We should change, even if the climate isn't. (Climate change)

Member Name: magpie

Product:	Climate change
Date:	22/11/00 (16 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Reducing energy consumption is a Good Thing, even if not directly responsible for our recent weather

Disadvantages: Takes effort.

Recently, a great deal has been made of the floods in Yorkshire. Doom and gloom has been prophesised as most of the county was submerged.

Is this evidence of climate change though?

The worst of the flooding in Yorkshire was in Malton and Norton. These two regions were similarly inundated 18 months ago. The fact that these floods occured so close together has lead people to believe that flooding is going to be more frequent.

However, in 1947 these same places flooded in both the spring and the autumn. At that time, the concept of global warming wasn't around, and so it was just accepted as being a bad year.

While the weather patterns we have recently experienced are those we would expect if global warming were taking place, the fact that these weather patterns are taking place is not proof of global warming - it could just be a bad year.

That being said, is it a risk worth taking?

We cannot tell if global warming is occurring as a result of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide. However, surely our energy greedy lifestyle is not worth maintaining at such a risk to the environment? Before we can *prove* that global warming is a result of human action, too much damage will be done. So I suggest we all examine carefully our use of energy. And our use is not just that from our own cars. Every time we purchase a product which is not locally made or grown, we condone the pointless transportation of goods across the world. Does it make sense for us Yorkshire folk to eat sugar manufactured in the third world when sugar beet is growing in our own fields and we can smell it being made into sugar in the factory across town? All in the interests of profit and open trading.

Globalisation is merely increasing the probability of environmental damage. This is surely a bad thing, even if it is not directly responsible for our recent bad weather.

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