4ecotips.com

IS KATRINA A HOLY OMEN?

We all know except, perhaps, for Born-again-Dubbya, that God works in “mysterious ways his miracles to perform.” So Archie Bishop Jnr, the UK’s leading sceptic on these things, points out that maybe “Katrina’s devastating attendance recently in the Southern States is the Heavenly Host’s way of redressing the balance” for the President’s ill-conceived meddling in the Middle East, plus his lack of concern for the planet’s physical well-being.

Archie thinks “the unfortunate loss of American life under the hurricane’s powerful presence is the Lord’s way of beginning to redress the balance for the loss of life in Iraq and elsewhere at US’s hands.”

Archie also firmly believes that the good Lord is “hiding behind global warming as his weapon of mass destruction” that will get us all in the end! But, possibly, the Americans first!

Not surprisingly, more hurricane’s are planned for the months ahead!

FAT ASSED AMERICANS (AND OTHERS) TO BE BANNED FROM FLYING?

The ever-expanding nether regions of many American citizens are causing airlines to burn more fuel in take off to compensate for the extra weight they are carrying. Consequently, fat assessed Yankees are making their unwanted contribution to greater CO2 emissions!

And that’s beside the safety factor. Excessive weight is said to be a key factor in the crash of a small jet in North Carolina killing 21 people.

Air travel is already one of the greatest, worldwide contributors to global warming, so we can do without any additional factors to exacerbate this situation.

The US Federal Aviation Administration has just revised its guidelines to carriers on how to calculate the weight they are carrying, taking into account that Americans are getting fatter.

Because fat people lie about their weight or are too embarrassed to own up, the FAA has added 8% to a male and 18% to a female in an attempt to ensure that the centre of gravity, takeoff speed and fuel needs for planes can be more accurately estimated.

But surely the best and only logical solution is to ban all Americans (and other nationalities for that matter) who are over a certain weight from flying – full stop.

This would be good for the airlines and good for those obese individuals who, if they want to travel by air, will be encouraged to get their bodies down to an acceptable size.

IF THE KYOTO SABOTEURS HAVE THEIR WAY WE'LL SURELY FRY!

So, America, Australia, China and India are to do their own climate change thing! Under a secret agreement between the four of them they are bucking the Kyoto Protocol and striking out on their own with a technology-based initiative.

There’s never been a more unlikely quartet of bedfellows. Not so many years ago the US and China were daggers drawn over the latter’s threat to engulf Taiwan. India’s dislike of Chine rumbles on and all that Australia has to do is cork the bums of its billion-or-so farting sheep.

Alexander Downer, Australia’s Foreign Minister, is on record as saying: “It’s our view that you really need to focus on technological change to solve climate change. And you have to involve the major developing countries which are very substantial CO2 emitters. So having India and China involved in this process is very good at this stage and it’s just the beginning!”

Well, Downer might think that. But to have any effect at all on global warming surely we all have to sing from the song sheet. And certainly not America’s!

George Monbiot, the environmental campaigner and writer summed it up. He said: “I’ve never heard such a patination of bunkum as I’ve heard issuing from the mouth of Alexander Downer.

“It’s a deliberate attempt to subvert and undermine the Kyoto Protocol. Last year work began on hammering out a new Treaty that would bring in China and India. But the US, supported by Australia, systematically sabotaged and destroyed any attempt to deliver such a Treaty.

“So to then turn round and say we can’t sign on to this because India and China aren’t playing, suggests a brass neck five inches thick!”

Monbiot is 100% right. If reducing CO2 emissions is not going to happen under the Kyoto treaty, it’s certainly doesn’t stand a chance under the AACI treaty. He’s so damned right when he says that we have got to see emissions cut by between 80% - 90% by 2030.

What we really need is a whole new step change in government commitment at an international level. Otherwise, we will fry!

ELIMINATE VAT FROM ENERGY EFFICIENT HOME IMPROVEMENTS AND PRODUCTS

It seems as though becoming more energy efficient at home and doing one’s bit for climate change is likely to increase UK householder’s tax liabilities. The government’s Valuation Office has confirmed that, in future, home improvements may push properties into a higher council tax band!

At the most important time in Earth's history, this is no way to encourage people to be more energy efficient and eco-friendly. The government should be thoroughly encouraging home improvements, especially those which favour energy conservation and contribute towards controlling global warming.

At the moment, just about the only efficiency measure that helps reduce CO2 emissions and consequently qualifies for a tax concession is home insulation. It’s exempt from VAT.

The government should be looking at and creating special tax incentives across the board spectrum of home improvements so that homeowners will reap the financial as well as the running cost saving and energy efficiency benefits of making their homes greener.

Even gas condensing boilers – the most efficient means around to generate domestic heat and hot water – are subject to VAT.

Come on Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer it hs to be better to sacrifice a few billion pounds on reducing or totally eliminating VAT on effective energy saving measures, in favour of a healthier, more eco-friendly environment that will help our planet survive and prosper.

After all, Mr Chancellor, you know that what you lose to the climate change merrigoround you are bound to make up for on the swingingboats of fiscal manipulation.

