Walking to the shops ‘damages planet more than going by car’

[GaryC 7]

Ok, you asked for it. Now your going to get it. From the US Senate.

Renowned Scientist Defects From Belief in Global Warming – Caps Year of Vindication for Skeptics

October 17, 2006

Washington DC - One of the most decorated French geophysicists has converted from a believer in manmade catastrophic global warming to a climate skeptic. This latest defector from the global warming camp caps a year in which numerous scientific studies have bolstered the claims of climate skeptics. Scientific studies that debunk the dire predictions of human-caused global warming have continued to accumulate and many believe the new science is shattering the media-promoted scientific “consensus” on climate alarmism.

Claude Allegre, a former government official and an active member of France’s Socialist Party, wrote an editorial on September 21, 2006 in the French newspaper L'Express titled “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” (For English Translation, click here: http://epw.senate.gov/fact.cfm?party=rep&id=264835 ) detailing his newfound skepticism about manmade global warming. See: http://www.lexpress.fr/idees/tribunes/doss....asp?ida=451670 Allegre wrote that the “cause of climate change remains unknown” and pointed out that Kilimanjaro is not losing snow due to global warming, but to local land use and precipitation changes. Allegre also pointed out that studies show that Antarctic snowfall rate has been stable over the past 30 years and the continent is actually gaining ice.

“Following the month of August experienced by the northern half of France, the prophets of doom of global warming will have a lot on their plate in order to make our fellow countrymen swallow their certitudes,” Allegre wrote. He also accused proponents of manmade catastrophic global warming of being motivated by money, noting that “the ecology of helpless protesting has become a very lucrative business for some people!”

Allegre, a member of both the French and U.S. Academy of Sciences, had previously expressed concern about manmade global warming. "By burning fossil fuels, man enhanced the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which has raised the global mean temperature by half a degree in the last century," Allegre wrote 20 years ago. In addition, Allegre was one of 1500 scientists who signed a November 18, 1992 letter titled “World Scientists' Warning to Humanity” in which the scientists warned that global warming’s “potential risks are very great.” See: http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~sai/sciwarn.html

Allegre has authored more than 100 scientific articles, written 11 books and received numerous scientific awards including the Goldschmidt Medal from the Geochemical Society of the United States.

Allegre's conversion to a climate skeptic comes at a time when global warming alarmists have insisted that there is a “consensus” about manmade global warming. Proponents of global warming have ratcheted up the level of rhetoric on climate skeptics recently. An environmental magazine in September called for Nuremberg-style trials for global warming skeptics and CBS News “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley compared skeptics to “Holocaust deniers.” See: http://www.epw.senate.gov/fact.cfm?party=rep&id=264568 & http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2006/03/22/pu...ry1431768.shtml In addition, former Vice President Al Gore has repeatedly referred to skeptics as "global warming deniers."

This increase in rhetorical flourish comes at a time when new climate science research continues to unravel the global warming alarmists’ computer model predictions of future climatic doom and vindicate skeptics.

60 Scientists Debunk Global Warming Fears

Earlier this year, a group of prominent scientists came forward to question the so-called “consensus” that the Earth faces a “climate emergency.” On April 6, 2006, 60 scientists wrote a letter to the Canadian Prime Minister asserting that the science is deteriorating from underneath global warming alarmists.

“Observational evidence does not support today's computer climate models, so there is little reason to trust model predictions of the future…Significant [scientific] advances have been made since the [Kyoto] protocol was created, many of which are taking us away from a concern about increasing greenhouse gases. If, back in the mid-1990s, we knew what we know today about climate, Kyoto would almost certainly not exist, because we would have concluded it was not necessary,” the 60 scientists wrote. See: http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financi...be-4db87559d605

“It was only 30 years ago that many of today's global-warming alarmists were telling us that the world was in the midst of a global-cooling catastrophe. But the science continued to evolve, and still does, even though so many choose to ignore it when it does not fit with predetermined political agendas,” the 60 scientists concluded.

