If we all put our change in charity tins the world would be a lot better off.
So the next time you buy something priced between 95p and 99p stick the difference in the tin. Simple. If everyone in the UK did that with just 1p a week it adds up to £300m a year. Wow. That's a lot of money.
Someone worked out that in the UK alone there is currently about £15m of loose change which needs to be removed from circulation (most of it in sock drawers and old whisky bottles presumably).
If you have your own stash at home now is the time to hand it over. So instead of just a drawer of smelly pennies doing nothing you can actually give them a role in life. Foreign money works well too, as proven by the BA sponsored Change for Good campaign for Unicef. They've raised over £16m.
Maybe you could start a 'Make a change' event at work. Maybe you could check down the side of your own sofa first.
Take action If you like the action, why not give it a go? We don't want you to spend hours trying to find out how to get started on each action, so we've got some ideas here. www.unicef.org/infobycountry/uk_change_for_good.html
We think it was Keith Moon who drove a car into a pool. But that's not what we mean at all.
No. Let's be absolutely clear on that before we go any further.
What we're suggesting is that you help the environment and make life a bit friendlier by figuring out how to share lifts to and from work.
Liftshare.com is a website which helps people find drivers and passengers online.
Who knows. You might find some new friends while saving the planet. That's like helping two wounded birds with one bandage.
FYI: Every day 10 million seats go empty on the road.
Take action If you like the action, why not give it a go? We don't want you to spend hours trying to find out how to get started on each action, so we've got some ideas here. www.shareacar.com www.liftshare.com www.carplus.org.uk www.carsharewales.com www.changeyourworld.org.uk
Polar bears live only in the arctic and as the sea ice continues to melt due to global warming, the polar bears' primary habitat becomes more threatened. They are incredibly specialized hunters that have adapted to life in the Arctic environment. They depend on the sea ice for survival - it is their hunting grounds; it is their lifeblood. The polar bears featured in this movie are calling us to action as their habitat is threatened. Scientists are calling us to action as they study the current data and make concerning predictions for our future. Future generations are calling us to action as they hope to inherit a better world.
All of the images featured in this movie have been provided by Howard Ruby, Chairman of Oakwood Worldwide, the temporary housing specialist and a supporter of the Global Warming Crusade Fund, LLC. A passionate photographer, his adventures have taken him on numerous trips to the Arctic to photograph this dramatic area and the amazing polar bears and cubs that live there. After witnessing the effects of global warming first-hand and seeing the polar bears' plight, he was moved to assist Oakwood Worldwide in creating the Global Warming Crusade Fund to raise public awareness and to support various research programs and charitable organizations.
Although developed for a Thai commercial for Halls Lite drops, the following video has a hard hitting message presented in a hilarious manner. After laughing if you think a little while, you feel like saying like the famous villain Gabbar "Hamara Kya Hoga Kaaliya..."
The video shows a Polar bear shaving it's fur off to adapt to the increasing global warming. The Arctic grooming leaves polar quite embarassed and puts us to shame. Tears rolled up my eyes when i watched it the first time...
If you were a wildlife biologists, you may question, but polar bears have a black skin below their fur...!
Perhaps all the governments around the world have a similar view to global warming.
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein, Ap Science Writer – Tue Aug 4, 5:23 pm ET WASHINGTON – "Cash for clunkers" could have the same effect on global warming pollution as shutting down the entire country — every automobile, every factory, every power plant — for an hour per year. That could rise to three hours if the program is extended by Congress and remains as popular as it is now.
Climate experts aren't impressed.
Compared to overall carbon dioxide emissions in the United States, the pollution savings from cash for clunkers do not noticeably move the fuel gauge. Environmental experts say the program — conceived primarily to stimulate the economy and jump-start the auto industry — is not an effective way to attack climate change.
"As a carbon dioxide policy, this is a terribly wasteful thing to do," said Henry Jacoby, a professor of management and co-director of the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change at MIT. "The amount of carbon you are saving per federal expenditure is very, very small."
Officials expect a quarter-million gas guzzlers will be junked under the original $1 billion set aside by Congress — money that is now all but exhausted.
Calculations by The Associated Press, using Department of Transportation figures, show that replacing those fuel hogs will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by just under 700,000 tons a year. While that may sound impressive, it's nothing compared to what the U.S. spewed last year: nearly 6.4 billion tons (and that was down from previous years).
That means on average, every hour, America emits 728,000 tons of carbon dioxide. The total savings per year from cash for clunkers translates to about 57 minutes of America's output of the chief greenhouse gas.
Likewise, America will be using nearly 72 million fewer gallons of gasoline a year because of the program, based on the first quarter-million vehicles replaced. U.S. drivers go through that amount of gas every 4 1/2 hours, according to the Department of Energy.
For individuals, the program scores big. Vehicle owners who trade in an older, gas-guzzling truck or car for a newer fuel-efficient vehicle can get $3,500 to $4,500 in rebates. On average each year, they will save 287 gallons of gas, more than $700 in fuel costs and close to 3 tons in carbon dioxide pollution.
The problem is, there aren't enough of these individuals to dent the national or global energy and environmental problems.
"There's 260 million vehicles on the road and you're talking a quarter-million vehicles. It's not even close. It's just a drop in the bucket," said Bruce Belzowski, a scientist at the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute. "It's really small numbers. But if you don't start somewhere, where are you going to start? It heads the country in the right direction."
The House has passed a bill at President Barack Obama's request to pump an additional $2 billion into the program. If the Senate follows suit, the potential effect on pollution and energy would triple. But experts say that it is still not much compared to the overall problem.
One benefit of cash for clunkers is that it takes some of the dirtiest cars off the road for good — their engines are immobilized with "liquid glass" and the rest of the vehicle can be recycled. Otherwise, these cars could have been on the road for several more years, polluting more each year. So the pollution reductions keep adding up.
Americans are holding on to their cars longer than they used to, with the median age of cars on the road in 2008 rising to a record high of 9.4 years, according to R.L. Polk & Co.
While some people have worried that there might be an added environmental and energy cost to recycling the metal in the junked cars, experts said that is not the case. Generally, it saves energy to use recycled steel in cars rather than newly made steel, Belzowski said.
