A Carbon Footprint-Observations

 No telling what you will be calling it 50 years from now, but here in 2022 we still refer to our impact on the environment as far as all climate change is concerned as a carbon footprint. It seems inevitable that over time the importance of each individuals carbon footprint will be even more important, and that there would be ways to track everybody’s footprint with more precision than is done today. if it’s only fair that I share my own disclaimer, I’m not some perfect person making a blog about climate change who is free of the footprint.

 Currently , in November 2022 I own two  gas operated cars  I don’t drive them very much hmmmm but I do have those. I ordered an electric vehicle almost 4 years ago , the president of that company is behind on production and is also involved in other extremely large projects. I’m not sure how much this affects the production of the vehicle that I ordered but I’m patiently waiting and if that one doesn’t come through I may have to order a different one. 

I own my home and I do not use gas of any type not even natural gas it’s all electric. I live under a forest of trees and sort of in the woods but it’s in the city and it’s not really conducive for me right now to put solar panels on my roof but it is something I thought about and would be interested in utilizing solar power  as it becomes more available to residents and the technology improves.

I have a little greenhouse and I have little garden, on my property. I’m very into planting herbs and vegetables. I have quite a few herbs and I plant trees on my property as well. I try to plant trees that can yield fruit you know, and also provide shade and be helpful to my neighborhood and the environment. I try to daily to consider my impact on the environment in any way that might be detrimental to the greenhouse, gases are fossil fuels, or carbon pollution. 

I believe the more individuals, the more people that we can get to be conscious of their footprint that we can continue to make more progress on slowing of the damages that are being caused by climate change. I noticed there is progress being made with electric vehicles in particular, the US Postal Service united parcel service are, have actually put electric vehicles in their fleet. All these still have a ways to go. I believe the US Postal Service is in about 50% electric across the country and I believe that governments and large companies need to continue to set an example for making the switch to cleaner vehicles and processes. 

Carbon footprint is something that I will be bringing up frequently and hope to maybe in some way contribute to tracking individual and entity carbon footprints as others are doing and to utilize it in a way that will be a positive for the environment.

Climate Activists/Observations

 By 2022 climate activism was in full swing, but probably still far off the mark that it needed to be to make really quick and significant change. A young Swedish girl named Greta has gained a lot of attention, and her actions and her stance on climate change, including organizing other school students across the world and strikes, and other forms of peaceful  demonstrations, to attract attention to the issue. This type of activism seems on the right track and pointing to the fact that it’s a young person, and a very young person, and that many of these young people do not feel, do not think that adults, that enough adults are stepping up to address the urgency that these young people see. Other forms of climate activism do not seem to be as affective, for example, throwing food or paint on famous paintings while it does garner some attention it’s not clear how this is going to affect change, or to bring more people around to understanding the emergency of climate change, and therefore of reassessing their own positions on the subject, and perhaps helping to solve the problems.

It’s clear there needs to be a lot more activism on broader scales, more participation by schools and students more freedom of expression on that subject to bring even greater attention to it and perhaps affect quicker change. 

It almost seems like an impossible task to convince oil producing countries , coal producing countries to change the way they produce energy. Unless their pocket books are suffered it doesn’t seem like they will be motivated to make change or any significant change. There’s still a lot to be done and the question that remains is will it be?

Climate Conferences, an Observation

 There was just a climate conference in Egypt COP 27. I didn’t go, but I’ve got some information about what happened. There was a big push for developed countries, rich countries, to help financially, developing countries with their battles against climate change. One example was Pakistan who recently suffered historic, very historic flooding and devastation. There was some sort of agreement, but the people who were fighting for it had to put up a very ferocious fight to get some commitment to compensation for these developing countries. It’s been reported that China who as no surprise is the biggest emitter of poisons that are destroying the planet, shied away from committing to very much including committing to helping developing nations. Arab oil producing countries did not do very well at the conference either and this has been understood in previous postings here and basically almost common knowledge throughout this whole area of interest countries that have great reliability on oil are still putting up a big fight, though diplomatically, against stopping their productions.The United States is the second worst country for climate pollution, and the commitments made by the USA are still short of what’s needed. Climate envoy John Kerry, it is said, left the conference believing there was progress, while some others believe we should just prepare for the inevitable for the temperature of the earth to rise for sea levels to rise for more catastrophic weather events, and primarily the worst flooding around the world. It can be fairly said that there was not enough commitment at the COP 27 conference and ever since the very beginning of the Paris Accordord, the Paris Agreement not enough progress has been made to truly feel confident that global warming, that climate change will be controlled and harnessed to the point that it will minimize catastrophic damage to earth. it would only follow that if organizations and on boys and politicians and professionals whom the public around the world rely on to represent them, and these negotiations, that the solution may lie with the people themselves in mass to come together, and to insist that there be significant agreements, significant changes made regarding the emissions of coal,natural gas, fossil fuels, things that are causing great harm to the planet.

