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Archive for the 'Environment' Category


HOW TO THINK GREEN

Posted by anthonynorth on April 25, 2008

READ MY ULTIMATE MAGAZINE POST - Something posted most days - keep visiting!
What’s on today: A post inspired by a Sunday Scribblings prompt. Have you had a go yet? … PLUS … A post inspired by a Friday 5 meme. Click Eye On the World for my current affairs.
YOU KNOW IT’S THE WRITE WAY

HOW TO THINK GREEN

We are increasingly thinking green. We recycle. We do what we can for the environment – to protect the future of the planet. But is this really ‘thinking’ green, or does this require something more substantial?
What we are actually doing is ‘acting’ green – taking specific actions based on what society increasingly expects of us. To ‘think’ green is, however, something much deeper, and it requires us to realize that we are not attuned to think green at all.

Two primary ideals in western society stop us doing so.

The first is the ascendancy of Big Biz – huge multi-national corporations which are, in effect, the main polluters of the planet. Big Biz works on a simple philosophy. This is that to continue to hold their power, ‘systems’ must be so big that only they can afford to run them.
A fossil fuel based economy is one such system. And in maintaining it, Big Biz guarantees that no other businesses – using, cleaner, more easily managed tech – can ever challenge them. Hence, their very existence demands that they cannot be eco-friendly. To be so would destroy them.

The second ideal is religious based.

Throughout the world we know of prehistoric tribes centred on animism – the idea that there is a spirit world running parallel to the physical. This based religion in nature. However, artifacts show a progression from here through the chimera – half animal, half man – to the man-god.
This shows the progression of religion changing from nature-based to society-based, as societies became more complicated, its final expression being monotheism. Hence, for the last 2000 years at least, our entire thought processes have been societal, ignoring the importance of nature, which was fundamental to the first religions.
To think green is, therefore, alien to both our present economic systems, and our very processes of thought. Maybe be need to redress this non-eco mentality before we can truly say we are ‘green’, with the future of the planet uppermost in our minds.

© Anthony North, April 2008

REPORT OF THE INTERGALACTIC COMMITTEE MEETING ON EARTHLY VIRUSES

The delegates chose on imminent actions,
for them there would be no distractions;
as one voice they were all foresworn,
no splinter would there, here, be born;
The ecology of Earth they knew could molder,
unless the decisions made were bolder;
The future for them, it was votive,
determined to wipe out that Earth-bound motive;
Throughout it’s life, a nature hate,
did arise to punctuate,
the beautiful nature of Earth’s plan;
With their desires, they sealed their fate,
for the total
unconditional
eradication
of man

(c) Anthony North, April 2008

Posted in Diary of a Writer, Environment, How To, Poetry, Society, Sunday Scribblings | 37 Comments »

TT #6 - HOW TO SAVE THE PLANET

Posted by anthonynorth on April 9, 2008

READ MY ULTIMATE MAGAZINE POST - Something posted most days - keep visiting!
What’s on today: A post inspired by the Thursday Thirteen meme. Everything you wanted to know about saving the planet. Click Eye On the World for my current affairs.
YOU KNOW IT’S THE WRITE WAY

INTRODUCTION

Well, it’s THursday THirteen time again, and for this week’s episode, I thought I’d look at environmentalism, and see what steps we really need to take to save the planet. After all, the subject is in a muddle at times.
My answers may surprise you - they may even be wrong. But I hope it adds to the debate, and gives a few ideas about the way forward. Provided, that is, you think there IS an environmental problem. I do.

COUNTDOWN

13. See your future as a countdown. After all, with all the pollution, climate change and general detritus, the clock’s ticking.

12. Forget the doomsters who say it’s all gonna end in disaster. If the news is too bleak, people turn off - after all, what can YOU do?

11. Forget banning things, like cars, fun, etc. Those who demand such a thing usually have a political agenda above their environmentalism.

10. Play the eco-game as much as you can - recycle, save energy, etc. It makes you feel good. But don’t believe business and politicians are serious here. This is just cosmetics to make you think they’re interested.

9. No, to really save the planet, you’ve got to go out of environmentalism and understand the ’system’ that’s doing all the damage.

