If the World is warming up, why am I so cold ?

Experts say it is the single biggest challenge facing humanity at the present, but are we looking at the wrong end of the Global Warming problem

You may be of the believe that climate change and global warming are parts of a normal cycle of our world, naturally heating and cooling every few thousand years, or, you may be part of the school that believes this heating of the world’s atmosphere, to the detrimental effect of mankind, is actually of mankind’s doing. 

If we are facing these problems because of what some might call Mother Nature, and the natural cycle of the earth, heating up and cooling down, then there surely is little we can do, and indeed nothing we should do. 

If, on the other hand, we are at this stage because of the burning of fossil fuels and our erosion of the ozone layer etc, then we need to examine if we can alter this situation – and how best to tackle it.

But are we being given the full picture ? We, as consumers, are being squarely blamed for our part in global warming, whereas it could be argued that it is actually the world’s corporations and governments that are actually more to blame, and that they have shifted the onus onto us mere citizens. We alone cannot stop countries like China and India from polluting the world’s atmospheres, Kyoto or not.

However, even if all governments in the world were willing to spend more money on solving the problems (which they are not !), it cannot all be done at once. We have to prioritize. The biggest problems need tackling first. It is the national governments that can effect real change – and real change at home, not abroad.

CO2 emissions and carbon footprints have become the bywords for fighting global warming, but yet here in Ireland we have huge problems with water quality, which has a far more damaging and direct effect on our population, than what the world’s multi-nationals are pumping out. We even have the Green Party as part of the Government, so things should be looking up ! But, are they ?

Last year in Galway, people had to buy bottled water, or boil their own before using it, for months on end. Why ? because of the failure of the local water plant to filter out the germ ‘cryptosporidium’ as it was an old and out of date filtration system. What was done about this ? Local and national authorities argued over who was to blame and pointed fingers at each other whilst the dirty water continued to be ‘fed’ into the public system. The irony is here that one of the local councils was headed by a Green Party mayor. And there are other blackspots for drinking water around the country which continue to cause problems for Joe Citizen. Yet, what is being done ? 

Other countries would be less tolerant for a water service akin to the third world.

Environmentalists the world over are focussing on the melting ice caps and the rising seas, when a look closer to home might yield better results. The ice caps and the seas are worrying problems and there is enough evidence to show there is significant change, but bringing your bottles to the bottle bank and composting your rubbish is not going to change the polar meltdown. 

Whilst taxing carbon does seem a popular and perhaps effective initiative, but why are we not growing more bio-fuel crops which can provide the world with non-fossil fuels - a fuel we can grow, time and time again ? A natural solution to an un-natural problem ?

But, if you are now feeling even more desperate and useless – don’t be. We, as citizens, and as a nation, can have a meaningful and tangible impact on the quality of where we live. We can have a role in the heightened protection of our coastal waters, our lakes and our waterways – we can plant more forestry and clean up our country a little more. 

This can be achieved if we combine our efforts, and not sit back and wonder what can be done about oil spillages in Alaska and CO2 emissions, over which we have little power to change.

The Copenhagen Consensus meets again this year, with the world’s greatest authorities, to find out what are the biggest challenges facing mankind in the 21^st century and beyond. Climate change ranks a lowly 13^th on the scale of threats, yet some would have us believe differently.

The panel at the Consensus found that climate policies have "costs that were likely to exceed the benefits". It further stated "global warming must be addressed, but agreed that approaches based on too abrupt a shift toward lower emissions of carbon are needlessly expensive."

Critics of the Consensus say that this is too simplistic an approach and further criticised the fact that it was only ‘economic’ in its outlook. Who do we believe ?

Wherever you stand on this issue, it is surely easier to concentrate on issues we can change and which are far simpler, than trying to alter something that, even collectively, we have little power to change. So, perhaps the powers that be could concentrate on providing more initiatives to help us help ourselves – and let us try and change the things we can change.