'Climate Change is Nothing New'

In addition, an October 16, 2006 Washington Post article titled “Climate Change is Nothing New” echoed the sentiments of the 60 scientists as it detailed a new study of the earth’s climate history. The Washington Post article by reporter Christopher Lee noted that Indiana University geologist Simon Brassell found climate change occurred during the age of dinosaurs and quoted Brassell questioning the accuracy of computer climate model predictions.

“If there are big, inherent fluctuations in the system, as paleoclimate studies are showing, it could make determining the Earth’s climatic future even harder than it is,” Brassell said. See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6101500672.html

Global Cooling on the Horizon?

In August, Khabibullo Abdusamatov, a scientist who heads the space research sector for the Russian Academy of Sciences, predicted long-term global cooling may be on the horizon due to a projected decrease in the sun’s output. See: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060825/53143686.html

Sun’s Contribution to Warming

There have also been recent findings in peer-reviewed literature over the last few years showing that the Antarctic is getting colder and the ice is growing and a new 2006 study in Geophysical Research Letters found that the sun was responsible for up to 50% of 20th-century warming. See: http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2006/2006GL027142.shtml

“Global Warming” Stopped in 1998

Paleoclimate scientist Bob Carter has noted that there is indeed a problem with global warming – it stopped in 1998. “According to official temperature records of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in the UK, the global average temperature did not increase between 1998-2005. “…this eight-year period of temperature stasis did coincide with society's continued power station and SUV-inspired pumping of yet more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,” noted paleoclimate researcher and geologist Bob Carter of James Cook University in Australia in an April 2006 article titled “There is a problem with global warming... it stopped in 1998.” See: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jh...09/ixworld.html

“Global?" Warming Misnamed - Southern Hemisphere Not Warming

In addition, new NASA satellite tropospheric temperature data reveals that the Southern Hemisphere has not warmed in the past 25 years contrary to “global warming theory” and modeling. This new Southern Hemisphere data raises the specter that the use of the word “global” in “global warming” may not be accurate. A more apt moniker for the past 25 years may be “Northern Hemisphere” warming. See: http://motls.blogspot.com/2006/09/southern...res-global.html

Alaska Cooling

According to data released on July 14, 2006 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the January through June Alaska statewide average temperature was “0.55F (0.30C) cooler than the 1971-2000 average.” See: http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/releases...noaa06-065.html

Oceans Cooling

Another bombshell to hit the global warming alarmists and their speculative climate modeling came in a September article in the Geophysical Research Letters which found that over 20% of the heat gained in the oceans since the mid-1950s was lost in just two years. The former climatologist for the state of Colorado, Roger Pielke, Sr., noted that the sudden cooling of the oceans “certainly indicates that the multi-decadal global climate models have serious issues with their ability to accurately simulate the response of the climate system to human- and natural-climate forcings.“ See: http://climatesci.atmos.colostate.edu/2006/09/

Light Hurricane Season & Early Winter

Despite predictions that 2006 would bring numerous tropical storms, 2006’s surprisingly light hurricane season and the record early start of this year’s winter in many parts of the U.S. have further put a damper on the constant doomsaying of the global warming alarmists and their media allies.

Droughts Less Frequent

Other new studies have debunked many of the dubious claims made by the global warming alarmists. For example, the claim that droughts would be more frequent, severe and wide ranging during global warming, has now being exposed as fallacious. A new paper in Geophysical Research Letters authored by Konstantinos Andreadis and Dennis Lettenmaier finds droughts in the U.S. becoming “shorter, less frequent and cover a small portion of the country over the last century.” http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index.ph...re-the-droughts