Klimatechange.com_Observations of Care

 During this time, during this critical opportunity to change the world for the better we had to consider how do we get each other, how do we get people to care enough for people in the future for people who will live on this planet when we are gone how do we do that? 

The easiest most obvious way is to point out to grandparents and parents and other older people are people with younger relatives especially like say grandparents with grandchildren all right you know you’re going to be gone your child’s going be here. They’re going to have children their children are going to have children—do you care enough about the planet and the condition it’s left in for your offspring to recognize the signals that we’re getting now about our planet changing due to fossil fuels another human generated activity that is causing harm to the planet and doesn’t have to because we can use other forms of energy? 

So this turns back to the point that the big things that we wanted to that we want politicians and leaders to do can’t really successfully be done without the small people without the every day people and important individuals and organizations to get across to everyone possible that we do need to look much closer at future humanity, and what we’re leaving behind .

This subject, I will give a lot more thought and respond.

KlimateChange.com_Observations on Consideration

 If you’re looking back on this now, you have to consider human consideration. Basically there are two kinds of people in the world: those who are considerate, and those who are not. And there are those people who are in between: sometimes considerate, and sometimes not. But in relation to climate and climate change, you look at a persons view on consideration of others. It could be something simple like them being at a red light where other people behind them could turn to the right if they pulled up a little bit, but they don’t this can be further displayed. If the person behind them politely sounds their horn just in case the person wasn’t thinking, but the vehicle remains in place the person is not going to pull up. They’re going to stand their ground. They are not going to be considerate of the people behind them .

Imagine this person’s view on climate change or the well-being of the planet. In general, we would not expect such a person if they do this kind of behavior frequently to be someone sympathetic of helping the planet to heal from climate change.

People who hold the door open for others, are considerate.

People who let others go first are considerate.

People who consistently break line are not considerate.

Having said this, it’s clear that in this time that we live first, we must face the challenge of changing peoples attitudes on the small level before we can get them to understand the big picture of climate change, and for them to care about what happens to the planet in 20 or 30 years or later.

 

KlimateChange.com-Breaking Heat Index Records

How hot does it have to get before more people scratch their heads and say out-loud maybe there is something to this climate change? Much hotter I am afraid. And it's "human nature" for people not to be moved into action on many points, unless they are directly affected. Think of the parent who lost a child to drug addition. This loss may spur them into concerted action to generate a significant amount of attention on to the issue of drug addiction. Even if they knew their child was addicted to drugs prior to the child's death, it would be rare for them to start a crusade against drugs. 

This is exactly how reaction to climate change works. There was a saying during this time period 'out of sight, out of mind.' Unfortunately, this is true for too many people.  We have to consider all the reactions and the reasons behind them.  How an individual views life as whole, contributes to their view on climate change.  The problem is during this current period there are far, far too many people whose personal views on life - and death - contribute to unhealthy responses to the fact the very planet upon which they live, is in danger of actually being partially destroyed because of the collective actions of human beings. 

There are a wide variety of views. There are people who wish to leave the dangers to the planet in the hands of a higher being.  This view is further supported in their mind by their belief of their future after Earth. If one believes that Earth is just a waiting place for another future, then one may not be so inclined to be concerned at a heightened level, on the future of the planet.  And the same is true for just the opposite - for some people who have no hope or belief of an afterlife, and see themselves just struggling to maintain this one life. They may see themselves as so insignificant in a role as a game changer as to not even consider taking any significant stand for or against  climate change. In fact, they have many other interests, goals, issues, concerns, struggles on a personal and sometimes family level, to be concerned or involved in a giant discussion about the climate negatively changing on Earth because of the actions of human beings. And then we're all going to die anyway, right? 

It seems one of the keys to possibly slowing climate change to a point it will possibly greatly minimize the damage that has already begun, lies in changing people - changing the way billions of them think. As of today, we do not have any takers. 

KlimateChange Observations on drivers use of fuel

What if millions of drivers started turning off their engines during prolonged periods of idleness? Could this help climate change? It seems it could help in a small but still significant way. Consider all the delivery drivers who leave their diesel-fueled engines running for long periods of time. These may be drivers who do not have refrigerated or climate-controlled cargo, who could turn off the engine while they wait at the loading dock or where-ever they are. Regular drivers often do the same thing - park but leave their engine running. Sometimes there is a good reason to leave it running, such as outside temperature or weather. But often there is no good reason to do it. They could turn it off. Not only would they be saving themselves a little money, they would be in a small but still significant way, helping the planet. This is something worth exploring. Expect other entries here on this subject.