8. So what is that ’system’? Most think it’s capitalism, but it isn’t. True capitalism is a fair way of life. The problem is a multi-national run consumer society. This is empire-building, and you, and nature, are suffering because of it.

7. The ’system’ is said to not be an ideology. Don’t believe it. It is. It’s an ideology creating a few mega-organisations, and billions of serfs. That’s you, guys.

6. To save the planet, start with the politicians. All major political parties are funded by Big Biz, so they always put Big Biz before nature, and also before you!

5. Start mass movements to demand Independent politicians, divorced from Big Biz. Start local, and build up to national. Make it a media issue that we don’t need - don’t want! - political parties any more.

4. Understand that Big Biz only exists because of big ’systems’. Fossil fuels need big systems to maintain them, and only big Big Biz can afford this. The ’system’ therefore guarantees they will never be challenged.

3. They CAN be challenged. Encourage a new breed of entrepreneur who’s prepared to look at tech that’s been on the drawing board for decades, but is ignored because it doesn’t need big systems.

2. This tech includes better means of harnessing wind, solar and hydro power; innovative battery storage of electricity; cermanic engine tech for a new breed of aircraft; ground effect vessels that skim across water as fast as a plane; and eco-cars that can perform as well as present models.

1. All the above tech is eco-friendly, and does not need big systems, so Big Biz will be destroyed, replaced by a new system of smaller businesses which, as well as anything else, would be more accountable to you. And you’d live in an eco-friendly world whilst still having a car, travel, utilities and a capitalist system.
But would a new breed of politician and entrepreneur save the planet? Well, forget about saving the planet. The planet will always survive until the sun has burnt its last. We’re the thing at risk?

© Anthony North, April 2008

SAVE ME, PLEASE

Save me please, I’ve got a disease,
I think it’s called Man;
I am an animal, and we all have to scramble,
from our habitat so you can have Spam;
You destroy our calm, so you can farm,
and your denials are all flim flam;
You come and poach, and hunters you coach,
and with your rifle you go ‘bang!’
You really should stop, for nature will top
your efforts when it goes ‘wham’;
And then we’ll have fun, ‘cos we’ll have won,
and you won’t have time to say ‘damn’!

(c) Anthony North, April 2008

Posted in Environment, How To, Lists, Poetry, Thursday Thirteen | 38 Comments »

THE NEW INTELLECT

Posted by anthonynorth on March 26, 2008

city-and-bridge.jpg Following Newton the universe was seen as a mechanistic concept. Like a machine, actions in the universe were predictable and answerable to a simple set of laws. So complete was this picture that towards the end of the 19th century scientists were predicting the end of science, for all the questions were nearly answered.
Such a view is intransigently stuck to by many scientists today. There are still factors to be answered, but they say they are on the right track and it is only a matter of time before all is revealed. But this is dogma. The reality is very different.

PARTICLE PHYSICS

Rather than being a predictable machine, quantum theory, which arose from theorising on the existence of the subatomic particle, tells a different story. Enshrined in the idea is the ‘uncertainty principle’.
Fundamental to this well accepted principle is the fact that a particle cannot be observed in its natural state. So small that they cannot be seen, you can only gain evidence of their existence by observing the reaction upon the particle by a bombardment of light.
Seeing light is, itself, made of particles, this reaction is the result of, not its natural state, but its bombardment. As particles are the fundamental building blocks of the universe, then the foundations of existence are forever shrouded in uncertainty.
Later theorists came to the conclusion that the natural state of the particle is probabilistic, in that until it is observed it can be in any state possible. This point is further complicated when we ask how this probabilistic state becomes definite through observation.
The most widely accepted answer is that it is the act of observation itself which turns probability into a definite. In other words, fundamental to the state of the observable universe is the act of observation by a consciousness capable of defining a definite from a probability.

