Will Carbon Trading Save the World?

October 13, 2007

Firstly, congratulations on the Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. I’d say he’s pretty damn happy he didn’t win that election now - I know I’d certainly rather be remembered for a Nobel Prize than Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

#2 in the Blog Action Day Environmental Issues Series

This is something I’ve had buzzing around my head for quite a while. I bring it up with anyone I think will have an opinion and I’d be more than happy to hear yours.

My concern is this, while we’re all busy measuring our carbon footprint and stocking up on carbon credits to offset our overseas vacations and other various carbon producing habits we’ve acquired since the Industrial Revolution - we’re not putting the same amount of effort into finding alternative ways of reducing our carbon output. We can only plant so many trees before we have to start to look at other ways to fix the problem.

Obviously a combined effort is what’s needed and there are many people around the world putting a huge effort toward finding these alternative to traditional sources of power to decrease our dependence on fossil fuels. Solar power, Wind power, Geothermal and more controversially Nuclear power (though Uranium is not a fossil fuel, it’s still a non-renewable resource) are all being researched and used to varying degrees throughout the world. With the exception of Nuclear, none of these options currently provide a reliable source of power for the future.

Tim Flannery tells you how you can help slow Global Warming

The answer has to be that we learn to use less. We build our houses to suit our conditions, we drive smaller or hybrid cars, we put more thought into where we go on holiday and we stop building on prime farming land as our cities sprawl. I’m not saying that you personally need to do all these things, it’s just something to think about when you’re deciding between a holiday to Bali or Byron Bay or when you’re filling the kettle making a cup of tea just consider how much water you really need to boil and only fill it to that level. It’s just food for thought.