An Inconvenient Truth

[squidette]

I have been waiting to watch this and last night i did.

Astonishing and scary film - and i loved it. Everyone that lives here on Earth Should watch this and decide what level of responsibility they want to take. Not 'if' they want to take responsibility, but 'how much'.

It got me thinking about how easy it is to mindlessly use resources just because they are available. There seems to be little moral thought process involved in much of the consumption - more of 'if i want it, i can have it because its there'. I am currently working on a much more deliberate life encompassing voluntary simplicity and wanting less, not more and the environment - basically my home - has crept much more into my everyday decisions now.

I have a fairly low carbon footprint and have recently been at suggestions that all we need do to offset our destructive habits is to plant a few trees and then carry on as before! I imagine this is mostly media offering an Either/Or choice to one that has actually been encouraged as an AsWellAs cutting down personal carbon habits.

I could go on. But i wont! It was just a post really to say if you havent seen this, then i really recommend it. Some may not agree (fine) and some may (fine too) but if it gets people thinking a little, i think that is a Good Thing for our children' world as well as ours.

Is this it?

I've got this on my reservation list with tescos but still waiting...

If you liked that one have you seen 'the corporation'?

it is good and at least makes you want to talk about the environment

but I despair about it mostly....

Yes, thats the film, 3andnomore. There is a website too - here, with a trailer.... and some updated information.

I was reading the Feb edition of the ecologist earlier and there is a small article about Greenland in there (its covered in detail in the film) and how the 'tipping point' of melt has been reached already, meaning that its in unstoppable decline. I didnt understand just 'how' this melting would affect the climate - i thought it was just a question of rising sealevels (and ok 8 metres is not a 'just' - and the article notes that 'just' one metres would flood 50% of the rice crops in Bangladesh) but it explained well what that melt would mean in terms of the oceanic conveyor that is a giant loop of thermal streams. The amount of freshwater joining the ocean from Greenland would stop this thermal current system. Basically, Europe would enter into another IceAge.

Part of me really hopes that i actually havent understood it.

You've understood it very well. Siberia has also reached 'tipping point' or, the point of no return. It's permafrost is warming up which is releasing zillions of tonnes of CO2 and worse still, methane into the atmosphere.

Basically the planet is warming up and we are all going to have to adapt to the effects of this. Some people in some parts of the world won't be able to ... unless they migrate. That's why the relatively new term 'environmental refugee' is being used. These people, largely from Africa, are already on the move towards Europe. Ask anyone who lives near a beach in Tenerife or southern Spain.

Many species & ecosystems are also on the move. They are moving higher up mountains or away from the equator as temperatures get uncomfortable. See here for a link to the BBC radio 4 programme 'Planet Earth Under Threat'.

One of the most important posts in government right now is that of Environment Secretary. Luckily one of the more switched on members of the Labour party is currently in that post. His name is David Miliband.

It's extremely scary - the more you read about these 'tipping points' the more you realise it's not our grandchildren or children we need to be scared for, but if we don't change radically very soon, something very bad will happen to us. As www says it already is happening to many.

Hopefully we are capable of making the changes - acid rain isn't the problem it used to be because of changes we have made - although it is now a problem in/caused by China. It's a global issue but we musn't let that be an excuse not to do our bit!

Al Gore has been nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on heightening public awareness of climate change.

In The Times yesterday it stated that the government was going to give every high school in the country a copy of this DVD?
Is it accessible to secondary school children or would they just switch off?

It seems many kids these days are very switched on to matters concerning the environment.