Global Warming Will Not Lead to Next Ice Age

Furthermore, recent research has shown that fears that global warming could lead to the next ice age, as promoted in the 2004 Hollywood movie “The Day After Tomorrow” are also unsupportable. A 2005 media hyped study “claimed to have found a 30 percent slowdown in the thermohaline circulation, the results are published in the very prestigious Nature magazine, and the story was carried breathlessly by the media in outlets around the world…Less than a year later, two different research teams present convincing evidence [ in Geophysical Research Letters ] that no slowdown is occurring whatsoever,” according to Virginia State Climatologist Patrick Michaels, editor of the website World Climate Report. See: http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index.ph...ning-ocean-hype

‘Hockey Stick’ Broken in 2006

The “Hockey Stick” temperature graph’s claim that the 1990’s was the hottest decade of the last 1000 years was found to be unsupportable by the National Academy of Sciences and many independent experts in 2006. See: http://www.epw.senate.gov/pressitem.cfm?pa...p&id=257697

Study Shows Greenland’s Ice Growing

A 2005 study by a scientist named Ola Johannessen and his colleagues showed that the interior of Greenland is gaining ice mass. See: http://www.co2science.org/scripts/CO2Scien...s/V8/N44/C1.jsp Also, according to the International Arctic Research Institute, despite all of the media hype, the Arctic was warmer in the 1930’s than today.

Polar Bears Not Going Extinct

Despite Time Magazine and the rest of the media’s unfounded hype, polar bears are not facing a crisis, according to biologist Dr. Mitchell Taylor from the Arctic government of Nunavut. “Of the 13 populations of polar bears in Canada, 11 are stable or increasing in number. They are not going extinct, or even appear to be affected at present,” Taylor wrote on May 1, 2006. See: http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentSe...id=970599119419

Media Darling James Hansen Hypes Alarmism

As all of this new data debunking climate alarmism mounts, the mainstream media chooses to ignore it and instead focus on the dire predictions of the number-one global warming media darling, NASA’s James Hansen. The increasingly alarmist Hansen is featured frequently in the media to bolster sky-is-falling climate scare reports. His recent claim that the Earth is nearing its hottest point in one million years has been challenged by many scientists. See: http://www.co2science.org/scripts/CO2Scien...9/N39/EDITB.jsp Hansen’s increasingly frightening climate predictions follow his 2003 concession that the use of “extreme scenarios” was an appropriate tactic to drive the public’s attention to the urgency of global warming. See: http://naturalscience.com/ns/articles/01-16/ns_jeh6.html Hansen also received a $250,000 grant form Teresa Heinz’s Foundation and then subsequently endorsed her husband John Kerry for President and worked closely with Al Gore to promote his movie, “An Inconvenient Truth.” See: http://www.heinzawards.net/speechDetail.asp?speechID=6 & http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/dai_complete.pdf

American People Rejecting Global Warming Alarmism

The global warming alarmists may have significantly overplayed their hand in the climate debate. A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll this August found that most Americans do not attribute the cause of any recent severe weather events to global warming, and the portion of Americans who believe that climate change is due to natural variability has increased over 50% in the last five years.

Senator Inhofe Chastises Media For Unscientific & Unprincipled Climate Reporting

Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.) Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, commented last week on the media’s unfounded global warming hype and some of the recent scientific research that is shattering the so-called “consensus” that human greenhouse gas emissions have doomed the planet.

“The American people are fed up with media for promoting the idea that former Vice President Al Gore represents the scientific ‘consensus’ that SUV’s and the modern American way of life have somehow created a ‘climate emergency’ that only United Nations bureaucrats and wealthy Hollywood liberals can solve. It is the publicity and grant seeking global warming alarmists and their advocates in the media who have finally realized that the only “emergency” confronting them is their rapidly crumbling credibility, audience and bottom line. The global warming alarmists know their science is speculative at best and their desperation grows each day as it becomes more and more obvious that many of the nations that ratified the woeful Kyoto Protocol are failing to comply,” Senator Inhofe said last week. See: http://www.epw.senate.gov/pressitem.cfm?pa...p&id=264616

“The mainstream media needs to follow the money: The further you get from scientists who conduct these alarmist global warming studies, and the further you get from the financial grants and the institutions that they serve the more the climate alarmism fades and the skepticism grows,” Senator Inhofe explained.

