Fight Climate Change

Follow on from the idea of dimming lights to save energy and reduce CO2 emissions, Australia have taken a further step in the fight against climate change by announcing that the incandescent light bulb will be phased out over the next 3 years. New energy efficient lightbulbs will be used instead. There are possible environmental issues regarding mercury that exists in the fluorescent replacements (AdelaideNow), however the time period of phasing out the incandesecent bulb should be sufficient for recyling procedures to be implemented across the whole of the country.

The switch to energy saving lightbulbs “could reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by 4 million tons by 2012″, however surprisingly they’re not the first country to take this step. In a report on ABC7Chicago, Cuba and Venezuela have introduced similar programs to save energy. It’s possible that these steps weren’t to fight climate change, and could be more to do with energy conservation in regions where energy supplies are limited.

Energy saving lightbulbs are something everyone should be trying to introduce to their homes. They can help reduce energy bills, and also last longer than the incandesecent bulb.

The Highways Agency has today reported that they’re considering implementing dimming or switching off road lighting after midnight in an attempt to save energy (The BBC). Road Safety campaigners are concerned by the proposal and according to the report any dimming, or even switching off of the lights, would need to be offset against crime and safety concerns.

What’s interesting about the report today is that over a month ago a similar scheme was announced in Devon, who have had problems with increased light pollution as reported back in 2003 also by The BBC.

Whilst, dimming lights and converting street lighting to renewable energy sources is a great idea, this idea also needs to be applied to buildings and businesses who insist on illuminating the night sky.

Dimming lights in a city to save energy isn’t a new idea. In 2005, New York was encouraged to dim lights in dozens of skyscrapers in an attempt to save birds – who for whatever reason seemed to like flying into the buildings. According to the report, again by The BBC, The Empire State Building has been dimming their lights since 1975.

Rome, also back in 2005, undertook a plan to reduce light pollution and save energy. According to the report shops were to be encouraged to turn off internal lights, whilst the government aimed to reduce the radiance of their 140,000 street lights.

Neon light pollution has also been kept in check in Madrid. Businesses in the Spanish capital have been ordered to tone down their brightness or face fines. The move was not aimed at saving energy however, but to improve the look of the city.

To help spread the message of climate change issues a series of concerts worldwide are being planned. The Live Earth concerts, launched by Kevin Wall, Al Gore, Pharrell Williams, Maná, Cameron Diaz, and the MSN Network, (The BBC), will take place in South Africa, The UK, The USA, Japan, China, Australia, Japan and Brazil on July 7th (07/07/07) and according to organisers will be “carbon neutral” and attract a worldwide audienced of 2 billion.

Amongst the artists who have agreed to take part in the 24 hours of concerts are Bon Jovi, Foo Fighters, Paolo Nutini, Sherly Crow, AFI, Snow Patrol, Black Eyed Peas, Duran Duran, Korn and Bloc Party. As ever, with these kind of events, actors, athletes, business men and politicians will be taking to the stage to proclaim their support of fighting climate change.

Whilst, yet again, raising awareness of climate change is definitely not a bad thing, will it actually get the message across as the organisers hope? Will a 24 hour concert fully engage a listening world and goad them into taking action? Will it simply be a case of “well that was a good day of music”, here’s a donation to ease my conscience before hopping in a gas guzzling 4×4 to go and buy the concert DVD and CD?

Although the organisers claim the event will be “carbon neutral”, one does wonder if the carbon that will be used by 2 billion people watching their TVs, people travelling to the concerts (including the bands, who no doubt have clocked up more air miles than most in their careers) and the manufacturing of those countless CDs that the participating bands will sell as a result of their appearences, be fully offset? Still, as Cameron Diaz rightly said at the launch of Live Earth – “Our planet is in danger” – “at least someone is doing something about it”.

Sadly, it does seem that the world requires a bit of a do and singalong, before taking steps to recycle and conserve energy!

A brand new book out is this week titled The Chilling Stars, A New Theory of Climate Change (available from Amazon for just £5.99). The book challenges the widely believed concept that man is to blame for climate change and provides evidence to suggest that global warming is in fact linked to cosmic rays.

The book is by Henrik Svensmark and Nigel Calder. Svensmark is a Danish Physicist (more details) who has linked cosmic rays to clouds and temperatures and his investigations around the world confirm his theory. These experiments are described in the book.

An article on the book and Svensmark is available at The Herald, and they report that later this year a team of scientists will “attempt to replicate the effect of cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere, by conducting a large-scale experiment using a particle accelerator in Geneva”!

In the wake of the IPCC’s report on climate change, Svensmark and his colleagues are unlikely to sway too many of their peers to accept his research. However, if on one hand science is saying one thing and on another science is also telling us another, and research supports both theories – it does beg the question who is actually right? A discussion on the book and an article by Nigel Calder that featured in The Times this week rages on over at Realclimate.org.

This is the latest TV campaign from Climate Challenge. The site contains useful information including a history of climate change and myths surrounding the subject. They also have an map of activities so you can find out what is being done in your region to fight climate change – useful if you’re in England, but not so if you’re in Wales, Scotland or Ireland, where apparently nothing is being done!

The advert features the obligatory images of extreme weather, including choppy seas, blizzards, twisters and drought. It also shows viewers the “hidden gases” by highligting where they’re coming from (e.g. industry, cars, and planes). The message though is upbeat in that if Governments, business and individuals start working together then we can tackle the problem.

The advert ends with the tag line “Tomorrow’s climate is today’s challenge”!