The cars being bought aren't just more gas-stingy than what they're replacing — they are 18 percent more efficient on average than other new cars, according to the Department of Transportation.
"This is a win-win program for everybody," said National Highway Traffic Safety Administration spokesman Eric Bolton. "The program is raising the average fuel economy of the fleet while getting the dirtiest vehicles off the roads."
Bolton said there is another benefit to the program: Newer cars "are considerably safer than the old clunkers they are replacing."
But some energy experts say the country is overpaying for the pollution reductions, mostly because cash for clunkers is more about stimulating the economy than cutting pollution.
Paying up to $4,500 per clunker means the government is spending more than $160 for every ton of carbon dioxide removed over 10 years, said MIT's Jacoby, co-author of the book "Transportation in a Climate-Constrained World."
That's five to 10 times more than the estimated per-ton cost of carbon dioxide for power plants in the cap-and-trade system passed earlier this year by the House.
Michael Gerrard, director of the Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, who examined the clunkers program in an academic journal, said there are far better ways to cut energy use and greenhouse gases.
"It's not that it's a bad idea; just don't sell it as a cost-effective energy savings method," he said. "From an economic standpoint it seems to be a roaring success. From an environment and energy perspective, it's not where you would put your first dollar."
___
Associated Press Writer Ken Thomas in Washington contributed to this report.
Greenpeace China is going big today. 100 ice children will melt in the center of Beijing. Our Indian colleague Vinuta will speak on the spot about the importance of a Chinese – Indian climate alliance. Greenpeace India is going big today as well. The Number 100 in 12feet high letters will melt and drown a world map in the center of Delhi. Our Chinese colleague Li Yan will speak on the spot about the importance of a Chinese – Indian climate alliance. So today it’s all about 100 and about China – India and about melting.
The magic 100
From today on we have just 100 full days left till the start of the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen. Copenhagen is the capital of the small European country Denmark and becomes in December the host of the biggest climate conference ever. All countries meet there and try to agree how to deal with climate change, the biggest threat for mankind in our days. Basically it’s very simple. All countries have to act. The rich countries are much more responsible for the troubles we are in right now, so they have to do much more. That means they have to reduce significantly their Greenhouse Gas emissions. Other countries need also reduce their future emissions but should get financial and technical support to do so. Unfortunately this is not happening. And with just 100 days to go we have no time to waste anymore.
China – India
China and India are the two biggest countries in the world and are catching up in economic terms. So do their Greenhouse Gas emissions. These two countries are important to build up pressure on the rich countries to do their bit and these two countries have the political and technological ability to show the rest of the world the way to get ride of the dependence on coal and oil.
Melting away
How to link China and India. The biggest link between this two countries is the Himalayas. The source of all their big rivers which are the life lines for both countries. All their rivers are sourced by the huge glaciers there and these glaciers are melting away like ice sculptures in the sun. The melting of the glaciers is one of the biggest impacts of climate change and will destroy the livelihood of more than one billion people in Asia.
So a joint Chinese-Indian melting of 100 is a huge outcry to the world. It’s just 100 days to go to Copenhagen and we urgently need a strong agreement there. So “World leader – Act now!”
If you visit www.stephentimms.org.uk, you can calculate how much carbon you emit while travelling to and from work. Then - on the same site - they'll tell you how you can erase that carbon footprint, easily.
This applies to companies as well as individuals. HSBC was the first bank to go 'carbon neutral' and BSkyB, the first media company. How does that make you feel about those two companies?
Let's face it. We all leave a mess behind us.
The difference is, mature people clear it up afterwards.
Take action If you like the action, why not give it a go? We don't want you to spend hours trying to find out how to get started on each action, so we've got some ideas here. www.thec-changetrust.org www.co2balance.com www.earthday.net www.bestfootforward.com www.treesforcities.org www.carbonneutral.com www.carbonfootprint.com www.eta.co.uk www.targetneutral.com www.sbsbsb.com
There is no 'away' - that is a profound thought. Someone like Chris Martin should turn that line into an album title and before you know it, they'd have a huge hit on their hands and be able to fly away to the Bahamas.
But when it comes to rubbish, there really ISN'T any 'away'.
We think it disappears into thin air, like a dove in a Paul Daniels magic trick.
But it doesn't. It doesn't go to the evil planet Zog or into a little clearing in the woods where Dusty Bin plays leapfrog with Ted Rogers all day long.
It sticks around, for thousands of years.
By the way, in the case of Paul Daniels' disappearing dove, it goes up a hole in Paul's... ah, now that would be telling.
FYI: Every year we need a forest the size of Wales to provide all of the paper we use in Britain.
Take action If you like the action, why not give it a go? We don't want you to spend hours trying to find out how to get started on each action, so we've got some ideas here. www.thelaundry.biz www.paper-round.co.uk www.recycle-more.co.uk www.recyclenow.com www.greenwire.com www.letsrecycle.com
They reckon 200 million people around the world need glasses every year, but can't afford them. People who can't see properly, can't do their jobs - and kids who can't see properly, can't learn at school.
Apparently most people who wear glasses have more than one pair. Given that you can only wear one pair at once there's every chance at least one pair of glasses is sitting at the back of your sock drawer.
Which is a shame as they could be sitting on someone's nose helping them read and write.
So don't bin your old bins. Recycle 'em.
Take action If you like the action, why not give it a go? We don't want you to spend hours trying to find out how to get started on each action, so we've got some ideas here. www.vao.org.uk www.ukorbis.org/bins/index.asp
Join a club. It doesn't have to mean socks and sandals in the local temple hall and a feisty jostle for the last jammy dodger.
Take action If you like the action, why not give it a go? We don't want you to spend hours trying to find out how to get started on each action, so we've got some ideas here. www.wearewhatwedo.org www.join-me.co.uk www.theoneworld.org/wearewhatwedo.shtml
Here's an action you'll definitely start doing NOW - only fill your kettle with the water you need. If everybody did we could save enough electricity to run all the street lighting in the whole country.
Apparently.
Whoever worked that statistic out, should get out more. (Or maybe they can't, because the lamps in their street don't work.)