RELATIVITY

This techno-Hinduism suggests that the universe is anything but a predictable machine. And the plot thickens when we look at Albert Einstein’s ‘relativity theory’. Fundamental to the theory are two points. First of all, nothing in the universe is at rest.
Rather, everything moves. Hence, there is no static place in the universe from which to measure it. The second point is a simple one - light travels, and can only travel, at a constant speed throughout the universe.
This means that wherever we are in the universe, we will always measure the same constant speed of light. But the problem is this: how can the speed of light always be constant if, at different points or states in the universe, the observer is travelling at different speeds?
The answer is that, dependent upon the speed you are travelling, time slows down to compensate for the constant speed of light. And the closer you get to travelling at the speed of light yourself, the more time slows down to compensate. Hence, the speed of light becomes relative to the state of the observer.

ENIGMATIC UNIVERSE

These concepts are at odds with the dogma of science. The universe is an enigmatic concept where consciousness can manipulate the universe and the actions of the universe can differ dependent upon the state of the observer.
As for the reality of the universe itself, it is forever locked out of understanding, existing in a probabilistic state. So what can we say about our state of knowledge and psychology today?
This history has followed human intellectual endeavour from early religious forms, through the great religious movements, their death in the Enlightenment, and the growing primacy of reason. One thing that becomes clear is that none of the systems of thought devised by man have been totally satisfactory.

INTELLECTUAL INFECTION

They have failed - and continue to fail - to answer who we are, what we are, or why we are here, other than a means of identity through local mythology based on individual cultures.
As soon as science and reason took over the reins of knowledge from religion, they too followed the same road of descending into cultural expressions from fascism to the present primacy of the scientific ethos of genetics.
And what must be remembered is that intellectualism, whether religious or scientific, always filters down to affect the society to which it belongs.

THE INDIVIDUAL AND GLOBALISATION

And so to today, and the scientific reality that the universe is without true explanation and devoid of certainty. Thus, filtering down to society, the same degree of uncertainty exists regarding who or what we are.
Hence, the only certainty we can grasp is that we exist in our individuality. The individual exists because we can see our reflection in the mirror. And to intellectualise further is to become uncertain, and our individualistic egos cannot take that, so we glory in our individual selves.
Into this world came globalisation and the multi-national, feeding our individuality and creating a world of sameness where identity doesn’t seem to matter - and our institutions, our families, our gender roles, our nation states, collapse.
They collapse because they are above our individuality and must be suspect; must be uncertain, perhaps, even untrue.

SOCIAL GLUE

But whether true or not, they are the glue, the cultural adhesive, of society, and without them only anarchy can truly rule in the end. Religions may not be an exact truth as was once thought, but in creating religions to bolster the institutions of society, they kept us together in our communities and offered guidance for life.
To leave them behind for the onward march of science and its spin-off, the multi-national, is to lose the sense of who we are. And in this realisation, the root of our psychologlcal ills is found.
So what sort of world does this predominance of individuality really leave us? Next to religion, the predominant institution that defined who we are is class. In one sense, this history identifies this with every society and every worldview being toppled by revolution to define the power of the class structure.
Today, class revolution has removed class to the point where the institution can no longer define our place, leaving ideology behind and problem-solving as the only occupation of government.

PROBLEM SOLVING

Most people would say this leads to a safer world, but we must remember this history. When the Roman Empire got to this stage, with ideology gone and problem-solving the only task, it disintegrated.
So, too, the Islamic empires. So, too, Christendom. And if war had not broken them, so would Napoleonic and Nazi Europe, and the Communist states that followed. Basically, when problem-solving becomes predominant, society is really on the point of fundamental transition.
This is because they destroy local identity and place a sameness on everything. And if this is correct, the onward march of globalisation as presently defined, bolstered, as it is, by our fear of facing anything above our individuality, could be sending us straight back to this repeatable error of history. So maybe we should look once more at our seemingly innocuous globalism and question it.

DIVERSITY

It is all to do with diversity - the way of nature and the road of evolution . Neither could have been successful without diversity, which is, of course, the very opposite of the mono-culture being devised by globalisation.
Without diversity - without alternatives - evolution would not have occurred, so it is fair to say that without diversity, the evolution of society can do nothing but cease.
Of course, such a resurgence of local identity providing diversity could well lead to antagonisms between nations and races, but surely this is the lesser evil to ceasing the evolutionary process through complacency?
And haven’t we yet grown up enough to find answers to these problems through cooperation as opposed to integration? Diversity CAN work with people finding identity in their local culture, yet also being tolerant of other ideas and aware that no one can ever be really right in the truths they utter.
Such a new world could allow the person to be secure in his individuality yet still connected to a local identity, and from here, be equally aware that he is a global man. Yet into this equation we must also remember that many advances, such as the European empire building, began when a particular society becomes bored with its achievements and wanted to move in directions new.

