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  • 5 months later...
we kind of know this already don't we. We try and do our personal bit; recycling, switching off the lights etc. But the reality is that it needs a huge shift in attitude from the powers that be to change the future. Sadly I don't think anything will happen until it's too late.

I remember reading this at the time. And Newman is a good example of someone who has shifted his own life quite significantly compared to his Wembley filling days


But I suspect you are rights Asset - the consensus to do something won't form until it's too late

I've seen this film and I think Ali G overstates his case by claiming that a correlation between global temperatures and CO2 levels is equivalent to temperature being a function of C02.


BBQ sales correlate with ice cream sales but if we banned BBQs ice cream would still sell on a hot day. They are both a function of the weather.


I have seen similar flawed assumptions by the Tories about the correlation of succesful relationships and incidence of marriage. This is frightening as their fundamental misunderstanding of the statistics is actually shaping their policy proposals. Luckily they are completely unelectable.

Much as we'd love the future not to be doomed, I think correlating the science of global warming to political spin is simply daft.

Climate change isn't a matter of opinion, it's real, regardless of how 'overstated' a case in a documentary may be, or how deeply energy producers' vested interests bury their heads in the sand (ooh, terrible metaphor usage)

vicksg Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> If anyone would like to see An Inconvenient Truth,

> I very much recommend the Prince Charles cinema.

> They were so blown away by it that they have

> pledged to show it every week during 2007. When I

> went to see it they also had 3 green business

> people do a Q & A afterwards. It was great - all

> that for ?5 or just ?1 without the speakers.

> www.princecharlescinema.com


Anyone intending to see this movie (and it's more that than a documentary) should also read up on alternative views of Al Gore's thinking. the following link is a good start. Most of us find it difficult to believe politicians - why start now?


www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=d0235a70-33f1-45b3-803b-829b1b3542ef&p=1

Alan Dale Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

> I have seen similar flawed assumptions by the

> Tories about the correlation of succesful

> relationships and incidence of marriage. This is

> frightening as their fundamental misunderstanding

> of the statistics is actually shaping their policy

> proposals. Luckily they are completely

> unelectable.


This assertion is based on a sample of how many voters Alan Dale? One, several, many or lots?


Opinion polls have Tory support and Labour support closing with just one or two percentage point differences - statistically insignificant.

Pretty weak article there MM.

He fisks a couple of minor points made in the doc, juxtaposed with

"The hypothesis that human release of CO2 is a major contributor to global warming is just that -- an unproven hypothesis, against which evidence is increasingly mounting." for which he completely fails to offer any evidence himself to imply that this undermines all climate change science.


Then a couple more fisks, adds some scientific evidences which in themselves prove nothing and neither support or detract from the existence of climate change, but he is happy enough that given the tone of the article, the reader will probably infer the latter and finally adds some quotes taken out of context like

"the study of global climate change is an 'emerging science,' one that is perhaps the most complex ever tackled. It may be many years yet before we properly understand the Earth's climate system."

And?


Politicians may often be disingenuous, but then so too are journalists.

mockney piers Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Pretty weak article there MM.

>

> Politicians may often be disingenuous, but then so

> too are journalists.



MP - I'd agree it was the best I could come up with at the time. There is a more detailed critique of Al Gore's movie on a DVD made by scientists for ?12,000 (which I'm trying to track down) - it ought to be shown in conjunction with Al Gore's to allow those without science degrees to hear both sides of the argument.


I can remember a time when climatologists were warning of another mini Ice Age in next 100 years - now that warning is reversed. Makes me cynical.

On the subject of recycling, I know it's easy to think that because you stick your coke can, your wine bottle and your newspaper into a blue box outside your house that you are being green. But have you ever investigated what "recycling" actually means?


Do you know about the heat and chemicals used to melt your broken wine bottle and reform it into another wine bottle?


Do you have a clue about how the paint is stripped from the coke can and what sort of heat is used to melt the can down?


Have you thought about the chemicals that are used to bleach newspaper and about the quality of the resulting pulp?


Oooh, get me sounding so controversial. But recycling is not necessarily good, or worth doing. Or even green. And sometimes the damage of the recycling process negates the value of the recycling.


Just a thought.


Charlie

Yes. I am a colleaue were talking about it at lunch. Species come and go over the eons and as far as we can tell normaly as a result of some change in the climate.


I concede that human intervention has contributed to this but is it to the extent we're told?


Should we not look at how best to manage this change instead of trying to reverse the climate which god alone knows how fraught that might be.

Surely the companies who do all the residential waste recycling must make some kind of money out of it? Am I correct in assuming this? Do they charge the councils more to collect this stuff than it costs to cart off waste to a landfill?


If there is a financial benefit to recycling and councils have to deal with a lot less conventional waste because people are recycling more therefore saving more money why hasn?t my council tax gone down?


Anyone in the know on this?

I think I know why everyone loves to bleat on about recycling (I still always recycle) is because it's an easy thing to do and you don't feel guilty consuming vast amounts of stuff you don't need, or driving about in a big car, flying on holiday etc. The same goes for the low energy light bulbs.


But It's more complicated than that.


The lightbulbs have masses of powdered mercury in and need to be properly disposed of and recycled, not just dumped in landfill.


Some recycling contractors still stuff over 50% of what they collect into landfill, or incinerate it.


What I think we need to realise is that we have to stop buying stuff. All the crap we consume, that keeps the economy going, is destroying our planet.


You can't have infinite growth on a finite planet.


Stop buying organic lettuce etc in supermarkets that has been flown in from Africa/Isreal/South America as a cash crop while the local people have their lands stolen to grow it for us in the west while they starve to death.


Buy fresh food locally if possible so you can have more idea of it's provenance, or better still rip up all that bloody tarmac, paving and decking in your gardens (if you have them) and grow your own, or grow it on your balcony, window sill, front room floor, allotment.


Stop buying electrical crap.


Try to only use your car if you have a load of people to share it, or if you need to carry big loads.


Keep chickens or rabbits in your back garden like they did in the old days.


Take back control of your food.


Get a windmill on your roof, much more efficient than solar.


Get a water butt.


Anyone else think of anything else, please feel free to add to the list, cos I need a cup of tea.

Mine is in Mottingham, and I got the 1st year free cos it was full of brambles and bushes after years of neglect. It's massive, too big for me, so I've only managed to clear just over half of it. It's ?86 per year if anyone wants to share it with me.

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