Global Warming in 2007

By Oliver Ilott and Emily Hickson, August 2007

As technological advances mean that the extent of our destructive impact on the world becomes apparent we find ourselves a race, nation and people holding the responsibility of reversing this tide. The recent Stern report estimated the future cost of global warming at around £3.68 trillion within a decade, whilst another study concluded that the ice around the North Pole may have melted by as early as 2040. As two young, concerned adolescents we feel the need to put forth our views on a topic which affects all of us, but especially the future generations which we represent. In this article we seek not to highlight the issue but also to explore solutions to this massive problem.

This article will look at the effects government and the general public have on the environment, and what steps we can take to change these affects, altogether making a more environmentally friendly, ‘green’, society.

Taxation

Transport pollution is a huge factor in the overall emissions of greenhouse gases. Whilst we acknowledge that we cannot ignore these necessities, without which our now dependant economy would not be able to function, we can seek to limit them through taxation by the Government.
Emissions due to transportation are the only emissions still rising on the figures from 1990, whilst other factors such as manufacturing are now declining as the industry is cutting back on its production of greenhouse gases. In fact in 2003 the emissions due to transport had risen by 48.4% from those in 1990. The transport and communication industries were responsible for emitting 95.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2003 compared with 64.5 million tonnes in 1990. This tells us that any policies seeking to limit these emissions would have a major impact on out environment, and thus these policies are needed drastically. We propose that taxes be levelled on all forms of greenhouse gas emitting transport with tax breaks for services with low emissions. Taxes would be implemented on privately owned cars; the greater the pollution caused, the higher the taxation on that vehicle. I.e. Taxes on a 4x4 would be higher than on a Smart car.

Passenger aircraft would receive the same tax laws. Aircraft are responsible for 3% of EU carbon emissions but this figure is rising fast. Forecasts suggest that they could make up 25% of the UK's total contribution to global warming by 2030. This forecast tells us that in the future the use of aircraft will be a destructive factor in the environmental decline of the earth. We propose that in the present, in fact right now, they need to be severely limited. Hopefully taxation will mean fewer flights, going shorter distances, but inevitably only air fees will change, becoming much more expensive. This will mean that fewer will be able to afford to fly, highlighting the first problem with this policy. It means that poorer people in this country, and indeed the world, will be disadvantaged by their inability to fly, further expanding the rich-poor divide which we believe is a problem equaled to that of global warming. To combat this, money raised from taxes will be fed into renewable sources of energy or public transport schemes (expanding bus and rail routes and making the timetable more frequent in remote regions where at the moment private vehicles are heavily depended on). To illustrate this fact, this table shows the CO2 warming effects for a journey from Frankfurt to Kyoto both by train and by airplane - the different colors correspond to effects of different gases.

Education

Above all, global warming is an issue which must be dealt with and endured by future generations, and as such it is vital that the children of today are aware of the problems that will be faced tomorrow and how these should be coped with. The educating of our children as a manner of environmental protection is a simple one, from an early age the importance of preserving energy through actions as simple as turning off a light switch should be taught. These lessons can be taught as part of the school syllabus, throughout childhood, in the same natural way that children learn to hold a knife and fork, or cross the road. These skills can then be passed on through all future generations, making a big difference. Attitudes towards the environment can also being taught, so that morally all people will feel responsible for their actions towards the planet. But these lessons can also be taught to the current generations who at the moment fail to understand their possible impact, and what neglecting their responsibility means for the environment. Course can be run at community centres to educate the general public on these issues.

People need to know that even an individual’s contribution can alter the decline of their environment. For example installing an energy saving dishwasher uses 40% less energy than a typical older model.
Also, installing 3 energy saving light bulbs in your home means that you could save £9 on your annual electricity bill, or over £100 over the bulbs lifetime. This means that not only are you saving energy, but also it is more economically efficient to be green!

If these advancements in environmental education are put in place, it is safe to say that differences could be seen dramatically in the future. As people start to loose their ignorance, they will become aware of the immense responsibility of themselves and society in general. It is in this attitude that so many changes can become possible, in government and in society. Human emotion would be a powerful asset in this campaign to stop the earth’s destruction, and so with it on our side, it is bound to make a noticeable difference.

Advertising

Moving on to the effects society has on the environment, we look at the way advertising could provide a solution by shaping people’s attitudes towards an environmentally friendly life. Governmental campaigns provide social awareness for many important issues, and climate change is no exception. We propose to continue this advertising, but at a higher intensity, so the emphasis on this issue in the public eye is even stronger than at present. A whole range of media can be used to spread the message, including TV, radio, and the internet, using it in places where the public can absorb and understand the information given. When this happens, and there is public demand for change, more information can be provided through environmental summits, seminars, documentaries, publications and other sources of communication.
In the same way famous personalities have been used to champion causes in the past, from smoking to opposition to the Iraq War, so can they be used to promote the green lifestyle and the idea that, ‘it is cool to be green’.

Business Responsibility

Business in the private sector plays a huge part in environmental decline in all MEDCs, and such is an area to be focused on. In the large businesses there is a dispersion of responsibilities, meaning that the ethical choices made by a business do not fall upon a single person. This means that when it comes to green issues, no one takes the initiative to do something about it. It is the companies profit not an individual’s conscience that must be satisfied. Companies need to start cutting back on extravagances such as overseas travel. Cutbacks in these areas would make a huge difference, see i. A solution to this could be to encourage video conferencing, which would enable meetings between many people to occur, with no transport costs, economically and environmentally. Further checks could be implemented on the waste produced by companies, specifically those in the involved in manufacturing or energy production where there is a great deal of potentially polluting waste. With many Councils already providing the means to recycle paper, legislation could be brought in to ensure the companies make use of these facilities. As an alternative to legislation forcing companies to be green, green taxes can also be implemented on businesses which emit a large amount of greenhouse gases, whereas businesses which control their emissions will receive tax breaks. This gives business an incentive, making it commercially competitive to be green.

Energy

Around 95% if the energy used by businesses comes from fossil fuels such as coal oil and natural gas which are provided by the earth’s natural resources. There are two fundamental problems with using fossil fuels. They release gases which pollute the atmosphere and cause global warming, and secondly, they cannot be reused, they are not sustainable and will run out. This is why we propose a move to other sources to provide the energy to power our industrial civilization far into the future. Renewable sources of energy such as wind power, solar power, HEP (energy generated by the movement of water), and geothermal power (energy generated by the warmth of the inner crust of the earth). These advantages of these forms of power are much published, and yet, they are still used as alternative and not primary sources. Nevertheless at the heart of the matter at global warming is energy production, and so it is in this area that the changes made could make the biggest impact. If changes are successful in the areas of taxation, education and business responsibility the natural result would be a shift away from, traditional, massively polluting, power sources and therefore a cleaner, greener and more pleasant environment.

In summary we believe strongly that these are changes which must be made now in order to safe guard against disaster in the future. Should we fail to make these vital changes and undo the damage of previous generations we must be remembered throughout posterity as the generation which condemned humanity to an existence of working to undo the perhaps irreversible damage we have caused.

By Emily Hickson & Oliver Ilott

Bibliography

A green world? Franklin Watts
Environment and Politics. Timothy Doyle and Doug McEachern
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1934381,00.html