Climate Change

[watervole]

 Kerravonsen recently stuck her head above the parapet and invited people to ask her questions about her faith.

It's always hard to talk about topics that polarise opinion and hard to talk about them when you can get strong negative reactions.

Yet some things are always present in our lives.

With Kerravonsen, it's religion, with me, it's climate change.

I often don't talk about it, because I can't always cope with the stress of dealing with people who refuse to accept that we're changing our planet.  (sometimes, it can be equally stressful talking to people who accept it is happening, but don't want to change their lifestyle)

Yet, it's central to much of what I do.

I turn out lights by reflex.  Yes, it saves money, but I do it primarily because wasting energy is a sin. (And I'm not using the word 'sin' casually)

I haven't travelled overseas in a decade and will probably never do so again - the CO2 emissions from air travel dwarf any saving you can make elsewhere in your life.

We live in an exceptionally well insulated house and don't heat above 18C (though it can get warmer than that from passive solar heating).

We grow quite a lot of our own veg.

I try not to buy food from overseas - if I do, I try and ensure it has not travelled by air (Riverford are very good in this regard - they never ship by air)

We're not perfect.  It's actually quite hard to maintain a low carbon footprint in a country where few of us can afford to buy the land to produce our own food - unless you have that safety net to fall back on, then you have to have a paying job and that means a car and heating and lighting and all the rest of it.  There are also some things that I'm not yet willing to do without, my computer for one. 

Yet, if everyone did no more than I do, we could probably slash this country's carbon emissions.

It's a new year, why not see what you can trim from your carbon emissions?

Comments

[pensnest]

I'm honestly frightened of the changes we've wrought on our climate, not so much for my own sake - I don't expect to be around more than another thirty years or so - but for my children's. It's good to see someone else who does the at-home things like lights and central heating.

Sadly I'm inept in the garden, though I keep trying every so often, but thanks for the Riverford suggestion, I've been meaning to get veggies delivered. It's depressing to pick up so many things from far, far away in Sainsbury's—although when I put them down again I feel a pang of guilt about not supporting people who presumably could really use the income.

[watervole]

Riverford are wonderful - one of the few firms where I actually believe in the ethics they claim. They think the whole process through and try to minimise environmental damage right along the line.

I'll post gardening tips at some point. IN the meantime, chuck all your kitchen waste in the compost - that achieves several useful ends, including reducing methane in landfill.

[damerell]

I already don't fly or ever travel by car, heat the study and hide in it during winter, and so forth... and I suspect I won't do much else until I have any hope at all that we're not utterly screwed.

[watervole]

You're scoring very well indeed.
We heat two rooms, lounge and study, but only have the heating on for a few hours a day.

I think you're doing more than most already. Travel and heating tend to be the biggest culprits.

An easy one to adopt is food miles. Whenever you have the choice, buy produce from your own country - good for your economy and the environment as well.

[ranunculus]

I do fly, but I also do a LOT of conservation:
We compost pretty much everything. I compost almost all non-meat items at home. Our city has mandatory composting for plant, animal and soiled paper products. In fact San Francisco recycles more than 70% of it's waste stream, and will fine people who do not participate. My household, which includes eight people uses part of a 20 gal trash can per week, but fills the 70 gal recycling bin reliably.
I use grey water for garden use (this is important in California) recycling most of the dish water, all my cold "leader" water in the sink and shower. My washing machine is high efficiency. There is a clothes line in my back yard and we use it (almost no one I know actually uses a clothes line even though our climate is perfect for it). The only time Donald and I dry clothes in the dryer is when it has been raining for a week and is still raining.
My garden is hospitable to a wide variety of flora and fauna, including a vibrant insect population that generally keeps pests to a minimum. I grow a very small amount of my own food since the garden is badly contaminated with lead. The food I do eat in great part comes from local sources, including the farmer's market.

At the Ranch I'm actively planting bushes and trees along about a mile and a half of badly degraded creek beds. I -know- there has been no vegetation along these streams for 50 years, and I'm trying to do enough riparian restoration to restore the fish runs on two streams. We installed fences to protect 1/2 a mile of creek from livestock 11 years ago. Regrowth on about 1/2 of that creek has been good, the other part not so good. I'll be installing drip irrigation to help little plants live through summer temps of 115 F + while they get their roots down through 5 feet of river rock to water. We fenced cattle out of 1/2 a mile of the other stream 4 years ago. A small portion of it is growing back well, near a seasonal spring. I'm in the process of getting grants to help revegitate the remaining portions (with irrigation), as well as stabilizing a couple of hillsides that are trying to fall into the stream. BTW five of my nine willows, planted on the stream banks last spring, lived. I'm terribly excited!!! I plan to do more this year - though so far we have had almost no rain and little plants might not be able to live through the summer without more water in the overall hydrology system.