Take action If you like the action, why not give it a go? We don't want you to spend hours trying to find out how to get started on each action, so we've got some ideas here. www.wateraid.org.uk www.ofwat.gov.uk www.ecokettle.com
Most people keep the tap running all the time they're brushing their teeth. Which wastes huge amounts of water and is a bit stupid - it's like having the toilet flush the whole time you're on it.
(And if you want to see how a really efficient toilet works, look at how the new Japanese models operate. They can also weigh you, tell you whether you're on a healthy diet, and give you the winner of the 3.30 at Kempton Park.)
In fact it adds up to quite a few litres a day. And families in the developing world exist on just that to survive each day.
So why not turn off the tap while you clean your teeth?
Change your behaviour. Now.
We bet this is one of the actions you don't forget from this book. For some reason, it seems to strike a chord with everyone.
Take action If you like the action, why not give it a go? We don't want you to spend hours trying to find out how to get started on each action, so we've got some ideas here. www.scottishwater.co.uk www.globalactionplan.org.uk
There's nothing new with the concept of recycling stuff. Except that computers are slightly heavier to carry down the high street than a bag of last night's beer bottles.
So, if you've got a computer you don't need anymore, contact www.computer-aid.org or www.tfs.org.uk and they'll organise for it to be passed on to those who can make good use of it.
Imagine the joy a seven-year-old in the Third World would feel if they could play with the mightiest thing ever invented. The thing you currently use to play "Minesweeper" and visit dating sites. It also gives you just the excuse you needed to trade up to the Hoki Koki 12000 you've had your eye on.
Take action If you like the action, why not give it a go? We don't want you to spend hours trying to find out how to get started on each action, so we've got some ideas here. www.computer-aid.org www.tfs.org.uk
Mahatma Gandhi had it right when he said: "Be the change you want to see in the world."
It's a pretty good vision don't you think? Use your passion and energy to make things happen. Inspire others. Get on with it. You might not get another chance.
Take action If you like the action, why not give it a go? We don't want you to spend hours trying to find out how to get started on each action, so we've got some ideas here. www.stanford.edu/group/king www.mkgandhi.org
On 18.07.2008 former Vice President Al Gore challenged to reset the way America makes energy choices. It was a powerful, inspiring speech.
He spoke about amazing opportunities -- and how making the correct choices will benefit our environment, our national security, our economy and our energy bills.
Al Gore has issued a powerful challenge: producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years. It's achievable, affordable and necessary. And we need to make this break from past habits and old ways of thinking. As he summarized so powerfully:
"We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that's got to change."
In the past months he's been hosting a series of solutions summits with engineers, scientists, CEOs, and financiers. This speech pulled together some of the best thinking from those talks -- and highlighted what we each can do to end our dangerous addiction to fossil fuels and solve the climate crisis.
Thousands were present to hear him speak and I know that we'll be hearing a lot about his challenge in the days ahead. Be among the first to take on this challenge.
Watch the speech below and/or read the essence of the speech given below.
Ladies and gentlemen: There are times in the history of our nation when our very way of life depends upon dispelling illusions and awakening to the challenge of a present danger. In such moments, we are called upon to move quickly and boldly to shake off complacency, throw aside old habits and rise, clear-eyed and alert, to the necessity of big changes. Those who, for whatever reason, refuse to do their part must either be persuaded to join the effort or asked to step aside. This is such a moment. The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk. And even more - if more should be required - the future of human civilization is at stake.
I don't remember a time in our country when so many things seemed to be going so wrong simultaneously. Our economy is in terrible shape and getting worse, gasoline prices are increasing dramatically, and so are electricity rates. Jobs are being outsourced. Home mortgages are in trouble. Banks, automobile companies and other institutions we depend upon are under growing pressure. Distinguished senior business leaders are telling us that this is just the beginning unless we find the courage to make some major changes quickly.
The climate crisis, in particular, is getting a lot worse - much more quickly than predicted. Scientists with access to data from Navy submarines traversing underneath the North polar ice cap have warned that there is now a 75 percent chance that within five years the entire ice cap will completely disappear during the summer months. This will further increase the melting pressure on Greenland. According to experts, the Jakobshavn glacier, one of Greenland's largest, is moving at a faster rate than ever before, losing 20 million tons of ice every day, equivalent to the amount of water used every year by the residents of New York City.
Two major studies from military intelligence experts have warned our leaders about the dangerous national security implications of the climate crisis, including the possibility of hundreds of millions of climate refugees destabilizing nations around the world.
Just two days ago, 27 senior statesmen and retired military leaders warned of the national security threat from an "energy tsunami" that would be triggered by a loss of our access to foreign oil. Meanwhile, the war in Iraq continues, and now the war in Afghanistan appears to be getting worse.
And by the way, our weather sure is getting strange, isn't it? There seem to be more tornadoes than in living memory, longer droughts, bigger downpours and record floods. Unprecedented fires are burning in California and elsewhere in the American West. Higher temperatures lead to drier vegetation that makes kindling for mega-fires of the kind that have been raging in Canada, Greece, Russia, China, South America, Australia and Africa. Scientists in the Department of Geophysics and Planetary Science at Tel Aviv University tell us that for every one degree increase in temperature, lightning strikes will go up another 10 percent. And it is lightning, after all, that is principally responsible for igniting the conflagration in California today.
Like a lot of people, it seems to me that all these problems are bigger than any of the solutions that have thus far been proposed for them, and that's been worrying me.
I'm convinced that one reason we've seemed paralyzed in the face of these crises is our tendency to offer old solutions to each crisis separately - without taking the others into account. And these outdated proposals have not only been ineffective - they almost always make the other crises even worse.
Yet when we look at all three of these seemingly intractable challenges at the same time, we can see the common thread running through them, deeply ironic in its simplicity: our dangerous over-reliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core of all three of these challenges - the economic, environmental and national security crises.
We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that's got to change.
But if we grab hold of that common thread and pull it hard, all of these complex problems begin to unravel and we will find that we're holding the answer to all of them right in our hand. The answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels.
In my search for genuinely effective answers to the climate crisis, I have held a series of "solutions summits" with engineers, scientists, and CEOs. In those discussions, one thing has become abundantly clear: when you connect the dots, it turns out that the real solutions to the climate crisis are the very same measures needed to renew our economy and escape the trap of ever-rising energy prices. Moreover, they are also the very same solutions we need to guarantee our national security without having to go to war in the Persian Gulf.