Eco-Doomsayers’ Failed Predictions

In a speech on the Senate floor on September 25, 2006, Senator Inhofe pointed out the abject failure of past predictions of ecological disaster made by environmental alarmists.

“The history of the modern environmental movement is chock-full of predictions of doom that never came true. We have all heard the dire predictions about the threat of overpopulation, resource scarcity, mass starvation, and the projected death of our oceans. None of these predictions came true, yet it never stopped the doomsayers from continuing to predict a dire environmental future. The more the eco-doomsayers’ predictions fail, the more the eco-doomsayers predict,” Senator Inhofe said on September 25th. See: http://epw.senate.gov/speechitem.cfm?party=rep&id=263759

Related Links:

For a comprehensive review of the media’s embarrassing 100-year history of alternating between promoting fears of a coming ice age and global warming, see Environment & Public Works Chairman James Inhofe’s September 25, 2006 Senate floor speech debunking the media and climate alarmism. Go to: (epw.senate.gov/speechitem.cfm?party=rep&id=263759)

To read and watch Senator Inhofe on CNN discuss global warming go to: (http://www.epw.senate.gov/pressitem.cfm?party=rep&id=264308 )

To Read all of Senator Inhofe’s Speeches on global warming go to: (http://epw.senate.gov/speeches.cfm?party=rep)

“Inhofe Correct On Global Warming,” by David Deming geophysicist, an adjunct scholar with the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (ocpathink.org), and an associate professor of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oklahoma. (http://epw.senate.gov/fact.cfm?party=rep&id=264537)

http://epw.senate.gov/pressitem.cfm?party=rep&id=264777

Scientists Debunk 'Fairy Tale' of 'Global Warming'

Marc Morano, CNSNews.com

Wednesday, May 15, 2002

WASHINGTON – A team of international scientists says climate models showing global warming are based on a "fairy tale" of computer projections.

The scientists met Monday on Capitol Hill to expose what they see as a dearth of scientific evidence about the theory of global warming.

Hartwig Volz, a geophysicist with RWE Research Lab in Germany, questioned the merit of the climate projections coming from the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC climate projections have fueled worldwide support for the Kyoto Protocol, which aims to restrict the greenhouse gases thought to cause global warming.

Volz noted that IPCC does not even call the climate models "predictions" and instead refers to them as "projections" or "story lines." Volz said the projections might be more aptly termed "fairy tales."

Monday's luncheon was sponsored by Frontiers of Freedom Institute and titled "Whatever Happened to Global Warming? Climate Science Does Not Support the Kyoto Protocol."

S. Fred Singer, an atmospheric physicist with the University of Virginia and the Environmental Policy Project, called IPCC's global warming projections "completely unrealistic."

"Prediction is a very difficult business, particularly about the future," he said.

'Extreme Scenarios'

Singer accused IPCC of "assuming extreme scenarios of population growth and fossil fuel consumption" and called on the Bush administration to "assemble another team using the IPCC report, using the same facts" to "write a different summary."

Dr. Ulrich Berner, a geologist with the Federal Institute for Geosciences in Germany, said global temperatures have varied greatly in the earth's history and are unrelated to human activity.

"The climate of the past has varied under natural conditions without the influence of humans," Berner said.

Berner declared that an extensive analysis of carbon dioxide (C02) concentrations in the ice core of Greenland showed that elevated C02 in the atmosphere does not necessarily lead to temperature increases.

"There are numerous temperature changes which are not mimicked by the CO2 concentration," he explained.

"Carbon dioxide doesn't police climatic changes. Climatic changes have always occurred and will for the future always occur," Berner added.

