Foreign Office blog on climate change

[biffvernon]

https://blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/climate/

Somebody's trying.

[Ballard]

http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/gwynn/en ... orum_day_2

A forum on the effects of carbon intensive activities (such as flying) held in the Maldives.

The fact that 'Robin Gwynn', can't seem to connect his own lifestyle to the very thing he is blogging about is beyond farce.

'We must all reduce our carbon output', is his message delivered from 35,000 feet.

[2 As and a B]

You are quite right of course. The UK Climate Envoy for Vulnerable Countries should absolutely never visit places like the Maldives.

[biffvernon]

That's a cheap, nay bankcrupt, arguement. If by burning oil you manage to pursuade many others to stop burning, it is well done. We should welcome the first, albeit timid and faltering, steps made by our government to become part of the solution rather than part of the problem. Some would say that Al Gore should just sit in a cave. They are wrong.

[Ballard]

That's a cheap, nay bankcrupt, arguement. If by burning oil you manage to pursuade many others to stop burning, it is well done. We should welcome the first, albeit timid and faltering, steps made by our government to become part of the solution rather than part of the problem. Some would say that Al Gore should just sit in a cave. They are wrong.

Whilst I agree with your sentiment, I don't believe that bodies such as ‘The UK Climate Envoy for Vulnerable Countries’ and all the multitude of other such groups have done anything to reduce the burning of fossil fuels, and I include Al Gore in that.

It is far harder to actually address the issue, than it is to endlessly pontificate about the problems and effects in ever increasing minute detail. Because of this people generally gravitate to the latter rather than the former.

If fossil fuel is burnt the carbon enters the ecosystem. With the possible exceptions of Terra Petra and CCS, (yet to be proven to work on the scale necessary in my view), this is the problem.

We have to leave this carbon safely sequestered underground, the best thing the authorities could do to tackle climate change would be to purchase coal fields and close them down permanently.

I just don’t believe that this will happen; I suspect that all exploitable fossil fuels will be exploited.

I think that we all know what the problem is, and flying to the Maldives to go over old ground that has already be covered in massive detail is doing nothing to address the issues.

[biffvernon]

I think the problem is that 'the authorities' don't have the authority to tell their electorates they're not going to allow any more mining of the fossil carbon sinks.

It's people like Al Gore and President Nasheed who are trying to change that.

I'm just sheltering from the rain after a couple of hours tree-planting. A futile task if the land becomes the sea before the trees mature but we each do what we can.

[mobbsey]

The UK Climate Envoy for Vulnerable Countries should absolutely never visit places like the Maldives.

He could sail!

The problem is that people are in a hurry -- we could save a lot of carbon just by slowing down (which is the standard mode of operation if you ever go to a under developed/civilise country).

E.g. drag increases with speed, mass of vehicle increases with speed (because of the extra engineering required to survive high speed crashes), size of engine/power plant increases with speed (meaning that you're wasting fuel if ticking over at a lower speed as the optimum efficiency will be designed for an average high speed), etc.

One of the best examples at the moment is high speed rail -- some of the figures I've seen indicate that a London - Manchester TGV-like system wouldn't save carbon even if it did displace short-haul air travel; the engineering systems of high speed rail all require a higher level of maintenance, and that burns any of the carbon saved from air travel.

In purely economic terms, going faster allows you to do more, which increases economic productivity, and so speed increases economic growth -- which is a large driver in the fascination of modern society with the concept of speed. And of course more growth increases carbon emissions generally (the 'carbon intensity' metric is a fallacy, as are most GDP-based measures)

Just slow down -- do less!

[2 As and a B]

Yes, I was being ironic.

- - -

Not slow down, do less, it should be slow down, think more.

[Vortex]

Who gives a monkey's?

The caring eco elite will gad about on jaunts whilst the world dies.

Forget the Guardian readers, forget the Totnes crowd, forget the politicians, forget the civil servants ... just look after yourself and your family.

PS Come the day of doom all the above will coming knocking on your door to 'distribute equitably' your food and goods.

[snow hope]

Vortex, I tend to agree, look after yourself and family first, but if "all the above will come knocking on your door", tell me how exactly could we achieve the former??

[Vortex]

Vortex, I tend to agree, look after yourself and family first, but if "all the above will come knocking on your door", tell me how exactly could we achieve the former??

I really don't know.

Life is like a cess pit - all the really big lumps rise to the top.

And many of the stinky little ones too.

[biffvernon]

Forget the Guardian readers, forget the Totnes crowd, forget the politicians, forget the civil servants

What to do if one counts oneself within that set?

[kenneal - lagger]

The UK Climate Envoy for Vulnerable Countries should absolutely never visit places like the Maldives.

He could sail!

We could all video conference. I thought that was to be one of the benefits of the computer age. Lying on a virtual beach isn't the same as going to the Maldives though.

[Andy Hunt]

Vortex, I tend to agree, look after yourself and family first, but if "all the above will come knocking on your door", tell me how exactly could we achieve the former??

We could always pre-empt the situation by actually trying to contribute something meaningful and useful to the wider community and society at large to prevent the situation ever reaching that stage.

Oh! That's what the TT lot are trying to do, isn't it.

"look after yourself and screw everyone else". That way lies destruction.

[Adam1]

Forget the Guardian readers, forget the Totnes crowd, forget the politicians, forget the civil servants

What to do if one counts oneself within that set?

Down with the Evesham crowd, I say.