What if we could use fuels that are not expensive, don't cause pollution and are abundantly available right here at home?
We have such fuels. Scientists have confirmed that enough solar energy falls on the surface of the earth every 40 minutes to meet 100 percent of the entire world's energy needs for a full year. Tapping just a small portion of this solar energy could provide all of the electricity America uses.
And enough wind power blows through the Midwest corridor every day to also meet 100 percent of US electricity demand. Geothermal energy, similarly, is capable of providing enormous supplies of electricity for America.
The quickest, cheapest and best way to start using all this renewable energy is in the production of electricity. In fact, we can start right now using solar power, wind power and geothermal power to make electricity for our homes and businesses.
But to make this exciting potential a reality, and truly solve our nation's problems, we need a new start.
That's why I'm proposing today a strategic initiative designed to free us from the crises that are holding us down and to regain control of our own destiny. It's not the only thing we need to do. But this strategic challenge is the lynchpin of a bold new strategy needed to re-power America.
Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years.
This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative. It represents a challenge to all Americans - in every walk of life: to our political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, and to every citizen.
A few years ago, it would not have been possible to issue such a challenge. But here's what's changed: the sharp cost reductions now beginning to take place in solar, wind, and geothermal power - coupled with the recent dramatic price increases for oil and coal - have radically changed the economics of energy.
When I first went to Congress 32 years ago, I listened to experts testify that if oil ever got to $35 a barrel, then renewable sources of energy would become competitive. Well, today, the price of oil is over $135 per barrel. And sure enough, billions of dollars of new investment are flowing into the development of concentrated solar thermal, photovoltaics, windmills, geothermal plants, and a variety of ingenious new ways to improve our efficiency and conserve presently wasted energy.
And as the demand for renewable energy grows, the costs will continue to fall. Let me give you one revealing example: the price of the specialized silicon used to make solar cells was recently as high as $300 per kilogram. But the newest contracts have prices as low as $50 a kilogram.
You know, the same thing happened with computer chips - also made out of silicon. The price paid for the same performance came down by 50 percent every 18 months - year after year, and that's what's happened for 40 years in a row.
To those who argue that we do not yet have the technology to accomplish these results with renewable energy: I ask them to come with me to meet the entrepreneurs who will drive this revolution. I've seen what they are doing and I have no doubt that we can meet this challenge.
To those who say the costs are still too high: I ask them to consider whether the costs of oil and coal will ever stop increasing if we keep relying on quickly depleting energy sources to feed a rapidly growing demand all around the world. When demand for oil and coal increases, their price goes up. When demand for solar cells increases, the price often comes down.
When we send money to foreign countries to buy nearly 70 percent of the oil we use every day, they build new skyscrapers and we lose jobs. When we spend that money building solar arrays and windmills, we build competitive industries and gain jobs here at home.
Of course there are those who will tell us this can't be done. Some of the voices we hear are the defenders of the status quo - the ones with a vested interest in perpetuating the current system, no matter how high a price the rest of us will have to pay. But even those who reap the profits of the carbon age have to recognize the inevitability of its demise. As one OPEC oil minister observed, "The Stone Age didn't end because of a shortage of stones."
To those who say 10 years is not enough time, I respectfully ask them to consider what the world's scientists are telling us about the risks we face if we don't act in 10 years. The leading experts predict that we have less than 10 years to make dramatic changes in our global warming pollution lest we lose our ability to ever recover from this environmental crisis. When the use of oil and coal goes up, pollution goes up. When the use of solar, wind and geothermal increases, pollution comes down.
To those who say the challenge is not politically viable: I suggest they go before the American people and try to defend the status quo. Then bear witness to the people's appetite for change.
I for one do not believe our country can withstand 10 more years of the status quo. Our families cannot stand 10 more years of gas price increases. Our workers cannot stand 10 more years of job losses and outsourcing of factories. Our economy cannot stand 10 more years of sending $2 billion every 24 hours to foreign countries for oil. And our soldiers and their families cannot take another 10 years of repeated troop deployments to dangerous regions that just happen to have large oil supplies. What could we do instead for the next 10 years? What should we do during the next 10 years? Some of our greatest accomplishments as a nation have resulted from commitments to reach a goal that fell well beyond the next election: the Marshall Plan, Social Security, the interstate highway system. But a political promise to do something 40 years from now is universally ignored because everyone knows that it's meaningless. Ten years is about the maximum time that we as a nation can hold a steady aim and hit our target.
When President John F. Kennedy challenged our nation to land a man on the moon and bring him back safely in 10 years, many people doubted we could accomplish that goal. But 8 years and 2 months later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the surface of the moon. To be sure, reaching the goal of 100 percent renewable and truly clean electricity within 10 years will require us to overcome many obstacles. At present, for example, we do not have a unified national grid that is sufficiently advanced to link the areas where the sun shines and the wind blows to the cities in the East and the West that need the electricity. Our national electric grid is critical infrastructure, as vital to the health and security of our economy as our highways and telecommunication networks. Today, our grids are antiquated, fragile, and vulnerable to cascading failure. Power outages and defects in the current grid system cost US businesses more than $120 billion dollars a year. It has to be upgraded anyway.
We could further increase the value and efficiency of a Unified National Grid by helping our struggling auto giants switch to the manufacture of plug-in electric cars. An electric vehicle fleet would sharply reduce the cost of driving a car, reduce pollution, and increase the flexibility of our electricity grid.
At the same time, of course, we need to greatly improve our commitment to efficiency and conservation. That's the best investment we can make.
America's transition to renewable energy sources must also include adequate provisions to assist those Americans who would unfairly face hardship. For example, we must recognize those who have toiled in dangerous conditions to bring us our present energy supply. We should guarantee good jobs in the fresh air and sunshine for any coal miner displaced by impacts on the coal industry. Every single one of them.
Of course, we could and should speed up this transition by insisting that the price of carbon-based energy include the costs of the environmental damage it causes. I have long supported a sharp reduction in payroll taxes with the difference made up in CO2 taxes. We should tax what we burn, not what we earn. This is the single most important policy change we can make.
