OtleyGreen - Green facts and fiction

There is a lot of noise about climate change - Lots of Government funded organisations and the right messages on Government web sites. Even OtleyGreen got £2000 to get started. Just no real action

Human beings seem wired to respond to immediate threats, even if they are imagined (Iraq!). We seem incapable of reacting to things that will impact in the future.

World leaders understand the threat but they lack trust in each other and know they don't have support from their populations for anything that might affect the economy

I was castigated by some friends for being holier that thou, after years of flying around the world on business and pleasure and driving a jag. No defence really, even if I drive a small Skoda now. At first I was a bit fed up, but on second maybe OtleyGreen is making an impact

Ask some simple questions and it proves almost impossible to get a straight answer.

How long does it take to save the energy used to make a solar panel? Took 2 weeks to find an answer 1.2 years for energy, 2 years for CO2 and I don't quite believe it

Everyone is talking about carbon footprint but there is no standard measure or way of comparing. The Government measures regions by looking at transport, industry, households etc. But this allows areas to export their energy use to others e.g. Suffolk comes out at 7.8T per head, Bromley in South London 4.9T. Bromley people are far more profligate in energy use but don't have any farming or industry

The OtleyGreen survey suggest emit 8 tonnes CO2 per household. We have included energy used in the home, car use and flights. Useful because it covers things we can do something about but ignores the costs of all the stuff we buy. We import stuff and export Co2 emissions to China and India

Getting worse - The Arctic ice cap will disappear completely in summer months within 20 to 30 years. We loose a nice reflecting white thing

Getting better (no worse) - Reports suggest the Earth has cooled since 1998s. Trouble is that was an El Nino year. Use other years as a starting point and you get very different figures. Also its based on Met Office figures that exclude the Arctic Ocean the fastest warming bit of the earth

Still it was beautiful day on Sunday

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OtleyGreen - Pissing in the wind?

Believing that extreme runaway climate change is a real danger and not wanting to be part of the problem. Easy for me to say having spent 3 years traveling the world. Decided to set up a group to try and reduce the carbon footprint of our village.

First step, to cajole some, hopefully, like minded people to join the group. Then meet in the village pub, the White Hart.

Managed to choose the 1st Thursday of the month when a very loud band practices. Shouting and saying 'sorry can't hear you' doesn't make it easy running a - getting to know you/what are we going to do meeting. However, avoided a fight over whether solar power for domestic hot water is part of the problem or solution.

The problem with selecting capable, proactive people is that tend to have jobs. Its clear that jobless me is going to have to make the running

Will local grass roots organisations manage to change things from the bottom up or are we way past that

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