The plight of our planet is all-too real (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

The plight of our planet is all-too real

9:00am Thursday 21st January 2010 in

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Let’s suppose that there was no such thing as a climate change gas and that CO2 had no effect on the climate.

We might expect to carry on with business as usual, burning coal, gas and oil, and flying all over the place, but we would be 100 per cent wrong.

Even if this was the case, we would still have to face all the ravages of the way that the climate is changing, with storms, floods, heatwaves, fires and rising sea level – they aren’t imaginary and would be happening anyway, caused by whatever.

If it’s to do, as some suggest, with clouds, changes in the orbit round the sun, or the sun getting hotter and so on, then there is very little we can do about it.

However, there is still a very strong case for cutting back on fossil fuels, as they are all finite so aren’t being made any more. They can’t be renewed.

When they run out we will be desperate, unless we have already invested in solar panels, wind turbines, high insulation levels, tidal energy, nuclear power, electric cars, better public transport, more family planning and peaceful ways of sorting out national differences and refugees.

There is already clear evidence that oil is near its peak production level, and we should ration what’s left for important roles such as food production and flying, rather than large private cars. Gas won’t last much longer and coal will be lucky to see the century out.

There’s also a limit to the amount of land and water available for growing food, particularly as drought, rising sea levels, salt incursion, soil erosion and overstocking are reducing it year by year. Additionally, the area of forest that acts as part of the lungs of the planet is under considerable threat from disease, fire and clearance for the growth of palm oil and soya.

Fifty years ago, the entire global population used only slightly more than half the Earth’s bio capacity, but that’s no longer the case. Declining fish stocks show just how exploitative we have been.

Today, 80 per cent of countries use more resources than are available within their borders, and we would need five planets to meet our needs if we all lived as profligately as those in the USA.

It’s clear that the planet, with close on seven billion people, can’t replace the resources that we use each year, and the extra 75 million mouths to feed since last Christmas should make us think.

There’s no doubt that mankind is the architect of these problems, and as CO2 really is a climate-change gas – also man-made – we must behave differently, and stop making excuses.