Our house is insulated (mostly, I know because I did it), and it's south facing windows give us great solar gain meaning we almost never turn on the heat. We have debated installing solar panels, but they are marginal in San Francisco and would only save us a small amount per month. I think payback would be about 45 years. I'm seriously considering it for Ukiah tho. I want to re-do the solar hot water out there as well (we used to have a shower in the garden which was entirely solar. Fell apart after 35 years). It's on my "to do list" but not very high since I don't think the tenants would use it.

I frequently recycle things, such as the cables taken out of the Opera House which are now doing duty as stream crossing supports for the fenceline. Or the energy efficient fluorescent fixtures I just took out of the Opera House which will go into the barn... Yes they are a bit broken, but they are still very functional, just not a wise choice 35 feet in the air over people's heads.

Could I do more? Yes. I drive more than I should, but even with the trips to Ukiah my driving is on the low/average side for California, and that is with three adults sharing the car (yes, yes, I own two truck, average mileage per year about 50 to 150 miles a year). I bought the most energy efficient car I could find, which is not a hybrid, I included manufacture and disposal and hybrids aren't efficient if you include those perimeters.

[watervole]

I'm impressed with a lot of what you're doing. A lot of people here could improve their water usage and do some of what you're doing. We have far higher rainfall, but we still suffer shortages in a dry summer.

I'm really interested in your river restoration. That sounds like a great project. I do hope you can get the fish back again.

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

I recycle, I turn off lights, I don't waste water. But I'm not willing to jeapordize my ability to serve others, or to create new things, or to live life beautifully and artistically, by focusing too hard on something that one person can barely affect. I realize this probably seems quite irresponsible to you, but if I took on board every good and sensible cause, I'd never live my life. I'd be too busy trying to save someone or something to have enough energy to write and love and create.

(Yes, I do believe that to be an artist you must be at least a little irresponsible. And willing to disregard the disapproval of others. *g*)

[raspberryfool.livejournal.com]

Me, I live quite frugally. I eschew the consumerist dream, I try not to waste food, I recycle as much as I can and I compost vegetable waste and paper etc. I don't drive (yet). I was dragged up to not waste food and resources and i don't often leave lights on, except for security and convenience. And I grow some of the food I eat, which IMO everyone who owns land should at least attempt. Yet when industry, commerce and government waste so much, my efforts count for squat on the global scale. So I do my bit, but I don't feel guilty for breathing.

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

> I eschew the consumerist dream

This is perhaps one of the biggest questions I - as a Science Fiction philosopher - ask.

How do we live with less consumerism but also without driving the world into massive recession, unemployment, and unhappiness. I don't know what the answer is but I would like more people to discuss it.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

You're definitely one of the more sensible people I know.

We can't solve everything, and we shouldn't try to, but pitching low on the consumerism front does make a difference.

[emmzzi.livejournal.com]

I agree with the volume comments and believe involvement with something like
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_against_Climate_Change
is generally a better investment of effort.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I don't go on demos, the CO2 to travel to them seems very hypocritical. However, I write to my MP about climate issues and donate regularly to organisations working against climate change.

I feel that campaigning for lower emissions without reducing one's own emissions is wrong. What are we campaigning for? A magic wand?

It's all very well to say 'lower emissions', but how?

With current technology, there isn't a lot the government can do that we can't do ourselves. They could (and should) be replacing pensioner's winter heat payments with free insulation. And we who can afford it should be insulating every inch we can manage.

They should be ensuring that all rubbish is sorted and no methane-producing food waste goes to landfill - and we shouldn't be putting it in the rubbish to start with.

The government should invest in carbon capture and storage and retrofit existing coal power stations. But we in turn have to be prepared to pay higher gas bills - and turn down the thermostat in the interim.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

As I am something like a pagan, I try to live in peace with MOther Nature. This possibly led me to live in the village too. And...living in a small village and being a farmer´s wife for almost 25 years, I learned lots of things about people and the environment. It is not easy to do everything right. And...the harm has been done. You know, I always think of that old sad joke about a man who is falling from a top of a very very tall skyscraper: he is falling and he is repeating: it is still all right, it is still all right...
Climate changes are a "top topic", no wonder. I also read a very interesting and not a little worrying scientific (not pseudo!) about the latest research of Sun activities. We tend to forget other forces...
Well...I wish something could be done with the biggest culprits who do a massive damage to our Planet!