Singer agreed. "The balance of evidence suggests that there has been no appreciable warming since 1940. This would indicate that the human effects on climate must be quite small."

Blame It on the Sun

Singer pointed to the sun as a major culprit in climate change. "The sun is responsible for most, and perhaps all of the short-term climate changes we observe," he said.

Environmental groups were quick to dismiss the scientific skepticism on global warming. Ariana Silverman, a spokeswoman for Sierra Club's Global Warming & Energy program, disputed the panel's claim that climate science did not support the Kyoto Protocol.

"It is very difficult to make that claim. There is a consensus in the scientific community," Silverman said.

She admitted there was room for skepticism about global warming models because "nobody knows; we don't have god-like abilities" to predict the future.

Sierra Club believes we need to "cut down on gasses right now and make cars go further on a gallon of gas." She predicted that if no action is taken, there could be "major changes to our climate and changes to our ecosystems with species dying."

"Climate is not a responsible thing for us to be changing," Silverman added.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2...14/161152.shtml

[SteveLaura 0]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvfQ0iffj40...ted&search=

Some language

I watched this but not the other two clips that sandwiched it (I am supposed to be working), but they didn't say what the best option for disposing of waste is.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

it is ###### hot here in st louis..i am a global warming believer..

it is ###### hot here in st louis..i am a global warming believer..

110 degrees with heat index here and its only NOON!!! im a Global warming believer

I suppose then it must be too hot to walk to work. Hey my ice maker quit working #######.

too far..of course, i usually wlak allot on the week-end...good exercise..beats riding a loud over-rated bike

I was just ribbin ya Dean, dont get excited. I havent rode in two weeks, I have been saving my carbon credits so I can ride all weekend

[Heracles 417]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvfQ0iffj40...ted&search=

Some language

What a great video...

This feel good disconnect from reality has become the new norm. That is as long as we consciously believe we are doing the right thing, ie eg a concert or changing a freakin light globe, we have done our part. A light globe filed with mercury might I add.

Aluminum cans are the only thing worth recycling. A recycled aluminum can only uses 5% of the energy needed to produce a new can from scratch. That equates to 1 recycled can saving enough electricity to power a TV for 3 hours..

Edited August 8, 2007 by Boo-Yah!

[almaty 19]

it is ###### hot here in st louis..i am a global warming believer..

it is ###### hot here in st louis..i am a global warming believer..

110 degrees with heat index here and its only NOON!!! im a Global warming believer

I suppose then it must be too hot to walk to work. Hey my ice maker quit working #######.

too far..of course, i usually wlak allot on the week-end...good exercise..beats riding a loud over-rated bike

I was just ribbin ya Dean, dont get excited. I havent rode in two weeks, I have been saving my carbon credits so I can ride all weekend

i was joking too..i had a harley way back ( prior to the dark days, when they were sold to an over sea and ruined them for awhile) and regret not riding these days..but hell, i cannot even take a walk without breaking 2 ribs...so, ride away i wish i was with you ...

[GaryC 7]

This is a 5 part series from a REAL climate scientist. Please take the time to watch it.

Part 1

FFXM0claHq4

Part 2

YO928uEJV1w

Part 3

OM_JlhKGbEc

Part 4

zoFET3OhWco

Part 5

mQzXRzXpWMg

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvfQ0iffj40...ted&search=

Some language

I watched this but not the other two clips that sandwiched it (I am supposed to be working), but they didn't say what the best option for disposing of waste is.

There are no options other than the land fill. The moral of the story is how people "feel" good when they recycle. I saw a documentary the other day which examined the new high-tech landfill which they extract methane and are using it for electricity.

[Heracles 417]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvfQ0iffj40...ted&search=

Some language

I watched this but not the other two clips that sandwiched it (I am supposed to be working), but they didn't say what the best option for disposing of waste is.

There are no options other than the land fill. The moral of the story is how people "feel" good when they recycle. I saw a documentary the other day which examined the new high-tech landfill which they extract methane and are using it for electricity.