In order to foster international cooperation, it is also essential that the United States rejoin the global community and lead efforts to secure an international treaty at Copenhagen in December of next year that includes a cap on CO2 emissions and a global partnership that recognizes the necessity of addressing the threats of extreme poverty and disease as part of the world's agenda for solving the climate crisis.
Of course the greatest obstacle to meeting the challenge of 100 percent renewable electricity in 10 years may be the deep dysfunction of our politics and our self-governing system as it exists today. In recent years, our politics has tended toward incremental proposals made up of small policies designed to avoid offending special interests, alternating with occasional baby steps in the right direction. Our democracy has become sclerotic at a time when these crises require boldness.
It is only a truly dysfunctional system that would buy into the perverse logic that the short-term answer to high gasoline prices is drilling for more oil ten years from now.
Am I the only one who finds it strange that our government so often adopts a so-called solution that has absolutely nothing to do with the problem it is supposed to address? When people rightly complain about higher gasoline prices, we propose to give more money to the oil companies and pretend that they're going to bring gasoline prices down. It will do nothing of the sort, and everyone knows it. If we keep going back to the same policies that have never ever worked in the past and have served only to produce the highest gasoline prices in history alongside the greatest oil company profits in history, nobody should be surprised if we get the same result over and over again. But the Congress may be poised to move in that direction anyway because some of them are being stampeded by lobbyists for special interests that know how to make the system work for them instead of the American people.
If you want to know the truth about gasoline prices, here it is: the exploding demand for oil, especially in places like China, is overwhelming the rate of new discoveries by so much that oil prices are almost certain to continue upward over time no matter what the oil companies promise. And politicians cannot bring gasoline prices down in the short term.
However, there actually is one extremely effective way to bring the costs of driving a car way down within a few short years. The way to bring gas prices down is to end our dependence on oil and use the renewable sources that can give us the equivalent of $1 per gallon gasoline.
Many Americans have begun to wonder whether or not we've simply lost our appetite for bold policy solutions. And folks who claim to know how our system works these days have told us we might as well forget about our political system doing anything bold, especially if it is contrary to the wishes of special interests. And I've got to admit, that sure seems to be the way things have been going. But I've begun to hear different voices in this country from people who are not only tired of baby steps and special interest politics, but are hungry for a new, different and bold approach.
We are on the eve of a presidential election. We are in the midst of an international climate treaty process that will conclude its work before the end of the first year of the new president's term. It is a great error to say that the United States must wait for others to join us in this matter. In fact, we must move first, because that is the key to getting others to follow; and because moving first is in our own national interest.
So I ask you to join with me to call on every candidate, at every level, to accept this challenge - for America to be running on 100 percent zero-carbon electricity in 10 years. It's time for us to move beyond empty rhetoric. We need to act now.
This is a generational moment. A moment when we decide our own path and our collective fate. I'm asking you - each of you - to join me and build this future. Please join the WE campaign at wecansolveit.org.We need you. And we need you now. We're committed to changing not just light bulbs, but laws. And laws will only change with leadership.
On July 16, 1969, the United States of America was finally ready to meet President Kennedy's challenge of landing Americans on the moon. I will never forget standing beside my father a few miles from the launch site, waiting for the giant Saturn 5 rocket to lift Apollo 11 into the sky. I was a young man, 21 years old, who had graduated from college a month before and was enlisting in the United States Army three weeks later.
I will never forget the inspiration of those minutes. The power and the vibration of the giant rocket's engines shook my entire body. As I watched the rocket rise, slowly at first and then with great speed, the sound was deafening. We craned our necks to follow its path until we were looking straight up into the air. And then four days later, I watched along with hundreds of millions of others around the world as Neil Armstrong took one small step to the surface of the moon and changed the history of the human race.
We must now lift our nation to reach another goal that will change history. Our entire civilization depends upon us now embarking on a new journey of exploration and discovery. Our success depends on our willingness as a people to undertake this journey and to complete it within 10 years. Once again, we have an opportunity to take a giant leap for humankind.
Hello, I'm Severn Suzuki speaking for E.C.O. - The Environmental Children's Organisation.
We are a group of twelve and thirteen-year-olds from Canada trying to make a difference: Vanessa Suttie, Morgan Geisler, Michelle Quigg and me. We raised all the money ourselves to come six thousand miles to tell you adults you must change your ways. Coming here today, I have no hidden agenda. I am fighting for my future.
Losing my future is not like losing an election or a few points on the stock market. I am here to speak for all generations to come.
I am here to speak on behalf of the starving children around the world whose cries go unheard.
I am here to speak for the countless animals dying across this planet because they have nowhere left to go. We cannot afford to be not heard.
I am afraid to go out in the sun now because of the holes in the ozone. I am afraid to breathe the air because I don't know what chemicals are in it.
I used to go fishing in Vancouver with my dad until just a few years ago we found the fish full of cancers. And now we hear about animals and plants going exinct every day -- vanishing forever.
In my life, I have dreamt of seeing the great herds of wild animals, jungles and rainforests full of birds and butterfilies, but now I wonder if they will even exist for my children to see.
Did you have to worry about these little things when you were my age?
All this is happening before our eyes and yet we act as if we have all the time we want and all the solutions. I'm only a child and I don't have all the solutions, but I want you to realise, neither do you!
* You don't know how to fix the holes in our ozone layer. * You don't know how to bring salmon back up a dead stream. * You don't know how to bring back an animal now extinct. * And you can't bring back forests that once grew where there is now desert.
If you don't know how to fix it, please stop breaking it!
Here, you may be delegates of your governments, business people, organisers, reporters or poiticians - but really you are mothers and fathers, brothers and sister, aunts and uncles - and all of you are somebody's child. I'm only a child yet I know we are all part of a family, five billion strong, in fact, 30 million species strong and we all share the same air, water and soil -- borders and governments will never change that.
I'm only a child yet I know we are all in this together and should act as one single world towards one single goal.
In my anger, I am not blind, and in my fear, I am not afraid to tell the world how I feel.
In my country, we make so much waste, we buy and throw away, buy and throw away, and yet northern countries will not share with the needy. Even when we have more than enough, we are afraid to lose some of our wealth, afraid to share.
In Canada, we live the privileged life, with plenty of food, water and shelter -- we have watches, bicycles, computers and television sets.
