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A changing climate

In almost all of the meetings I’m invited to, the subject of Climate Change is raised. I have recently attended a couple of regional boards on behalf of the City relating to housing and regeneration and ‘zero carbon homes’ have been mentioned repeatedly. The idea of a home requiring no net power use over the year seems quite appealing as long as the houses are good to live in and good to look at.

It’s worth me stating here, for the record, that many of the ideas originating from the ‘green lobby’ meet with my approval. Helping people cut their heating bills with better home insulation? Common sense. More efficient cars? Good for the pocket and air quality. Switching to ‘clean’ energy sources and ending our reliance on unstable middle eastern oil producers? Wise. Solar roof panels on new houses to part heat your water? Logical.

There are some though who seem to delight in telling me how we must go back to a bygone era: giving up cars and taking the bus; no more foreign holidays; no more barbeques….we simply must be less comfortable than we are now, especially if we’re to feel good about ourselves that we’re doing something to help.

The problem is that this is misjudging public appetite. When it comes to it, no one I meet will accept much of a regression in the living standards. Human nature means we become accustomed better things in life than the last generation. Better housing, personal cars, bigger TVs, cheaper clothes shipped from abroad…

So how do we address this conflicting situation of a cleaner future environment and rising living standards? Personally, I think the future lies in technological solutions to problems. It’s incredible to think that a modern Ford Fiesta is safer, more economical, better equipped and larger than its 1976 original and emits less than 5% of the toxic pollutants of this forebear, so I’m told. That to me is a solution brought about by legislation challenging industry and leading to technological innovation.

The interesting subject is carbon dioxide (CO2). This gas, regularly referred to as a ‘pollutant’ is, of course, the stuff that makes our plants grow. The concern held by many scientists is when it becomes more predominant in our atmosphere.

The issue seems to be that many scientists, but not all, say that the increase in this gas in the atmosphere is leading to global warming. I’ve read a great number of articles on the subject and the more I read, the more questions I have. I suspect changes in climate are actually down to potentially a multitude of factors (see www.climatedebatedaily.com for interesting opinion on causes). Below I’ve written a few questions. The person who sends me what I consider to be the most convincing answers to these questions gets a clean crisp fiver from my bank account, and will make me a better informed chap:

• If carbon dioxide drives global warming why as levels have increased over the last decade have temperatures dropped, albeit slightly?
• In the Mediaeval warm period the northern hemisphere was 1-2 degrees warmer than it is now for a few hundred years with no heavy industry belching out CO2 – what caused this?
• When Greenland was discovered in 985AD it wasn’t covered in ice and snow, how high were the sea levels then?
• How does the phenomenon of ‘global dimming’, where less light is reaching the earth’s surface decade-by-decade, affect global temperatures?
• The hole in the ozone layer is closing, and many think this is cyclical phenomenon, so how does this affect weather and temperature patterns?
• Why has ice built up to the highest levels since satellite records began in 1979 at the south pole, but is thinning at the north pole?
• What proportion of the total CO2 increase in the atmosphere comes from man’s activities, and what proportion from the sea?
• Which of the following gases control our temperature most and how have volumes of these changed over time – water vapour (clouds) and methane?
• Do carbon dioxide increases lead to temperature increases, or is it the other way round as some suggest?

I don’t know the answer to these questions and I hear conflicting views, but they’re worth asking so we know what we’re trying to address here. We need to be in receipt of all the information so we can make the right decisions on protecting the environment. One action we hear of is the bulldozing our precious rainforests to plant bio-fuel crops for ‘environmentally friendly’ fuels – this is surely complete insanity. Or what about some of the crazy schemes of putting giant mirrors in space to reflect sunlight?

We need to look to the future of powering our way of life with more environmentally friendly sources of energy but be mature and acknowledge that it’ll have to be a more sophisticated solution than just windturbines.

We’re living in an exciting age. I believe we will inevitably move to a ‘lower carbon’ in this country for a whole host of reasons, probably driven by economic and security factors as much as environmental ones.

All the best

Matthew Lobley

Roundhay Ward Councillor

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