THE NEW FRONTIER

Applying such an idea to today, there appears to be nothing more to do on planet Earth.
Yet, in answering this, let us remember that day in April 1961 when Yuri Gagarin completed the first orbit of Earth. In July 1969 Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. A world apart in technological terms, but remarkably similar to that time when Columbus walked on the New World.
Is space the new frontier? If so, remember Armstrong’s words: ‘A great leap for mankind’. Not America. For mankind!
There is yet much to explore, still much for multi-nationals and hi-tech to achieve away from the trivia of consumerism, so perhaps man DOES have a future. And as long as he has a future, he will also have a history. For man will still be around to read about it.

(c) Anthony North, March 2008

Click History of Man on Blogroll for more posts in this series

spaceman.jpg

Posted in Culture, Environment, History, Life, Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Science, Society, Space, Thoughts | No Comments »

THE PLANET SPEAKS

Posted by anthonynorth on March 25, 2008

WELCOME TO GREEN SCENE - The magazine post on the Environment
What’s on: A post inspired by a ReadWritePoem prompt. Have you had a go yet? … PLUS … Lots of links to posts of interest. After reading the main feature, why not come back when it’s quiet? This is a magazine, not just a post!
SAVE THE PLANET - Or you’ll be sorry!

earth-fragment.jpg

THE PLANET SPEAKS

I am! I exist! There was light and all,
and then there was life, bold and tall;
Maybe it was God, or a primeval stew,
that placed the heavenly breath in you

No matter how I really exist,
I’m here to thrive, and always persist;
You think I’m a mother, caring and true,
but I’m also an avenger, it’s true

I thrive because of diversity,
for every which way, life will be,
From oceans to land, and air you are,
creatures and plants, with nothing to marr

The beauty of this jewel in an otherwise dark space,
an expression of life as a delicate lace;
Always in balance, as it should be,
expressed as being in harmony

Until those damned humans began to build,
technology; and to run it, for oil you drilled;
Then came pollution and CO2
turning the air into a putrid glue

Sunlight trapped, warming the sky,
and slowly the life I love begins to fry;
Your industries spew their heinous brew,
weakening life! Oh! do I hate you!

My diversity you attack. No restrain,
everything wanting to be the same;
From society, to religion, and nature, too,
nothing can be different, or good, or true

But there may be a simple shock in store,
for sameness and pollution, I abhor;
I get even! I survive, I always do,
in the end you’re only harming you

Of that there is absolutely no doubt,
slowly, slowly, you WILL die out;
I might even start to degrade your sperm,
after all,
that’s the best way,
to treat a germ

(c) Anthony North, March 2008

******************************

globe.jpg

GREEN SCENE

INTRODUCTION

Green Scene is an occasional magazine post on the environment. Here, you will find links to some of the posts in my archives. Always relevant, it will feature the latest news comment and theories of mine on the environment.
We are told that we must save the planet. This is, infact, totally wrong. The planet, and nature within it, will always survive in some form. The danger is not to the planet, but us. Being eco-friendly protects ourselves.

tree.jpgFROM THE ARCHIVES

Pollution - The facts behind the problem, and what it means.

The First Spirits - An examination of ancient religion and nature.

shop.jpg

BIG BIZ

The main threat to the environment comes from Big Biz. Slaved to fossil fuels and big ’systems’, the culture they produce is ravaging the planet, and leaving us with lives that are little more than serfdom.
There is another way. Encourage smaller businesses. As well as being more accountable to you, they could use ‘new tech’ which is friendly to the environment. Big Biz, we all lose. Small Biz, we all win.