Two days ago here in Brazil, we were shocked when we spent some time with some children living on the streets. And this is what one child told us: "I wish I was rich and if I were, I would give all the street children food, clothes, medicine, shelter and love and affection."
If a child on the street who has nothing, is willing to share, why are we who have everyting still so greedy?
I can't stop thinking that these children are my age, that it makes a tremendous difference where you are born, that I could be one of those children living in the Favellas of Rio; I could be a child starving in Somalia; a victim of war in the Middle East or a beggar in India.
I'm only a child yet I know if all the money spent on war was spent on ending poverty and finding environmental answers, what a wonderful place this earth would be!
At school, even in kindergarten, you teach us to behave in the world. You teach us:
* not to fight with others, * to work things out, * to respect others, * to clean up our mess, * not to hurt other creatures * to share - not be greedy. Then why do you go out and do the things you tell us not to do?
Do not forget why you're attending these conferences, who you're doing this for -- we are your own children. You are deciding what kind of world we will grow up in. Parents should be able to comfort their children by saying "everyting's going to be alright" , "we're doing the best we can" and "it's not the end of the world".
But I don't think you can say that to us anymore. Are we even on your list of priorities? My father always says "You are what you do, not what you say."
Well, what you do makes me cry at night. You grown ups say you love us. I challenge you, please make your actions reflect your words. Thank you for listening.
People throw things away too easily. They throw away their charming childhood illusions. Their talent. Their friendships. Their marriages.
But more important than all these things are their biros. (Well, maybe we're exaggerating a little bit, to make a point.)
A plastic pen in landfill will still be there in 50,000 years. This is not a lot of use to anybody. Unless you imagine that in 50,000 years' time, the world will be populated by super-intelligent beings who have managed to solve all the problems afflicting the human race.
Except that they keep forgetting to bring a biro with them.
FYI: Daily worldwide sales figures of biros exceed 14 million pens.
Take action If you like the action, why not give it a go? We don't want you to spend hours trying to find out how to get started on each action, so we've got some ideas here. www.epenz.co.nz www.remarkable.co.uk www.envocare.co.uk www.scotlink.org www.wascot.org.uk
Fancy a pint? It might seem scary. But that's what makes it cool.
Next time you're late for a meeting with someone you want to impress, just say "Sorry I'm late, I was giving blood."
It's like a Get Out Of Jail Free card (only to be used if you genuinely do turn your pint of blood into a cup of tea and some nice biscuits).
There are likely to be side effects; slight euphoria, puffed up chest and a broad smile for example.
Check out a short film about this action produced by BBC Broadcast Broadband users only Click here to view (QuickTime Player needed to view)
Take action If you like the action, why not give it a go? We don't want you to spend hours trying to find out how to get started on each action, so we've got some ideas here. www.blood.co.uk www.scotblood.co.uk
Every year, vending machines in the UK dispense 3 billion polystyrene cups. Another 3 billion originate from other sources.
Where? Where do they all come from? Is there some mad genius breeding them in underground bunkers?
Do they sneak out at night and eat our leftovers?
I could have sworn I just saw two of them whispering to each other.
But why not put your coffee into a mug, not a plastic cup. It'll taste better, and you'll be doing your bit for the planet.
It's such a no-brainer - let's make it like wearing fur.
Why not introduce a fun mug design at your company? You can design one online at www.yourdesign.co.uk
Suggest that your office or school stop ordering plastic cups for their vending machines with such regularity. Or introduce the save a cup scheme which collects 3.5 million used vending cups every week in the UK.
Take action If you like the action, why not give it a go? We don't want you to spend hours trying to find out how to get started on each action, so we've got some ideas here.
Here's something to chew on. In the UK, we spend about £150m every year cleaning chewing gum off the streets.
(If we didn't do this, our streets would be clogged up with people whose shoes were stuck to the pavement, cursing and swearing at each other like a bunch of swaying punch bags.)
What could we do with that £150m ?
Not much.
Build 3 hospitals, maybe. Employ 8 and a half thousand teachers.
Want to do something about it in your area?
Start by telling people the startling facts. Then you may want to apply your energies to making a difference in your local area. Starting with schools perhaps?
Take action If you like the action, why not give it a go? We don't want you to spend hours trying to find out how to get started on each action, so we've got some ideas here. www.encams.org tinyurl.com/b3wy6
How often have you been caught in traffic behind a car, truck, or bus that is emitting smoke? You smell the fumes, roll up your window, close the vents, and look for your first chance to pass. It makes you angry.
Not surprisingly, a large percentage of the air pollution in India comes from the more than 16 million motor vehicles registered in the state. Each vehicle has the potential to be a source of air pollution. However, poorly-maintained vehicles are the biggest contributors to the pollution problem
Do not drive your vintage or unmaintained or faulty vehicles without repairing it. Act sensibly, since you are going to leave behind the smoke and others are going to get affected.
Researchers have found that children who have meals with their parents are much less likely to suffer from anxiety or stress disorders.
So why not try chatting to each other?
George Bush Snr said that America needed more families like the Waltons, and less like the Simpsons.
A very bad idea, as it happens - after all, when was the last time you laughed at The Waltons?
But if you notice, even the Simpsons like to eat together.
Try the following: Turn off the TV when eating your meal. Theme a Sunday lunch so all the family will have fun attending. Get imaginative with your menu - try a new national dish for example. Invite another family to join you. Turn your next meal into a picnic. Introduce crackers, jokes, or quizzes to liven things up. It's particularly important with adolescents apparently.
So share a meal and a grunt or two with your nearest and dearest.
Take action If you like the action, why not give it a go? We don't want you to spend hours trying to find out how to get started on each action, so we've got some ideas here. http://www.jamiesdinners.com
You really should do a will. And not just if you're about to croak, but NOW. The fact is if you don't get it together the government will get horribly greedy (hard to imagine we know) and start taking tax and nasty things like that away from your loved ones.
You can go to a good stationers and buy a Make A Will pack for just 99p
Or you can draw up a will on-line. Just visit www.searchwill.co.uk
And then you can make sure that your goodies don't go to the baddies.
Take action If you like the action, why not give it a go? We don't want you to spend hours trying to find out how to get started on each action, so we've got some ideas here. www.searchwill.co.uk www.which.net
Government of India has an online Grievance forum at http://www.pgportal.gov.in
Can you imagine this is happening in INDIA?