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Climate scientists are well aware of the impact of the sun on climate. Solar cycles are included in the calculations.

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

> I turn out lights by reflex.

For certain types of strip lights this isn't a good idea if you are going to switch it back on within about 20 minutes...

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Actually, that was true 30 years ago, but isn't now. For most modern strip lights the power to start them up is equivalent to a few seconds use.

[sweetheartwhale.livejournal.com]

We've settled over the last few years into what is probably a reasonably frugal, carbon emission-low lifestyle - we don't drive, rarely travel outside our own small town, switch lights off to save money, have the heating set at OFF except for coldest winter days and wear boots and sweaters over pajamas, grow some veg, mend old clothes rather than buying. I borrow/ beg stuff for repairs, recently wood out of neighbour's skip for a raised veg bed. I buy supermarket food because I have a discount card but I usually buy British for meat and prefer to buy veg and local produce from stalls markets etc when cost allows. We made a conscious decision not to add to the planet's population Though this has mainly to do with adjustments made due to the recession rather than response to climate change on which I don't feel too qualified to comment, coming from a mainly non-scientific background and being frankly confused and a bit cynical about conflicting arguments in the press. If I had to comment I go with the Gaia Hypothesis -I think the planet will survive long term but it'll shake itself like a dog if we, the fleas, annoy it too much. Like Lonemagpie, I feel the damage is probably already done and we need to do more to learn to adjust to the major changes coming. Getting used to using less heat, water, growing veg will prepare us for doing without things we've learnt to rely on and life seems simpler and better like this anyway. I don't feel it limits creativity, more encourages it - I've had great fun finding out my immediate ancestors, (grandparents and before) ways of doing things over the last couple of years, using herbal treatments for minor illness for example, or making homemade elderberry brandy. I live in a cottage, have three black cats and grow herbs. Sort of feels RIGHT .

[lonemagpie.livejournal.com]

Ah, Carbon Emissions...

I'm of the opinion that, basically, it's too late - the time to cut back and prevent climate change being accelerated by carbon emissions was the 1950s-70s. All the green taxes and stuff are just Canute trying to order back the tides.

Doing things more energy efficiently, (and all other forms of efficiently) is just common sense cos it's cheaper and, frankly more fun. But in terms of international governmental agreements as suchlike, what's needed is to put all the money wasted on trying to hold back the tide into adjusting to the coming climate, as Lesley mentioned.

Though I don't mean learning to grow veg and do without - I mean stuff like building on higher ground, building on stilts on lower ground, etc, rather than cardboard buildings on flood plains. Investing in hydroponic farms for a more common SF type example...

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Agreed, at least half the damage has already been done. We committed to a 2 degree rise pretty much whatever happens.

The number of people this is going to stuff is horrendous.

We need to think a lot about adaptation, but also about how to prevent it from getting even worse than it's already going to be.

[asphodeline.livejournal.com]

We do pretty well on this front although there is always room for improvement. I like to find ways to do things that avoid excess - mostly my mind asks me what Gran would have done with limited resources and it's amazing what I can come up with. Should point out Gran was old-ish as Grans go so this is not as weird or daft as it might sounds!

Unfortunately we would struggle without internet :(

[johnrw.livejournal.com]

According to the CO2 calculators I've played with our emissions come in around 40% of the mythical 'average' Briton.

On the fun side we've had several visits from the utilities checking for evidence of tampering with their meters. We expect more. The Gas side of have finally compensated by getting their 'tamper alert' to assume we're in an apartment rather than a semi. On the Electricity front they continue to have problems - we're under half of their 'low user' expectations.

Since we've kept this up since we moved here you'd think they'd accept it by now!

Otherwise, well there's tweaks we can do (though for some reason suggesting adding a second foot of insulation to the loft gets shot down)

[jon-a-five.livejournal.com]

I use public transport and don't own a car. That already makes me loads better than most of my friends :D

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. Non car owners always score points. ( as long as they don't take holidays overseas and use up all that saving on aircraft...)