GULLIBLE GEORGE LOSES HIS PRIME CO2 MISLEADER

Parhaps the world can expect a significant change in White House attitude to global warming now that President Bush's prime misleader, Philip Cooney, has taken a job with oil giant ExxonMobil which was obviously pulling his strings. Cooney was White House chief of staff and a confidant of gullible George.

Cooney's departure comes soon after it was revealed that he had "doctored" scientific papers on climate change and played up uncertainties in important literature relating to global warming. A former worker for the American Petroleum Institute, Cooney's "vested interest" in keeping the oil profile riding high may have cost humanity dearly in terms of delaying the US reduction of carbon emissions.

Greenpeace's US research director, Kert Davies, says: "The cynical way to look at this is that ExxonMobil has removed its sleeper cell from the White House and extracted him back to the mother ship."

If Cooney's censorship capers hadn't been rumbled there's no telling where the knock-on effect of his misleading advice to the President and his aides could have taken us!

Now, Mr Born-again-Christian President, hopefully you will put Satan's disciple Cooney behind you and consider global warming for the highly volatile problem that it really is!

ARE TODAY’S CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S TOMORROW’S KILLERS?

Thousands of chief executives are holding up their company’s progress towards greener ways of working because they are more interested in delivering profits for shareholders than investing in vital, environmentally friendly practices . As a result, crucial environmental issues that could help save the planet for future generations are not being addressed by the vast majority of people who run our businesses and control the purse strings.

Speaking at a seminar about how companies can best use today’s carbon management principles to greater advantage, Francis Rottenburg of the UK Carbon Trust, said: “Each year the Carbon Trust invites, amongst others, all of the FTSE 100 companies chief executives to a special, state-of-the-art lecture on the serious implications of global warming. And each year as few as three turn up!”

Chief executives of companies worldwide have it within their power to make a tremendous contribution to reducing carbon emissions and, therefore, play a major part in securing tolerable conditions for future generations.

If chief executives don’t stand up to their shareholders and divert a regular percentage of profits towards anti-global warming measures, then they must take some considerable responsibility for the hardship and suffering that inevitably will befall future generations of mankind because our planet’s ecosystems can no longer cope!

MAKING MONEY WHILE THE SUNSHINES

Global warming doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom, writes Andrew Leech. We can all make it work to our advantage even if that simply means saving energy and reducing our home running costs.

But really, climate change is fostering a new age of invention and a good many individuals and companies around the world are already taking up the challenge. For instance, car manufacturers are all seeking new, environmentally friendly ways to propel their new models. So they are busy trying out revolutionary motors that may soon put the oil sheiks and barons out of business - and not before time.

Only the other day I had an enquiry from some one with a relative in India. He’s a man of modest means but feels he can make his contribution to reducing global warming by providing energy via photovoltaic solar cells for friends and neighbours in his neck of the Indian woods.

So he is aiming to establish contact with solar cell manufacturers and start up a local business based on this technology which could very well make him a wealthy man.

That’s just one area of opportunity.

There’s thousands of others just waiting to be discovered and developed. For instance the British government has issued a heatwave warning booklet and from this alone there could be thousands of spin offs for people who can turn a concept into concrete a proposition.

Such as mini, solar-powered cooling fans for mothers with babies and for the frail and elderly. Then there’s effective shutters and blinds to keep the sun’s hot rays out and the cooler, pleasant air in.

Wind power is taking off. Yet there is only a handful of UK manufacturers to meet a domestic demand that could be quite staggering as time goes by. Then there is the need for efficient and effective retro water recycling systems. The sort that a householder just needs to “plug in and go”.

So where are the Trevor Baylis’s of climate change? Quite honestly the opportunities are endless. So why make a meal out of global warming when you could make a furtune and all in a very good cause.

www.4ecotips.com would love to hear what you are thinking and doing?

IT'S TIME FOR JOHN HUMPHRYS TO GO

This morning on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, presenter John Humphry's once again displayed his ineptitude as a serious interviewer. He should know by now that talking across a conversation just doesn't work on radio, nor anywhere else come to that matter.

Humphrys killed a great opportunity to corner Alan Milburn, New Labour's election campaign guru, by constantly interrupting! Consequently, from the listeners' point of view (after all they are the ones who count) it was a total waste of air time as no one could ever have made sense out of the cacophany.

Such aggressive interviewing gets nowhere. Yet messrs Naughtie, Montague and Quinn also think it's par for the course. They should all take a leaf from Ed Stourton's book, back off a bit and get results.

Humphrys, however, must go back to school and refesh his broadcasting etiquette then perhaps we can all enjoy the Today programme once more and respect its presenters.

Should Paula Radcliffe be damned or Damed?

Has the Metropolitan Police missed a trick or two? Surely Paula Radcliffe should be severely reprimanded, or even prosecuted, for such an indecent act on our public highway and in full view of millions of television viewers around the world!

Peeing in the gutter might be OK in France, but it’s just not British!

Before we know where we are we’ll have all sorts of week-bladdered ladies on their way to Tescos or wherever, squatting at any convenient spot to unrinate. It’s just not on, and has probably killed any aspirations for the 2012 Olympics being staged in the UK!

