that plant trees or build renewable energy facilities. You can also calculate and buy offsets independently through websites such as www.carbonfund.org To offset a flight from London to Barcelona, for example, would cost you less than £2.
Supporting disaster reduction work and adaptation strategies
Alternatively, you could support organisations that undertake disaster risk reduction work or climate adaptation projects in developing countries. A regular charity donation will help sustain the continued work of aid agencies and disaster releif teams.
The Mercy Corps’ ‘Cool Carbon’ Initiative, for example, provides an online tool to help you tot up how much you should contribute based on your travel plans, and you can then invest in your chosen projects. These help communities develop adaptation strategies to cope with the effects of climate change, and also provide workable energy options that reduce carbon emissions. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, Mercy Corps has introduced fuel efficient stoves, while in Colombia it has helped to install Biogas latrines.
Other organisations are doing equally important work. In Sri Lanka rising sea levels are encroaching on coastal rice fields; Practical Action has helped farmers trial new saline-tolerant varieties of rice. In Vietnam, Oxfam has helped communities plant dense mangroves along the coast to prevent erosion.
Is this enough?
We know these organisations alone can’t solve the problem of climate change. Long-term solutions depend partly on G8 country leaders being held accountable for limiting their greenhouse gas emissions – and for providing funds for adaptation. But in the meantime, individual charity donations to these organisations do support important projects working to help the most vulnerable communities face the immediate effects of climate change.
Hi Pasty,
I recently heard that people produce no more than 1% of all CO2 emission. It’s only one percent and I don’t really think we should care about that all that “green living”. China doesn’t care and global crysis doesn’t affect them. I just don’t know what to think about it.
i think offsetting carbon emissions is a good idea but i just hope people don’t get lazy and turn it into a scam.
Thank you for talking about “Climate Change” and not only “Global Warming.” Too many people latch onto the idea of Global Warming and see snow and freezing temperatures in late spring as examples to refute global warming. “Global warming, huh?” It’s called climate change for a reason. It goes both ways.
I agree with Panama Hat, I am sick of hearing about global warming. The earth goes through these types of cycles every 10,000 years or so, we might be speeding it up, that’s it. It is important to understand that we ARE speeding it up, this needs to be fixed! Regards!
Thank you for writing this post creating awareness among the people about the environment protection. I think we should start teaching our kids about the importance of green environment just from an early level and should follow the recommended practices.
The most terrible is that on environmental issues say a lot, but people do not seek to make the world a cleaner, as if afraid of nothing!
We need to do alot more if we are going to reduce global warming. I also thought it would have been china, europe and the US who release more than 40 percent of global emissions not Japan.
Thanks for forwarding this thought provoking write-up. It is the duty of every one to reduce carbon footprints by self. We have already started to feel the heat of the drastic effects of environmental hazards but still there is time to do needful.
Every link that is put forward to show proof of global warming ends up being a political statement. And all the proponents like to claim that 99% of all scientists believe in it.
If that were true, then why is it so hard to find one scientist that will make a statement that global warming/cooling/climate change is effected by man?
The truth is majority of the population especially the educated, are aware of climate change and global warming that is occurring in this era. But only few take steps to lessen the causes of such changes in the environment. A simple way of segregating wastes to identify which are to be wasted and which are recyclables can be done by almost everybody but honestly, who among us do this? 10% of the total population? Very disappointing but true. Take China’s electronic wastes as an example. Suppose to be, electronic companies should take responsibility of disposing their e-wastes but what they did is to throw their wastes in residential and deprived villages. We are taking actions to help China with this problem but how can this be solved if industries themselves don’t cooperate. If these companies who are believed to be the educated ones don’t know how to dispose their garbage then in what way can the less educated discipline themselves? We donate to organizations who are in support of green living but as for my opinion, they cannot do this alone. WE can give them all the money that we have but if we still don’t know how to discipline ourselves then our donations are useless.
Many of people in our environment now a days, burn plastic that could contribute to the destruction of our atmosphere. To help our environment try to minimize or stop those activities individually, and try to recycles those materials specially plastic.
Environmental problems are really alarming nowadays and we should be aware of that. The best thing we should do is to keep our garbage segregated well into biodegradable and non-biodegradable. All the plastics must be recycled and never burn it.
Global climate change is one of humanity’s greatest challenges and one of the most important indicators that we are in ecological overshoot. Since the carbon footprint is 50 percent of humanity’s overall Ecological Footprint, reducing our carbon footprint is essential to ending ecological overshoot.
The Ecological Footprint ensures that we can identify the best long term solutions and that our solutions truly “add up.” Whether we are deciding which carbon offsets are the most effective or which energy sources will lead us into the future, the Ecological Footprint tells us whether our solutions lead us out of overshoot and toward one planet living.
Environmental problems are the biggest problems on a world scale in our day.That’s why we must ponder over the allowing them.
We should recycle as much as possible to avoid bigger problems that may come in the near future if we do not stop to produce rubbish.
The environment protection is always the key topic of global issues in recent years.Only everyone takes action can ease this issue.
Offsetting carbon emmisions is great but again i also hope this does not turn into a scam.
recently, there has been some massive flooding in the Philippines and Vietnam which i think is also due to Climate Change. the tropical storms in asia are somewhat getting stronger stronger each year.
We are all now aware of global warming but individually do very little about it. We think if we recycle our bits of paper or plastic, we’ve done our bit. Then we get in our cars, burn our electricity, pour all our chemicals into our household waste systems and so on. but we really need to have tax break for those that don’t drive car and walk/bike/train to work at least lol
What do people think about the latest developments in the media, the way that the effects of global warming are being down played quite significantly? I know my son who is at university in Melbourne makes an argument that is over hyped, which I fear could be endemic of his age group. I hope not.
I just went to the movies, there was an advert for how we could solve global warming and how 40% of the Co2 output is from family homes. I’m sorry but that doesnt wash with me, for me thats 60% of climate change due to large corporations. When I see less planes taking off less factories building crap and pumping out harmful gases then I will change, until then I will just roll with it.
Great post! Reducing carbon footprints starts at home and can include installing energy saving products such as; wind turbines, solar panels, double glazing, wall/loft insullation. Alternatively changes can be made that cost nothing inc; turning lights out in vacant rooms, turning electrical appliances off instead of them being on standby, showering instead of bathing, turning down the heating a couple of degree, not over filling the kettle when making a hot drink etc. Its upto us to make a change!
Global warming is a terrifying issue that our world has to face on a daily basis. Obviously climate change is inevitable but we could all do our bit to ensure we are not making this happen to quickly.
The environmental movement, a term that includes the conservation and green movements, is a diverse scientific, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues.
Environmentalists advocate the sustainable management of resources and stewardship of the environment through changes in public policy and individual behavior. In its recognition of humanity as a participant in (not enemy of) ecosystems, the movement is centered on ecology, health, and human rights.
The environmental movement is represented by a range of organizations, from the large to grassroots. Due to its large membership, varying and strong beliefs, and occasionally speculative nature, the environmental movement is not always united in its goals. At its broadest, the movement includes private citizens, professionals, religious devotees, politicians, and extremists.