Climate Change
Eighteen Years. That’s all humanity has to fix the rising temperatures or we can say goodbye to Planet Earth as it is.
If the raging fires happening across the globe, or the uninterrupted melting ice in the Earth’s poles and the size of your AC bill this summer haven’t convinced you, it might need to get a little bumpier before you notice the merciless effects of climate change worldwide.
Scientists have warned that keeping temperature rises to 1.5ºC, beyond which the worst effects of climate change will be felt, requires global emissions to be cut by 45 per cent by 2030, and to zero overall by mid-century.
Ambitious?
Better not be!
Global climate is projected to continue to change over this century and beyond.
Not that our leaders seemed to notice.
The magnitude of climate change beyond the next few decades depends primarily on the amount of heat-trapping gases emitted globally, and how sensitive the Earth’s climate is to those emissions.
When we think about global warming at all, the arguments tend to be ideological, theological and economic. But to grasp the seriousness of our predicament, you just need to do a little math – a quite simple one, actually: we can emit 565 more gigatons of carbon dioxide and stay below 2°C of warming — anything more than that risks catastrophe for life on earth. The only problem? Burning the fossil fuel that corporations now have in their reserves would result in emitting 2,795 gigatons of carbon dioxide — five times the safe amount.
Fossil fuel companies are planning to burn it all — unless there’s a mass awakening and a global “hands on” initiative.
Lucky us, there’s already one in place.
In November 2012, Bill McKibben and 350.org hit the road to build a movement strong enough to change the terrifying math of the climate crisis. The Do the Math Tour was a massive success.
Bill McKibben is an author and environmentalist who in 2014 was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the ‘alternative Nobel.’ His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change. He is a founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement.
So far, we’ve raised the average temperature of the planet just under 0.8 degrees Celsius, and that has caused far more damage than most scientists expected.
All environmental efforts to tackle global warming have failed. The planet’s emissions of carbon dioxide continue to soar, especially as developing countries emulate (and supplant) the industries of the West.Industries exist to supply markets.
Markets exist to attend needs.
Your needs.
My needs.
And that’s where we need to be extra careful.
Has it ever crossed your mind that every single online shopping you do increases the amount of carbon emissions into the atmosphere? Or a simple drive to the gym at the end of a busy office day?
Scary, huh!
That’s why we’d like to share with you a useful tool to assist on calculating our daily CARBON FOOTPRINT.
Carbon footprints are different from a country’s reported per capita emissions. They focus on the greenhouse gas emissions associated with consumption.
A variety of different tools exist for calculating the carbon footprints for individuals, businesses, and other organizations.
Individuals and corporations can take a number of steps to reduce their carbon footprints and thus contribute to global climate mitigation. They can purchase carbon offsets (broadly stated, an investment in a carbon-reducing activity or technology) to compensate for part or all of their carbon footprint. If they purchase enough to offset their carbon footprint, they become effectively carbon neutral.
Carbon footprints can be reduced through improving energy efficiency and changing lifestyles and purchasing habits. Switching one’s energy and transportation use can have an impact on primary carbon footprints. For example, using public transport such as buses and trains, reduces an individual’s carbon footprint when compared with driving. Individuals and corporations can reduce their respective carbon footprints by installing energy-efficient lighting, adding insulation in buildings, or using renewable energy sources to generate the electricity they require, such as wind power – produces no direct carbon emissions.
Additional lifestyle choices that can lower an individual’s secondary carbon footprint include lowering one’s consumption of meat products and switching one’s purchasing habits to products that require fewer carbon emissions to produce and transport.
For that, a Carbon Footprint Calculator has been put in place, to assist companies and households on estimating how much carbon they produce daily, monthly our even annually, making it easier to tackle each trigger individually and decrease their emissions.
The calculator estimates your footprint in three areas: home energy, transportation and waste. Everyone’s
carbon footprint is different depending on their location, habits, and personal choices.
In order to assist you with this quest, we have two options of calculators here:
on our footprint?
It’s up to all of us to fix this crisis.
For a future, where people and nature thrive.
“The White Forest”: A Natural CO2 sinkhole
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