Yes. They currently have that in use in Melbourne from both sewage as well as landfills.

http://www.melbournewater.com.au/content/p...vers.asp?bhjs=0

Edited August 8, 2007 by Boo-Yah!

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

it is ###### hot here in st louis..i am a global warming believer..

it is ###### hot here in st louis..i am a global warming believer..

110 degrees with heat index here and its only NOON!!! im a Global warming believer

I suppose then it must be too hot to walk to work. Hey my ice maker quit working #######.

too far..of course, i usually wlak allot on the week-end...good exercise..beats riding a loud over-rated bike

I was just ribbin ya Dean, dont get excited. I havent rode in two weeks, I have been saving my carbon credits so I can ride all weekend

i was joking too..i had a harley way back ( prior to the dark days, when they were sold to an over sea and ruined them for awhile) and regret not riding these days..but hell, i cannot even take a walk without breaking 2 ribs...so, ride away i wish i was with you ...

I think your talkin about when amf bought Harley. I read where you took a dive.Hope things are healing nicely.

back to topic

[SimoFati 0]

As for walking versus taking the car...me, I cycle everwhere

[SteveLaura 0]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvfQ0iffj40...ted&search=

Some language

I watched this but not the other two clips that sandwiched it (I am supposed to be working), but they didn't say what the best option for disposing of waste is.

There are no options other than the land fill. The moral of the story is how people "feel" good when they recycle. I saw a documentary the other day which examined the new high-tech landfill which they extract methane and are using it for electricity.

I recycle because it's easy - there's the bin for plastic, glass, and cans and there's the bin for paper. A (reused) paper bag under the sink for those things, and Bob's your uncle.

They mentioned that recycling cans is the only one that makes sense. Was this true from the beginning, I wonder, or did it take several years of new technology before it became economically and environmentally viable? If so, could this also be true of other forms of recycling? I admit, it's not bag, so I don't know where, say, plastic recycling is at right now. But is it possible that, with improved technology, in a few years plastic recycling could be where can recycling is now?

Making energy from landfill makes sense to me. Using that as the only option, tho, does not.

[Heracles 417]

I recycle because it's easy - there's the bin for plastic, glass, and cans and there's the bin for paper. A (reused) paper bag under the sink for those things, and Bob's your uncle.

They mentioned that recycling cans is the only one that makes sense. Was this true from the beginning, I wonder, or did it take several years of new technology before it became economically and environmentally viable? If so, could this also be true of other forms of recycling? I admit, it's not bag, so I don't know where, say, plastic recycling is at right now. But is it possible that, with improved technology, in a few years plastic recycling could be where can recycling is now?

Making energy from landfill makes sense to me. Using that as the only option, tho, does not.

Reason being is that aluminum is very difficult to extract from ore. It uses a huge amount of electricity as it is extracted by means of electrolysis. Now recycling a can, for example, uses 95% less energy as they only need to melt the can..

[JVKn'CVO 11]

Focus on carbon 'missing the point'

VIEWPOINT

Eamon O'Hara

The focus on reducing carbon emissions has blinded us to the real problem - unsustainable lifestyles, says Eamon O'Hara. In this week's Green Room, he argues that bigger problems await us unless we shift our efforts.

Focusing on the need to reduce CO2 emissions has reduced the problem to one of carbon dioxide rather than on the unsustainable ways we live

Is it not time to recognise that climate change is yet another symptom of our unsustainable lifestyles, which must now become the focus our efforts?

Yet governments, and those organisations who have now assumed the role of combating climate change, subscribe to the notion that climate change is our central problem and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is the cause of this problem.

Undeniably, climate change is a serious problem but it is only one of a growing list of problems that arise from a fundamental global issue.

For many decades, the symptoms of unsustainable human exploitation of the natural environment have been mounting: species extinction, the loss of biodiversity, air and water pollution, soil erosion, acid rain, destruction of rainforests, ozone depletion - the list goes on.