Posted in Diary of a Writer, Environment, Green Scene, Poetry | 12 Comments »

THE WEATHER

Posted by anthonynorth on February 25, 2008

WELCOME TO GREEN SCENE - the Magazine Post on the Environment
What’s on today: A poem inspired by a ReadWritePoem prompt. Have you had a go yet?
… PLUS … a few essays on Green issues from my archives. Enjoy.
SAVE THE PLANET - or you’ll be sorry!

hurricane.jpg
THE WEATHER

We love our weather, it’s no joke,
without it we’d most likely choke;
There’d be no air without the weather,
best to keep it, for our endeavour

In many places, it’s taken for granted,
usually where the same climate’s planted;
but in my Britain, it goes from sunny to bleak,
that’s why about it, we often speak

The atmosphere is the key to it all,
Earth has gravity so it don’t fall;
It orbits the sun, our friendly star,
not too near, and not too far

If closer the air would burn away,
animals and plants wouldn’t be able to stay;
Further away, and the air would freeze,
that would be chilly, if you please

Forecasters tell about the weather each day,
although at times I think they prey;
We’re often suspicious of what they’re selling,
it’s no better than fortune telling

Climate can affect our mood,
when electro-magnetic waves intrude;
they affect our mind, can make us morose,
it’s no coincidence in storms we see ghosts

The weather gets worse as the planet warms,
bringing those evil, vicious storms;
Cars and factories spew carbon out,
of climate change, there’s little doubt

Apocalypse can be our eventual fate,
beware of this before it’s too late,
comets and bombs, those nasty things,
nuclear winter comes on angel’s wings

So know the weather, it’s our friend,
unless we abuse it, for it can lend,
a different world we can’t defend;
We’d have to call it, then,
the end

(c) Anthony North, February 2008

book.jpgFROM MY ARCHIVES

ECOLOGY

We are aware that we should be Green - that we are polluting the environment and heating up the world, but many people have little understanding of ecology and the science behind many green issues …
read more

GREEN REVOLUTION

A lot of people have heard of the Green Revolution, but few know what it is. Even when a person does know of it, it is unlikely they know the implications of the subject. Here, in the raw, are the facts, and the implications …
read more

Posted in Environment, Green Scene, Poetry | 15 Comments »

GLOBAL WARMING BACKLASH

Posted by anthonynorth on January 22, 2008

WELCOME TO GREEN SCENE - the Magazine Post on the Environment
What’s on today: Scepticism concerning man-made global warming is gathering steam - unfortunately … PLUS … a few essays on Green issues from my archives. Enjoy.
SAVE THE PLANET - or you’ll be sorry!

delta-sun-2.jpgGLOBAL WARMING BACKLASH

A movement against man-made global warming seems to be growing on the internet, and I think it will gather steam. Reasons seem to vary.
On the one hand, many westerners fear the politics is an attempt to redistribute wealth to the Third World, whilst others think it is an attempt to reintroduce ‘collectivism’ - the new socialism.

In doing so, they’re naturally only looking to the evidence, and conclusions, they want.

Thus, man-made global warming becomes an absolute scientific lie, and we’re all being hoodwinked by a dictatorial consensus.
Now normally I hate the idea of consensus. But maybe this is the exception that proves the rule. But just what is the science? Well, it’s a concept, and a concept can never offer an absolute truth.

Global warming is about probability and long term trends.

Even the IPCC only give it a 70% probability. Similarly, long term trends have chaotic short term variations. Hence there will be periods of cooling within the trends –which are greedily picked up by skeptics.
My commonsense approach to man-made global warming is that the probability is high enough to take sensible precautions just in case. So what should we do about the skeptics?
Maybe realize that it is about politics, which has two sides. By doing so, we realize that the move against warming is more to do with countering characters such as Al Gore, who certainly has me worried. Not about warming, but political opportunism.

