Wasteful ways

I could be more frugal. I could waste less. That being said, I found this absolutely appalling.

So I am there yesterday stocking up on dog food and I noticed a mini-van, parked, engine running, in the parking space adjacent to mine. an hour or so later, when I was wheeling out my cart, I noticed the van was still there, still running, and I could hear the compressor cycling on and off. I could only conclude that she [the vehicle owner] was ensuring that her vehicle would be a brisk 60 degrees upon her return. At that moment, I saw America’s impending demise.

I can’t say that I quite predict the demise of the good ol’ US of A from leaving a vehicle running, but it does smack of the downfall of profligate Rome. And it is downright annoying and needless and wasteful.

I’m not a big proponent of man-made global warming theory, but you don’t need to believe in global warming to see that there are negative externalities from this kind of behavior. The choking emissions, the waste of a non-renewable resource.

I don’t want to sound like a sanctimonious European, but every time I go to America I’m shocked by how waste has become the norm.

HT: Music City Bloggers where the comments went a little crazy.

anthropogenic climatological conditions

This week the theNorth of England nearly washed away in a series of floods. A number of people died and the economic damage was huge and is still being counted up.

And, of course, there were endless speculations about whether these June floods were the result of man made global warming. Well, I don’t know about that, but I do yhink that humans have worsened the impact of the heavy rains. And unlike climate change, there are things that we could do to lessen the impact:

• stop building on flood plains – the flood plains are already overbuilt and we’re not helping the situation by building on them more. If you build your house upon the sand, don’t be surprised if it gets washed away.
• stop concreting over everything – every bit of impermeableness placed on the land results in higher levels of run-off during periods of excess precipitation. Basically, the water doesn’t have a chance to seep into the ground naturally – it all builds up and ends up in your living room. It takes a little bit more thought, but we can have more permeable paving or breaks in the paving. We could start by ensuring proper drainage in our own patio gardens. Water used to pool up in our garden until we removed the concrete between the pavers. It seems a small thing, but in terms of run-off every little bit really does help.
• maintain the drainage system. In much of urban England the natural drainage system of creeks and gullies has been replaced by concrete canals. Sure – this contains the water in times of normal precipitation – but chanelised flow means water moves faster – and faster water is more powerful water. The drainage system was built long ago and wasn’t designed to cope with the high levels of run-off from our concrete jungle and sewage and waste water from our developments. The canals are often poorly maintained now, too. Clogged with willows and weeds and shopping carts, the flow isn’t uniformly smooth. And that causes all kinds of problems on its own.

The government is still not taking these factors into account despite numerous warnings. People are more concerned about climate change where the UK government’s actions will have minimal effect at best (even if you believe in the anthropogenic climate change model). But sensible action in flood prevention can save lives and property now.

the great global warming swindle

I’m scientific. I’ve got a degree in an applied science. I know about science stuff, or I did anyway, before I forgot it all. But the point about science stuff is that it isn’t the facts that matter so much as the approach – the spirit of scientific enquiry.

But facts do matter as well. Climate has been changing a lot since before humans evolved – so humans had nothing to do with it – and that’s a fact. There have been much wilder climactic swings than global warming gloomsbodies have been predicting. I’m reasonably familiar with these changes because my applied science was geology…a very long history of the earth. Humans tend to have a very short perspective – take a step back – there’s been a lot of climate change.

So I have this long perspective which makes me sceptical. Also, I appreciate scientific enquiry which frankly I’ve been too lazy to look into when it comes to climate change – but I can’t jump into one camp or another until I’m reasonably convinced. So I’m a global warming sceptic.

This week Britain’s Channel 4 broadcasted a documentary called The Great Global Warming Swindle. It was an interesting mix of social commentary and science. The science bit is:

• that the greenhouse effect doesn’t really work like it’s commonly understood
• CO2 is lagging indicator of temperature not leading – so causation works the other way round (heating up of the earth releases carbon from ocean – and heating the ocean takes a loooong time),
• the earth heating is caused by changes in the sun,
• human CO2 is a relatively small amount of the total so cutting back on emissions won’t make much difference.

The social science bit was:

• humans like to doom monger, this is just the latest in a long line of scary stories
• this is the cause that anti-capitalist political activists flocked to after the dismal failure of communism and socialism.
• scientists jump on the bandwagon because they’re funding hounds – and there’s now a ton of money in global climate change i.e. you want to study squirrels?, you want to get a grant? you better write a proposal that includes the effect of climate change on those fluffy-tailed rats or you ain’t gonna get no money.
• and there was a little bit on how humans are a bit short sighted – gosh, it’s an early spring this year* – I can’t remember such an early spring – must be global warming

But not many dispute that in the past few decades the earth is warming up and that there are some consequences. Particularly for humans in marginal cirucmstances – the desperately poor living in areas where climate change has the largest impact.

So the key questions still are:

• does human activity have any impact on climate (even if it’s not the major driver)?
• would changing some human behavior (e.g. consumption patterns that lead to carbon emissions) make a difference to climate change?
• is the benefit to some humans living in desperate conditions greater than the cost of changing our ways?
• if changing our beviour would make a difference to climate change, is there a sufficient benefit to humans of maintaining the habitats of interesting animals like polar bears? would we be really, really sad if they were gone? (probably)
• is it more efficient to compensate the humans who are most effected rather than change our ways?

And additionally…

• Are there other consequences to burning fossil fuels to human health and the environment?

I would suggest that there are severe consequences to our patterns of consumption – for example inner city children who suffer respiratory damage from the particulates in gas or petrol. I find it ironic that people Britain are so worked up about climate change (which probably wouldn’t affect them too much) caused by burning fossil fuels and yet were extremely late to banning leaded fuel which is absolutely proven to damage children – both to their physical and mental health. That’s just one example. If we concentrate too much on global warming, we may be in danger of overlooking other serious consequences of human behaviour on the environment and other humans.

*Note – I’ve seen heard a few comments here and there on how much earlier spring is this year and how that’s a sign of global warming. My impression is that spring is just about on time this year, but was really late last year.

For example:

Last year – the first daffodils on 25 March – and I mean the very first – and there were no others in my garden.

The year before:

the daffodils are quite well established at the end of March

And this year – first daffs at the end of February.

But I have had them bloom much earlier – even in January.