Common cause

These problems all clearly have a common origin, yet the search for solutions has invariably focused on targeted treatments rather than addressing the root cause.

Success has, at best, been patchy. In general, none of these problems have completely disappeared and many have continued to worsen.

Renewable resources might provide a safer alternative to oil and gas and other finite resources, but it will not remove our energy and resource dependency

Global warming - the latest in this list of environmental woes - is a particularly worrying development, not only because it is potentially catastrophic, but because it is going to be incredibly difficult to control.

The solutions currently being put forward, such as those being championed by the European Union, focus almost exclusively on reducing carbon emissions.

However, by focusing on the need to reduce CO2 emissions has reduced the problem to one of carbon dioxide rather than on the unsustainable ways we live our lives.

This oversight has led to the assumption that if we reduce emissions then our problems are solved, hence the focus on carbon sequestration, renewable energies and environmental technologies.

This approach to curing our problems is a bit like relying on methadone to cure an addiction to heroin.

The large-scale transition to renewable resources might provide a safer alternative to oil and gas and other finite resources, but it will not remove our energy and resource dependency, which will continue to expand in line with economic growth.

Before long, we will discover that even renewables have their limits. We are already being warned about the dangers of excessive demand for biofuels, which is reportedly leading to the clearing of rainforests and increasing competition for land between food and energy production.

The world simply does not have the resources, renewable or otherwise, to sustain Western lifestyles across the globe

Ultimately, our problem is consumption, and the environment is not the only casualty.

The modern Western lifestyle also has an inbuilt dependency on the cheap resources and the low carbon footprint of developing countries, which has compounded global injustice.

Worse still, maintaining our relatively wealthy, comfortable and unsustainable lifestyles is now dependant on maintaining this imbalance.

Seventy-five percent of the world's population - more than 4.5bn people - live on just 15% of the world's resources, while we in the West gorge on the remaining 85%.

The world simply does not have the resources, renewable or otherwise, to sustain Western lifestyles across the globe.

Change of direction

So, what can we do? Obviously, the first thing we need to do is act, and act fast.

Every day we wait, another 30,000 children needlessly die; between 100-150 plant and animal species become extinct; 70,000 hectares of rainforest is destroyed and another 150m tonnes of CO2 is released into the atmosphere.

Meanwhile, another $3.0bn (£1.5bn) is spent on arms and weapons of mass destruction.

We urgently need to think about the more fundamental concept of sustainability and how our lifestyles are threatening not only the environment, but developing countries and global peace and stability.

In my view, we need to embrace this as an opportunity and not see it as a responsibility. Living a more sustainable lifestyle does not have to be a burden, as some people fear.

It could be a liberating and rewarding experience to participate in creating a better world. After all, how good do we really have it at the moment?

How many people are tired and weary of modern living? The endless cycle of earning and consumption can be exhausting and does not necessarily bring happiness and fulfillment. Can we do things differently, and better?

If we don't, then we are heading for certain disaster, regardless of whether or not we manage to reduce our emissions.

Eamon O'Hara is a Brussels-based policy adviser for the Irish Regions Office, which represents Irish interests in the European Union

The Green Room is a series of opinion pieces on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website

Focus on carbon 'missing the point' - BBC news

[SteveLaura 0]

Good idea, though a little vague on how we can achieve this.

I agree that there does need to be a dramatic change in the way we live our lives. Ain't gonna be easy nor popular. We waste so much. Why do we need to seal everything in plastic? Packaging of goods is outrageous these days. Between 30-40% of car journeys are less than 2 miles. We need better public transport systems in our towns and cities, and make roads more bike-friendly. More farms should be encouraged to grow seasonal produce for local markets. I dunno. I like this planet, sort of got used to it. Wouldn't mind seeing my step-daughter and her future family enjoy it too, you know?