The government wants people to use this tool to highlight the problems they faced while dealing with Government officials or departments like:
Railways Posts Telecom (incl. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) Urban Development (Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Land Development Office (L&DO), Central Public Works Department (CPWD), etc) Petroleum Natural Gas Civil Aviation (Air India, Airports Authority of India, etc) Shipping, Road Transport Highways Tourism
Public Sector Banks
Allahabad Bank Andhra Bank Bank of Baroda Bank of India Bank of Maharashtra Canara Bank Central Bank of India Corporation Bank Dena Bank Indian Bank Indian Overseas Bank Industrial Development Bank of India Ltd National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Oriental Bank of Commerce Punjab Sind Bank Punjab National Bank Small Industries Development Bank of India State Bank of Bikaner Jaipur State Bank of Hyderabad State Bank of India State Bank of Indore State Bank of Mysore State Bank of Patiala State Bank of Travancore Syndicate Bank UCO Bank Union Bank of India United Bank of India Vijaya Bank
Public Sector Insurance Companies
GIC of India Life Insurance Corporation of India National Insurance Company Ltd. The New India Assurance Company Ltd. The Oriental Insurance Company Ltd. United India Insurance Company Ltd.
National Saving Scheme of Ministry of Finance Employees’ Provident Fund Organization Regional Passport Authorities
Central Government Health Scheme Central Board of Secondary Education Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan National Institute of Open Schooling Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti Central Universities ESI Hospitals and Dispensaries directly controlled by ESI Corporation under Ministry of Labour.
Many of us say that these things don’t work in India . Couple of months back, the Faridabad Municipal Corporation laid new roads in his area and the residents were very happy about it. But 2 weeks later, BSNL dug up the newly laid roads to install new cables which annoyed all the residents. A resident used the above listed grievance forum to highlight his concern. To his surprise, BSNL and Municipal Corporation of Faridabad were served a show cause notice and the guy received a copy of the notice in one week. Government has asked the MC and BSNL about the goof up as it’s clear that both the government departments were not in sync at all.
So use this grievance forum and educate others who don’t know about this facility. This way we can at least raise our concerns instead of just talking about the ‘System’ in India.
Invite your friends to contribute for many such happenings.
Start logging in your grievances
PLEASE SPREAD THIS MESSAGE IF U WANT OUR INDIA TO HAVE A BETTER TOMORROW FORWARD THIS MAIL TO AS MANY AS POSSIBLE.
Now stop asking “What did my country do to me?” Ask “what did I do to the betterment of my country?”
Give your kids a sense of self-sufficiency - grow some mustard or cress with them and make a cress sandwich. It's a great feeling and the nearest most of us will ever get to "The Good Life".
Kids have that wonderful innocence, don't they. It's a fantastic quality, which will disappear all too soon.
The simple action of watering a seed and watching it grow everyday is strangely addictive and can hold their attention from Playstation's Metal Donkey Raider 2 for at least ten minutes a day.
Which is a start.
Take action If you like the action, why not give it a go? We don't want you to spend hours trying to find out how to get started on each action, so we've got some ideas here. www.wigglywigglers.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/gardening_with_children/
Remember what happened. You used to shop at Pearson's. Then it became Patel's. The range of stock grew along with the opening hours. Sadly, as did the prices. You were always a good fifteen minutes in the shop hearing about Sanjit's latest promotion idea or Gheeta's culinary experiments. You even got to try her bhajis. Then you started driving to the new SupaCentre. The one everyone was using, with the big car park. And the queues.
And then someone told you Patel's had closed. For good.
Keep loyal to your local.
They're a part of your community and by the time you really get to appreciate them they may have already gone.
Take action If you like the action, why not give it a go? We don't want you to spend hours trying to find out how to get started on each action, so we've got some ideas here. www.regionalfoodanddrink.co.uk www.farmersmarkets.net www.independentlondon.com
That'll confuse the wonderful people who work there.
Another way to confuse them is to say "If I gave you all my money, would I then qualify as a needy case and get it all back again?"
Seriously though, you know if you find something you want in a charity shop, an old game of Twister for 90p for example, suggest you pay the full £1. Stand back and watch the sales person's face light up. It's worth at least 10p.
Take action If you like the action, why not give it a go? We don't want you to spend hours trying to find out how to get started on each action, so we've got some ideas here. www.auctionmystuff.org www.charityshops.org.uk
Or is it some cock-eyed theory of aesthetics which says that lighting an empty space is beautiful?
One piddly office lit up all night wastes enough energy to make 1,000 cups of tea (you still need to find some poor soul to make them though).
Lots of light means lots of carbon monoxide too - 7% of all emissions in the UK alone and whilst we're on the subject of pollution lots of light in our cities means we don't get to see that starry, starry night that Don McLean sang about so evocatively.
So, if your building is lit up at night, every night, ask why. Find out how you could introduce a culture of everyone taking responsibility to turn off lights. Maybe your company could make a stand and put pressure on other offices in the area.
Take action If you like the action, why not give it a go? We don't want you to spend hours trying to find out how to get started on each action, so we've got some ideas here. www.dark-skies.org.uk www.saveenergy.co.uk
Unless you check that your pension is ethically funded, the chances are that You are supporting the arms industry, and companies with poor human and environmental records.
You can find out more by checking out ethical pension funds at www.eiris.co.uk Now, this is a complicated area, and even if you're just thinking about your pension, you deserve some kind of medal.
So, to make it simple - just ask your IFA (independent financial advisor) or pension provider one question:
"Can you ensure that my investments don't harm the planet or hurt my fellow man?"
If more of us did that, IFAs and their like would soon take notice. But don't get caught up in a longer conversation, unless you're desperate for company.
As Woody Allen once said, anybody who wants to know the definition of eternity should try spending an evening talking to a life insurance salesman.
Take action If you like the action, why not give it a go? We don't want you to spend hours trying to find out how to get started on each action, so we've got some ideas here. www.eiris.org www.co-operativebank.co.uk www.smile.co.uk/whysmile www.triodos.co.uk
Fairtrade products guarantee to give the real producers a fair share of the profits.
Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world.
