Define Imagine: February 2011

Burn Baby Burn...Carbon Inferno

"One thing must surely be obvious though: The problem is largely a Western one. It is the Western countries who are leading the way in CO2 emissions, and when non-Western countries have high CO2 emission rates themselves, it's usually because they are adopting Western habits. Since we, the West, have been a leading cause of the CO2 emissions problem, surely it is we who must step up and be the leaders in the solution." ~ David Bleja

There is an amazing page online called Breathingearth that uses reputable sources to show real-time data via an interactive world map that displays country by country population stats and CO2 emissions. A bird's-eye view that allows the viewer to drill down into each country to see their individual and per capita CO2 contributions. One can take as little or as much as they like from this piece, from simply checking what their own country's status is to comparing their output with other countries and discovering who the real greenies and carbon monsters are.

"Animal agriculture makes a 40% greater contribution to global warming than all transportation in the world combined; it is the number one cause of climate change."

Jonathan Safran Foer ~ Author of Eating Animals

I remember the first time I saw a truck full of livestock heading for the slaughterhouse. I was a nine year old child, riding in the car with my parents on our way to visit relatives in Ontario, Canada. Due to the traffic congestion, our car rode alongside the trailer for several minutes. Those minutes were long enough for me to look into the eyes of the animals crammed in there like holocaust victims. I saw the terror in their eyes, I saw that they were unable to move even a centimeter, one of the calves caught my eye for more than ten seconds and in that ten seconds that animal let me know everything I didn't want to know. That animal was feeling its reality as hard as any human being ever could. I shudder as I write this, because somehow I think it felt it even more than we could. In the backseat, I began to cry. Up in the front seat, locked into their own world of oblivion, my parents heard me and asked me what was wrong. I told them to look at the trailer full of miserable creatures beside us, suffering in the subzero temperature, their terror radiating out of them like a neutron bomb.

Where will you be on March 26, 8.30pm?

Watch the video. Feel amazing. Earth Hour.

Double Standards and Denial

Today, as I was researching for my latest article about oceans and their relationship to global warming, I was listening to a BBC radio interview and the interviewee mentioned that he often liked to pose this question to climate scientists and eco warriors alike whenever he met them. His question?

A Tale of Two Zax

There is a Dr Seuss tale about two creatures called Zax, one north-going and one south-going who while travelling along their paths one day meet face to face on the plains of Prax. Neither is willing to step to the side so that they may continue in their paths; instead they vow to stand there face to face as the days, seasons and years pass them by. Eventually a city and highway is built around them and the tale ends with them still standing there refusing to budge.

Why Should Global Warming = No More Cold Winters? Because. That's Why.

This week I discovered that apparently I am retarded and if that wasn't enough I also have severe mental problems. This according to someone whom I have never even met; who doesn't know I exist, but along with thousands of others I was still fair game for his armchair judgement. Who was this person? He is a blogger with a following of several hundred on Twitter who doesn't "believe" in man-made global warming (AGW). I won't link to his blog because I prefer not to drive traffic to a blogger who speaks purely from a personal bias that directly contradicts tested scientific evidence on the subject he wrote about - in this case the current cold winters being proof that global warming is a hoax (see link at bottom of post for scientific explanation of negative Arctic oscilliation and the weakened polar vortex). In comparison to other bloggers on the subject, he was relatively tame with his rant. Some are virulent in their hate speak. Some have the hallmarks of extremism. To these "believers" of anti climate change if you subscribe to the possibility of AGW then you are automatically judged in the most derogatory terms. Those of us who want to ask reasonable questions and look to the scientific community for answers are relegated to the realms of the simple; the unthinking; the gullible and the outright stupid. That's a lot of insults from people I haven't even had a chance to express my views to.

Irresponsible Reporting. The Damage. The Consequences.

"The thing about science is first of all it's after the way the universe really is and not what makes us feel good. And a lot of the competing doctrines are after what feels good and not what's known."

Carl Sagan

Today in Japan, there is a volcano experiencing one of its biggest explosions since it became active again after 52 years. Today there is an evacuation of the low lying parts of North Queensland and its off shore islands in advance of Cyclone Yasi, a category 4 cyclone that is due to hit what has already been designated as a disaster area tomorrow or the next day. Today the US National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for Chicago. Yesterday 2 people died and 29,000 were evacuated because of floods in Johor, Malaysia. The media has not been short of fodder for articles concerning the heatwaves, floods, droughts and heavy snowfalls that have recently plagued mankind. So many things are happening all at once that it's likely not practical for all of it to be widely reported. This means only a percentage of what is happening in the world due Climate Change is being made common knowledge. There are things happening we will never know about. But even if those of us trawling the Internet for information don't know about it, the scientists do, and later on we'll realise why that's more important than most people realise. But first let's talk about responsible reporting.