Today, October 15 is Blog Action Day. According to their Web site, “Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.” I have written posts in the past on the topic of the environment and poverty. This year the topic is climate change, and when I sat back to think about this, all that swirled through my head was a lot of questions.
As I write this, it is about 20 degrees cooler than it normally is at this time of the year in Chicago. But when the meteorologists get into the details, there have been extremes in temperatures over the years. In the meantime, glaciers are melting. Not all of them, as I hear the one on Iceland is actually getting bigger. There are all kinds of opinion both ways on climate change, including from scientists. Though my degree is in business and not in science, but as I consider myself a relatively aware individual, I don’t know how to take such conflicting reports.
Recently on a trip through Wisconsin I saw more conflicting signs what could be impacting climate change. First there were the smokestacks billowing from mills and factories. As much of a scientist I am not, I know in general that is not good. Then there’s a wind turbine farm I went by where none of the turbines were spinning. I don’t know why that was the case, but I have seen them in motion before. I have heard cases where the power grids can’t handle the power being generated by the turbines. Oops. Someone didn’t do their homework.
Take carbon offsets, or as they’re being referred today in the US as cap and trade. This concept doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. If you want to keep producing the same amount of emissions, you can buy the right to do so from people who don’t produce the emissions. So not only do you have to pay to change how you do business (or generate power) now you have to pay extra in the interim. To me this is like paying someone else to exercise or lose weight for me as I try to do it myself! Why not just spend the money on a health club and healthier food? The incentive, in my opinion, is lost to improve the environment if carbon offsets can be purchased.
So here I am, watching the cursor blinking on my screen wondering what to write next. Don’t get me wrong, I do my damnest to conserve and protect the environment – a search on the word “environment” on The Hot Iron will give you many examples. And in most of these cases, there were financial incentives from my conservation efforts. Everything from buying a duplexing laser printer for the little I have to print to buying Adobe Acrobat to go as paperless as I can, these are but a few of the steps I take in the normal course of my personal and business life.As the goal is to “trigger a global discussion” I believe I have contributed something to this – questions. And I’m sure I am not alone! It has always seemed like environmental causes have been out in the fringe of normal, everyday activities. Maybe they need to go mainstream as well, and people will think about them more everyday? Then we’d have to come with something else to write about on the next Blog Action Day.
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Mike - great post…i was curious to see your take since i know you are edumacated on such things :-) —- but i think you captured it, we all have questions, (like is the city really recycling all I put in the blue bins??) - questions and concerns, but it’s overwhelming and not clear….thanks for this!
Comment by Amy ChasseThanks Amy, and as for the blue bins, it has been proven that not everything gets recycled, and much is tossed in landfills…
mp/m
Hey Mike:
As a geologist in my undergraduate days, I have to wonder at the whole notion of climate change. The world is in flux and we humans are not seperate from it. The planet can now expect 20 years of cooling. Our history for several million years is about 15,000 years of warmth and a few hundred thousand of cold. I find it ludicrous to have to pay money to be environmentally sound. Shouldn’t valid environmental practices save us money? Why do our so-called leaders want to charge us in order to save us from ourselves? Cap and trade is going to hurt, not help. It’s a bit like those who pay money to lose weight. Shouldn’t eating less save money? But we pay for gyms and special diet food. Losing weight should lower costs. Anyway, October 15 is also White Cane Day around the world. I am speaking tomorrow on the inseparatability of body and mind at a meet the blind gathering. It’s all one man!
Hi Mike
I’ll accept that intelligent people can disagree on whether climate change is ‘real’ or created by human beings. I certainly hope no one honestly believes that human beings haven’t made the world worse off and we need to reverse behaviors that have done so.
This is the second time I’ve seen you use the weight loss analogy with carbon offsets or cap and trade. Your analogy only follows if you are speaking of an individual case. I think a closer approximation would be if, for some inexplicable reason, you determined that your entire building needed to lose 1,000 pounds as a group. There would be people your building who for one reason or another would be unable or unwilling to lose their ‘fair share’. They would be given the option to pay a fee to another person who lost more weight. A somewhat feeble effort I know, but I hope it makes sense.
Reducing carbon emissions is a good thing to do and I would prefer a different regime to accomplish it. Unfortunately, the compromise solution appears to be cap and trade.
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