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

While mostly being in the greenish camp (less than 3,000 miles per year in the car, grow our own veg, make do and mend whenever possible), I am thrown up against my own principles by a totally inappropriate wind farm threatening our village. The one already operating 2 km away is no problem, but this proposed one will have turbines the height of Blackpool Tower within 500 metres of housing, school, church, and will have one turbine within topple distance (and ice drop distance) of two roads and within 100 metres of a designated nature reserve. With all that in mind I've done a fair amount of research on alternative energy sources and wind turbine power is not the way to go. It's expensive and the energy production figures are calculated on potential power, not actual. The two are very different. During the cold snap in 2010 wind turbines produced just 9% of their potential. NINE PERCENT! (Note that's 9% of their potential not 9% of our power reqirements, so a tiny fraction of a tiny fraction!)

Unfortunately our government is intent on fulfilling its promise to the EU for 20% of our energy to be from green sources by 2020, and a low cost way of doing that is to get private industry to foot the bill. Hence they are encouraging speculators to select (mostly) inappropiate development opportunities knowing that they'll make their money on the subsidies even if the wind farms don't produce the power they estimated. (And they won't. They never do.)

We're pissing in the wind with turbines. If we're going to make the radical changes we need, the only practical source of low carbon power production is nucelar. How green is that? It certainly would not have been my first choice a few years ago. Now I can't see the alternative.

Unfortunately a knee-jerk reaction to Fukushima has turned the tide of opinion away from that direction.

Something watervole mentioned briefly makes the most sense to me. We're already stuffed. The climate is changing, as it has always changed throughout history, whatever the cause. The relative stability that we've had for the last few hundred years is a blip. Unfortunately that blip coincided with our industrial and technological revolutions and we allowed ourselves to rely on it. What we should be doing is looking for solutions to enable us to cope with the inevitability of climate change, not trying to slam the stable door while the nag is already prancing round the paddock.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

You'll notice I didn't mention wind power in my post.

If we all reduce our energy consumption, then we'd need less energy in the first place.

Nuclear is something I would support in the short term - I don't see any viable alternatives. Though I would also want longer term plans in place to replace it with something else (because it does have problems, and besides the fuel supply is going to run out)

In England, we'll be able to cope with the changes. We're relatively well place climate-wise. However, others are not. Large chunks of Africa will be in real trouble, as will some other parts of the world. The American grain belt is likely to shift northwards, which is good for Canada, but not for American farmers already on tight margins in low rainfall areas.

If we're prepared to see large numbers of people dying in Africa, then it's easy to say 'accept the change', if not, then we have to do what we can to reduce that change. (They're already dying now from climate issues, more will unavoidably die from change we're already committed to, but it can get a lot worse.) I'm not sure there is any way of mitigating that change, other then accepting large numbers of immigrants from areas where farming is no longer viable.

[thebobby.livejournal.com]

Just a quick comment on the overseas food - it's not automatically lower carbon to buy locally. Heated poly-tunnel greenhouses can use more carbon then shipping.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/17/british-imported-strawberries-air-miles (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/17/british-imported-strawberries-air-miles) has some more information and links to authoritative sources.

Quote from the above article:

For tomatoes, grown out of season using heated glass in the UK, emissions of CO2 are about 2.5kg per kg of fruit, compared to about 0.24kg for trucking them from Spain where heat is not needed: making the local tomatoes ten times worse in terms of CO2 alone. For peppers it was even worse (4.5 kg CO2 / kg fruit) suggesting a factor of twenty in favour of importing.

[johnrw.livejournal.com]

Spanish tomatoes are a very particular example. Yes it's more carbon/energy friendly to truck out of season tomatoes from Spain (rail would be better!) than heat greenhouses either in the UK or The Netherlands but Spain isn't the only potential source of out of season fruit and veg. South African grapes and tomatoes are being *airfreighted* to the UK consuming something over 120 times their food energy value in fuel to get here.

While I like the potential for year round summer fruit and veg we're going to have to accept that a low carbon economy is going to be deficient in grape, tomatoes and strawberries for most of the year (not unavailable, waste heat from nuclear power stations could be used to heat some out of season growth). Likewise, aside from preserves blackberries (brambles), Damsons, gooseberries, plums and the like will have narrow 'fresh' seasons

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

wasting energy is a sin

This struck a chord with me, because that's how I feel too: even if there wasn't global warming happening, I would still be minimizing energy and materials use, because I really hate waste of any kind.

Because this just feels natural and obvious to me, I suppose mostly because of the way I was brought up, I do find it a bit hard to understand how other people don't feel the same way. This can make discussion difficult, because it's easy to appear self-righteous and condemnatory. If I was a 'sinner that repenteth', it might be easier to put arguments in the right sort of terms to get the message across.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I know exactly what you mean. That's half the reason I avoid talking about it, because it's so easy to sound like a crazy fanatic condemning everyone else.