You'll see all sorts of Fairtrade products in the shops - from bananas to coffee. The FAIRTRADE Mark appears on more than 300 retail products. You may suggest your local supermarket stocks some of them. So, if you buy a Fairtrade banana, you can be proud of your banana.
And there are few feelings in this world that are better than being proud of your banana.
Take action If you like the action, why not give it a go? We don't want you to spend hours trying to find out how to get started on each action, so we've got some ideas here. www.fairtrade.org.uk www.maketradefair.com
Something that 87% of UK drivers have been a victim of. Here's an idea. Turn it into a game. When you're next at a junction, let one car out ahead of you - but only if it's less cool than your own car.
If we all did that, the world would be a better place. It's a simple idea for a complex problem that's reaching epidemic proportion. Try it. And if someone driving a three-wheeled Robin Reliant lets you out first, don't worry about it. It's not personal. Honestly.
Take action If you like the action, why not give it a go? We don't want you to spend hours trying to find out how to get started on each action, so we've got some ideas here. www.eta.co.uk www.rac.co.uk www.theaa.com
Give away some great ideas. The book that inspired you or captured your imagination, give it away.
They dreamt up a scheme in Amsterdam a few years ago, whereby white bicycles were provided free. And the idea was that - after you'd finished your ride - you'd leave the bike in the street for someone else to use for free.
And if that isn't re-cycling, we don't know what is.
But unfortunately this idea flopped, because they failed to take into account two things:
One, the fact that criminals exist.
And two, the fact that coloured paint exists.
But the idea was fantastically optimistic and deserved to succeed.
A better version of this is to ask people to recycle their books.
Do you really need to hang on to your old books? You're never going to read them again. Some of them, if you're honest you haven't even read once.
Start a mini library at work. Or pass them on to your local school or hospital.
Give them to a charity shops, or just leave them on a park bench. It's called book crossing and you can find out more below.
Take action If you like the action, why not give it a go? We don't want you to spend hours trying to find out how to get started on each action, so we've got some ideas here. www.oxfam.org.uk www.bookcrossing.com www.readersunited.com www.roomtoread.org
Nowadays it is all about ‘green’ Architecture. It is in the papers, in the magazines, in television. Many of my colleagues are baptized overnight to ‘green’ architecture ‘experts’, while their clients, suddenly ‘care for the environment’ as they commute to work in their (hybrid) SUVs. Communities, who want to go ‘green’, are often also reluctant to commit to the sustainable lifestyle it translates to. Elias Messinas, Founder and Chairman of ECOWEEK 12/06/2009 09:45 It is very difficult to instil common sense and ‘green’ practice in a world of consumption. In a world that knows no limits to how much one can take from the global commons, how much one is allowed to pollute and how much one can apply their carbon footprint on other people’s resources. It is very difficult to instil a sense of responsibility to those who have the means to make a difference, but loving money, are very cynical when it comes to protecting children, women, the environment or to helping make the world a more just and healthy place to live.
In a world of careerist architects and starchitects, who are paid a % on the cost of their buildings, it is okay to spend millions on LEED certified buildings, when the wealth accumulated to build such buildings, is immensely more than what these buildings will save in energy over their entire life-time. We also don’t think twice when ordering expensive HVAC systems - when the consultant is paid as a percentage of the cost of the system; when opening a window or applying proper shading and thermal insulation may often be more effective (and certainly less consuming, let alone, healthy).
When one sees what is being built nowadays in most parts of the planet, or how contractors and architects relate to our profession in the 21 st century, one feels like they live in a different planet. They may label themselves ‘green’ for placing a bucket under the gutter to collect rainwater, but they will still keep their buildings poorly insulated – since the client, who will pay the heating and cooling bill every month, will never really know the truth.
I am not talking about regulation, since in the countries that I practice, the regulators seem to be not only in a different planet, but also in a different Age. Their policies are often so irrelevant, that it is hard to speak of sufficient regulation, when there is no sufficient intelligence, let alone common sense. Therefore, issues such as energy consumption regulation in buildings, or life cycle assessment of buildings, or construction waste management are often recommended but not required; they are nice’ ideas to add in their election agenda, but certainly not a priority to implement, at least in their 4-year-term.
So, it is not surprising that buildings today consume almost half of the produced energy in Europe and are responsible for a large percentage of the CO2 emissions in the Earth’s atmosphere. Every item specified in a building, and every day the building’s HVAC system operates for the life-time of the building, makes the building a contributor to the problem, not only of climate change, but worse, of postponing the solution. But what is the solution? I have been asked many times, always followed by the question: ‘But isn’t ‘green’ architecture more expensive?’
It is the wrong question, since I do not believe that the solution will be generated in the same mindset that has created the problem. ‘Green’ building may actually be cheaper if properly planned and specified; adding insulation and shading, for example, may reduce the need for oversized air-conditioning. It is a matter of professionals moving to the next phase. It took the Jews 40 years to reach the Land of Israel after they left Egypt as slaves. Today, although slaves of consumption, we cannot keep our architects in the desert for 40 years, so we have to give them a different kind of education; one that will help them make different choices and become better and more environmentally conscious professionals. Not only better architects, but also more active and responsible citizens as well.
To quote David Orr ( Earth in Mind, 111) in our specialized educational system, institutes of education should ‘equip young people with a basic understanding of systems’ to ‘seek out “patterns that connect” human and natural systems; to teach young people […] cause and effect; to give students the practical competence […] to solve local problems, and to teach [them] the habit to [roll] up their sleeves and [get] down to work’.
Education, to quote Ortega y Gasset ( in E.F. Schumacher ‘Small is Beautiful’, 66) ‘is the transmission of ideas which enable man to choose between one thing and another’. We have to give our young architects new types of choices and new ways to solve the problems that our generation has created.
NGO ECOWEEK has been raising public awareness on environmental issues since starting its activity in Greece in 2005. Today it operates in Europe, the US and the Middle East, bringing together schools, young professionals, and students of Architecture, with the goal of intervening in the education of those who will shape our (architectural) future. The Modern Movement did not just happen. Fossil fuel dependency did not just happen. These are conscious processes that took place in our generation. It is our generations’ task to prepare the new generation for the new processes; those that will balance between intelligent and sustainable building practices, and the natural processes and limits of our biosphere.
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