© Anthony North, January 2008

book3.jpgFROM THE ARCHIVES

PIGGY IN THE MIDDLE

Ecology is different to science in that it is holistic in nature. What do we mean by this? And does it hold a lesson for science itself …
read here

VANDALS OF THE PAST

Industrialists often claim that their damage to the environment is a process people have always indulged in. Even in the past, people caused environmental havoc. Is this true? Even if it is, can it be excused? Indeed, did it have a purpose …
read here

Posted in Diary of a Writer, Environment, Green Scene, Life, THE WORLD, Thoughts | 29 Comments »

FORGET THE DOOMSTERS

Posted by anthonynorth on January 11, 2008

WELCOME TO GREEN SCENE - the Magazine Post on the Environment
What’s on today: As an anti-global warming lobby grows, let’s not let them use incorrect doom and gloom from the past … PLUS … Are we really advancing technologically? What is bio-diversity?
SAVE THE PLANET - or you’ll be sorry!

hurricane.jpgFORGET THE DOOMSTERS

I’ve recently had cause to be reminded of all the doom and gloom predictions concerning the environment and global warming from the 1970s. The reason I’m reminded is that an anti-global warming lobby is gaining ground.
Predictably, they are looking back to those predictions too, and rubbishing the entire subject because of them. And the simple fact is, those predictions of catastrophe haven’t happened, and arguably it would not be that bad anyway.

We need to rationalize just why those predictions were made.

And the first obvious point is that, whatever the subject, the fanatics and nutcases will thrive. This has been the case throughout history.
But these are the exceptions. Most people involved in any one subject are moderate, their ideas sensible, their arguments rounded and compelling. But there is one major problem regarding their message.

The media is not interested in them.

When a new idea is born – when new evidence presents itself of a major change in knowledge – the media is only interested in the sensational. This is the way they sell their product, which is their main concern.
And because of this, the fanatics always seem to rule, and the message is taken totally out of proportion. As the anti-global warming lobby grows, we should remember this as they laugh at those ridiculous doomsters.
But also remember this. The media likes the sensational. So maybe the extreme global warming sceptic is simply repeating the process, giving us only the extreme view, while the majority remain moderate, and sensible.

© Anthony North, January 2008

book2.jpgFROM THE ARCHIVES

STAGNANT TECH

We are told we live in the technological age. Throughout the modern world, technology seems to make life more comfortable, and inventions appear almost daily to increase our survivability and quality of life. But just how advanced IS this technological world? Further, could the entire idea behind this tech be purposely held back, and in being so, affecting our chances of survival on an environmentally ravaged planet …
read more

BIO-DIVERSITY

Bio-diversity is a term to explain the huge variations in nature. It is a simple fact that neither evolution nor nature could thrive if all options were not explored. Life on Earth is the result of a mixture of all possibilities …
read more

Posted in Diary of a Writer, Environment, Green Scene, Thoughts | 5 Comments »

TONY ON SHRINKING ISLAND AND OTHER NEWS

Posted by anthonynorth on December 28, 2007

THOUGHTS FROM A COMMON MAN
News ands comment LATEST: Britain facing increased floods danger … PLUS … Tyranny of Christmas SOAPs. How to save Anglicanism. The McCann circus is getting out of hand.
POSTED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY - from a real voice of Britain and the world.

delta-sky.jpgA SHRINKING ISLAND

Some devastating results are coming out regarding the future of Britain – and I don’t just mean the changes in society. No, Britain is under attack by more than people and ideas. It’s under attack from water.
The estimated rise in sea levels over this century have increased to some five feet. The effects will be devastating on Britain’s coastline, already under assault as cliffs crumble and the size of the country shrinks.

But this is not the only problem.

The floods in the summer of 2007 showed a stark new danger. In recent years Britain has suffered from rivers bursting their banks, but the latest flood came from the ground itself being unable to soak up the deluge.
As in the Biblical Flood, the water table flowed up onto the land. Costing 13 lives, it wrecked 48,000 homes and cost billions. One city even became an island, and a wrecked infrastructure left sewage and chemicals swirling about our streets.

We are woefully unprepared for this in Britain.

And it seems to me that the government is doing little about it. The reason for this is obvious – what CAN they do without a major rethink of how we do things?
This is something that many countries will eventually have to face. At present, western society is thinking ‘big’, with things centralized. The only answer is to think ‘small’, and delegate more and more to the local.
If we don’t, a major natural disaster will spread through the system and finish us. Only with smaller, and local, infrastructures can we survive the coming storm.

