-
Apart from
setting fire to a forest, flying is the worst single thing an
individual can do.
-
UK surveys point to 70-80% in favour of wind farms as a concept.
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Local protests
are stopping about 80% of proposed wind farms in Britain.
-
There would be
electrical power for 11,000 homes from the 9 proposed turbines in
Bedford.
-
Oil has now
become the resource worth fighting for all around the world.
-
Alan Greenspan,
former Federal Reserve Chairman: “I am saddened that it is
politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the
Iraq war is largely about oil.”
-
Every aspect of
human life in the west is made from oil – from plastic bags to
medicine to computers to cosmetics.
-
Every calorie of
food we eat uses nearly 100 calories of oil energy to produce,
package, refrigerate and transport.
-
13% of oil
revenue is supposed to go on community service.
-
Finding oil
usually increases a country’s poverty as the oil wealth is
concentrated in the hands of a few.
-
A hefty chunk of
oil profits come from Nigeria where most of the population lives on
$1 a day.
-
Shell said that
if they came into the Nigerian community they would clean the water
for residents, but nothing has been done. Despite being in the most
profitable area of West Africa there is no health centre, no
secondary school, no electricity and no drinking water. Shell says
it has been necessary to abandon all community projects because of
the risk of kidnapping.
-
In Nigeria
natural gas is found next to oil but it’s too expensive for oil
companies to export. Although it could be used for cooking by the
local community, the oil companies simply burn it off in gas flares
emitting millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide and producing asthma,
bronchitis and environmental pollution at the local level.
-
The flares emit
70 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, more than the emission
from 10 million British homes.
-
The same PR
company employed to convince Americans there is still doubt about
the whole climate change debate is the same firm employed to
convince Americans that smoking was good for them.
-
A poll “Is there
still doubt that climate change is partly man-made?” YES
Scientists: less than 1% Public: 60%
-
China builds a new power plant every 4 days.
-
The desert in
China is advancing 3 miles every year.
-
Plastic toys
stay in landfill for 50,000 years.
-
42 million
bottles of water are consumed every day.
-
400 years of
capitalism has allowed 1% of the world’s population to take 40% of
the world’s resources for themselves.
-
An American
uses twice as much energy as a European, 9 times as much as a
Chinese person, 15 times more than an Indian and 50 times as much as
a Kenyan.
-
If all 6½
billion people on the planet consumed like Europeans or the
Japanese, we would need 2 more planets to supply the necessary
resources.
-
The effects of
our emissions today will not be felt on temperature change for 30 to
40 years.
-
We’re
evolutionarily equipped to deal with immediate danger like advancing
armies or dangerous animals. We are, however, not well
equipped to rationally deal with long term problems.
-
If we wait until
the temperature change is full upon us, then it will already be far
too late to stop or reverse it.
-
Everyone agrees
that it is necessary to stabilise the temperature at no more than 2
degrees above pre-industrial levels. Anything above that and there
are forces in nature that will move the tipping point out of human
control.
-
At a 2 degree
rise Methane could be coming out of the permafrost in Siberia and
large amounts of carbon coming out of the world’s trees and soils.
These additional gases could lead us to an increase in temperatures
up to 6 degrees which would spell extinction for most life on earth.
-
The point of
stabilisation must be no later than 2015.
-
Achieving
low-carbon emission for the whole of human society is the most
monumental task mankind has ever faced.
-
The average
individual in the UK is responsible for emitting 10 tonnes of
greenhouse gas a year. 1 tonne a year is the sustainable amount that
trees and plants can absorb.
