Carbon footprint question

[Brian G]

Climate change has been around for far longer than man has walked this earth - could the various ice ages and consequent warmings have been caused by dinosaurs farting?

Brian G

[Owain]

No, an arse is useful for something :-)

As the OP was talking about Prince Charles, perhaps it was a typo for 'ears'?

Owain

[Dave]

Looks like Mrs. Blair has a huge one then :-) On the other hand, her husband could top her as he is all arse :-)

Dave

[John Stumbles]

I can guess that something made in China has a bigger carbon footprint than the same thing made in the UK because of transposrt but what about the CO2 cost of plastic A versus plastic B and so on - there must be zillions of things you'd have to be a FoE mastermind to make a remotely accurate 'educated' guess at.

[David Hansen]

On Tue, 3 Apr 2007 21:19:55 +0100 someone who may be "The Medway Handyman" wrote this:-

It was not a documentary, rather it was an opinion piece. That some people think it was a documentary illustrates the deceit involved in producing it and putting it on the television.

At the time the flaws in the opinion piece were pointed out. Of course those who want to believe the same as the authors of the opinion piece will continue to clutch at anything to prop up their belief.

[David Hansen]

On Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:09:57 GMT someone who may be John Stumbles wrote this:-

The manufacturers of the ship full of toys which arrived from China before Christmas claimed that the carbon emissions of ships are surprisingly low. Similar claims are made by exporters of New Zealand lamb.

[nightjar]

Russian scientists are predicting a global cooling cycle, which they expect to start around 2012. There are also signs of global warming on Mars and we have the scientist from the Cavendish Laboratory who tells us that only 15% of the CO2 currently in the atmosphere is sufficient to absorb 100% of the radiant energy that CO2 can absorb while the real danger is water vapour. Even Chapter 1 of the IPCC report is nowhere near as conclusive as the media and government want us to believe. The extent of disagreement among the experts suggests that none of them really know what is happening or what is going to happen.

Colin Bignell

[nightjar]

If the government achieves its target of a 60% reduction in emissions, it will have little impact on a global scale, as we only produce 2% of all CO2 emissions now.

Colin Bignell

[Andy Hall]

Motivation?

... and somehow this is different from the belief that human production of CO2 influences climate change?

[nightjar]

The difference is possibly less than you think. The latest container ships carry around 6,000 - 7,500 40ft containers. The distance the goods have to travel by lorry from the docks or from a UK manufacturer is probably a more important factor than whether they have come halfway around the world first.

Colin Bignell

[Andy Hall]

So now ask yourself why.

Hmm.... Probably because they want to be able to sell their goods uneventfully in the West.

What enables them to do that?

A ready market of people wanting low prices for products and not having carbon footprint as a major purchasing criterion.

Has anybody had a discussion with the purchasing public about this?

Has anyone had a word with the Chinese and Indians about their energy production methods?

So what could be done? Two ideas.

- The West tells the Far East that they need to dramatically change their use of fossil fuels for energy production and to install alternative capacity - if need be with the threat of trade tariffs.

- Implement massive import duties on products manufactured in countries with a predominantly fossil fuel energy policy and ongoing plan.

The latter would have the effect of a substantial price rise on goods from these places. It would re-open opportunity for manufacture closer to the market - e.g. former Warsaw pact and even Western Europe. That has some political appeal on the jobs front. The question is would the public be willing to pay or would there be a political backlash? Are people willing to put the carbon footprint of their purchases ahead of their pocketbooks?

I'm not suggesting that either of these are achievable; and this is leaving aside whether or not doing something to reduce carbon emission will actually achieve anything.

History shows that trade protectionism doesn't work in the long run and that the market ultimately decides. Their may even be the odd touch of fisticuffs along the way.

Nonetheless, I wonder if any western governments have the balls to do it.....

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Indeed; and this applies to the websites which claim to do just this.

My point was that most who want this sort of information don't actually know (or want to understand) what the plate on an appliance means where watts are concerned. And this site

a prime example of over simplification.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

They are indeed per kilo per mile - far lower than air, road or rail. If they weren't we wouldn't get cheap goods from so far away.

[Andy McKenzie]

The bus is rolling down a hill towards a cliff. Someone yells 'put your foot on the brake' and you then get the passengers helpfully saying 'I don't see why we should brake - that other bus is bigger than we are' or 'It's not braking that's the issue its all the fault of gravity' or 'I saw a documentary the other week that said that an astrologer predicted that this hill was an optical illusion, let's just sit here'.

Andy

[Andrew Gabriel]

Although many people are surprised when you point out that shipping worldwide produces twice the CO2 of all aviation, given how much fuss is made about aviation.

Fortunately I'm not a believer in man-made CO2 causing global warming as I've not yet seen any valid scientific evidence, but I do believe in not wasting energy for other reasons.

[The Natural Philosopher]

No.

[The Natural Philosopher]

That's probably the worst place for reliable information.

[The Natural Philosopher]

You are starting to see the point..

[The Natural Philosopher]

Well thats been pretty thoroughly debunked.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Save the planet. Strangle a baby today!