© Anthony North, December 2007

SOAPY CHRISTMAS

Christmas Day TV in the UK was typical, with films most of the day and mostly SOAPs in the early evening. Indeed, if not for the incredible Doctor Who, most people would have had three hours of SOAPs to contend with …
read more

SAVE THE CHURCH

Ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair has converted to Catholicism. It appears this is a typical move by this self-publicising politician. Why do I say this? Because Catholicism has just become the leading Christian Church in Britain …
read more

THE McCANN CIRCUS

The McCann circus goes on – and on, and on, and on. I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of it. Indeed, as soon as poor Madeleine went missing, I had the feeling it would go this way …
read more

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Posted in Environment, Life, News, Society, Thoughts, Tony On | 6 Comments »

TONY ON ECO-BUSINESS AND OTHER NEWS

Posted by anthonynorth on December 11, 2007

THOUGHTS FROM A COMMON MAN
News and comment LATEST: Is business finally moving towards the environment? … PLUS … Shops get nervous this Christmas. Time for change in Anglican Church.
POSTED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY – from a real voice of Britain and the world

delta-sky.jpgBUSINESS AND ENVIRONMENT

Plans are to be soon unveiled to build 7,000 windmills off the British coast, providing enough power to run all British homes by 2020. Sainsbury’s supermarkets, meanwhile, are beginning moves to replace the tin can.
In its place will eventually be a rectangular carton made from wood pulp. It will save on transport costs by being lighter and taking less space, and will be recyclable. I don’t know whether these are fully sensible measures, but they seem so.
But how far will they go? Does it mean business and government are fully committed to the eco-message, or will both projects end up as publicity stunts to convince people they really do care? Only the former will do. When you shop, tell them that.

© Anthony North, December 2007

CHRISTMAS CASH CRUNCH

Stores in Britain are slashing prices, issuing money-off vouchers and extending hours as they fear the worst Christmas spend-fest in over 25 years. As the economy begins its slide, businesses are panicking …
read more

CHANGE THE ANGLICAN CHURCH

John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, has cut up his dog collar and is refusing to wear it again until Mugabe is no longer president of Zimbabwe. What a wonderful Archbishop he is, but what’s he doing in the Church of England …
read more

Click Diary of a Writer. Meet me, up close and personal.

Posted in Environment, Life, News, Society, Thoughts, Tony On | 2 Comments »

GREEN SCENE - Issue One

Posted by anthonynorth on December 8, 2007

WELCOME TO GREEN SCENE - the Magazine Post on the Environment
In this issue: Counter force to man-made global warming gathering pace … PLUS … All about saving endangered species. What’s pollution all about, then?
SAVE THE PLANET - or you’ll be sorry!

earth-fragment.jpgHOT AIR AT BALI?

The Global Warming Conference at Bali is well under way, with the United Nations attempting to set the roadmap for the agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol. And as I take a look around the blogosphere, the counter-movement to climate change is gathering pace.
Many people are beginning to reject global warming as man-made, preferring climate change as a natural cycle, or not at all. This is for several reasons. First of all, they say the science is not good enough.

This is quite true.

Science can never prove any concept absolutely. Even the IPCC only give man-made effects a 70% probability. But to me, that is enough to provide caution, suggesting we get on with the job of lowering emissions.
But most of all, people are beginning to distrust the UN, sure that a conspiracy is afoot to place a political agenda on global warming and redistribute wealth from the Developed to the Third World.
Sadly, this IS an intention of the UN. There is no conspiracy involved. Thus, people’s suspicions are maybe correct. But surely this should mean we should work harder to remove the environment from politics, and not just reject a danger out of political spite?

(c) Anthony North, December 2007

POLLUTION

Most people think of pollution in terms of the smog of the 19th century, or low-lying ozone from car exhausts, leaving a summer haze over cities. Alternatively, they are aware of the rise of asthma, possibly due to pollution. But the problem is much worse …
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WHERE HAVE ALL THE ANIMALS GONE?

The planet is facing a massive reduction in animal species. Almost daily, some species becomes extinct. Some of our most beautiful animals are in danger of extinction. We occasionally raise a campaign or two to try to ease the problem, but it doesn’t seem to be doing much good …
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