Just think, if every Marathon runner in London on Sunday had stopped by the roadside for a pee our gutters would soon have been awash!

Back in 1910 my grandfather was caught peeing up against the wheel of his horse and cart by a single person! He was very quickly hauled up before the local beak and received a hefty fine of 2s 6p for displaying his todger on the highway.

So should Paula Radcliffe be damned or Damed?

THE FUTURE’S NOT A PRETTY PROSPECT!

When the first recipients of the UK Child Foundation Trust - the government’s new £250 hand out to infants – collect the invested proceeds in 18 years time, we’ll be well on the way to Armageddon. Or something just as disastrous!

Even if all the ingredients for a less volatile future were sprung into operation tomorrow there is still likely to be a major fall out from the current worldwide procrastinations on global warming. Some would even say we have already reached the point of no return!

So why bother taking steps now to adjust our present lifestyles to accommodate the welfare of future generations?

Well, there is such a thing as obligation. Give or take a war or two and the current wave of terrorism we, certainly those of us in the west, have had it pretty good for the last few decades. In fact, it’s because we’ve had it so good that the global climate is in deep recession!

Surely we owe it to those who’ve gone before who helped us get to where we are today plus those who are still to come, to try and get to grips with our present existence and create a positive understanding what’s to be done in the world today.

When future generations in their billions are crammed into the northern and southern most corners of Earth’s northern and southern hemispheres because they can’t survive the rising sea levels and rising temperatures in their native homelands, they’ll certainly be wondering why we took so long to change our ways!

So let’s get weaving and do something positive that’s going to save the future from the shortcomings and selfishness of the present!

ENDS

WASTEFUL BRITS NEED A LESSON IN ENERGY SAVING

The recent British Gas survey which concluded that the inhabitants of these sceptred isles waste billions each year on lost energy just about sums up the scale of the problem we have to deal with if global warming is not going to totally consume us.

Like charity, saving our planet begins at home so why don’t we turn off those unnecessary lights and turn down the thermostat a notch or two. We could all think about walking more and leaving the car behind for a change.

Saving energy and thus helping to reduce CO2 is not rocket science, it’s common sense and needs very little effort. It costs nothing but can save a fortune.

A little action now will save billions of lives in the future. But perhaps we are all so blinkered that we are only interested in here and now?

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HARRY’S MORE POPULAR THAN PLANET’S ECO-SYSTEM

While the press around the world are having a field day with young Harry’s Nazi indiscretion, the desperate plight of our planet’s eco-system gets little or no mention. Yet each day that passes without people being reminded of there responsibilities to Mother Earth is another nail in her coffin.

Yesterday evening, BBC2’s Horizon programme drew attention to another life-threatening phenomenon for future generations called “global dimming”. Scientists looking at five decades of sunlight measurements have reached the disturbing conclusion threat the amount of solar energy reaching the Earth’s surface has been gradually falling.

This decline in solar gain could mean that global warming is a lot greater threat to the future of mankind than was previously estimated.

Dr Peter Cox, one of the world’s leading climate modellers, says this is bad news. He reckons we are going to be in a situation, unless we act, where the cooling pollutant is dropping off while the warming pollutant is going up. This means we’ll get reduced cooling and increased heating at the same time, and that’s a problem for us.

It means that within the next 100 years temperatures could rise by 10OC with catastrophic consequences. The UK would become like North Africa and equatorial regions would become uninhabitable. The ice caps would melt, the seas would rise, people would migrate north and south to find cooler climes yet there would be less landmass to accommodate them.

How many people watched the Horizon programme – about 1.5m! It should have been compulsory viewing for the entire UK population not to mention the rest of the world.

TAKE A TIP FROM 4ECOTIPS ON GLOBAL WARMING

Global warming is not simply something you read about now and again and eventually it will go away. It is, in fact, the single most important threat to mankind today and will be around for many, many years to come.

The main cause of global warming and climate change is the carbon dioxide emissions which are a direct consequence of the way we live. They are growing at an alarming rate and causing untold problems around our planet.

The ice caps are melting and the seas around our coastlines are rising. Yet in some countries lakes and rivers are drying up and becoming dust bowls. Where there is permafrost it is melting and people’s homes are collapsing. And the growing breed of hot summers are stifling people until they die.

No matter what colour or creed we are or whether we are rich or poor, it affects each one of us no matter where we live, work or play. But we all have the potential to help reverse what is happening to out planet.

4ECOTIPS.com aims to keep a close, watchful eye on global warming issues around the world. It will continue to highlight the good and the bad providers amongst the nations of the world.

It also gives ordinary people the latest positive ideas, suggestions and solutions on how to run their total households more effectively and cheaply, by saving energy, living more efficient lives and becoming more knowledgeable about the dire consequences of climate change.

RED KEN TURNS GREEN

According to a BBC report, London's mayor, Ken Livingstone, is reaching for the sun and now has solar panels added to his roof. Ken is amongst a handfull of politicians who are known to be following the green path to saving the planet. May be many others will follow suit too? On the other hand, they may consider they generate enough "hot air" as it is and therefore don't need to jump on the energy saving bandwagon?

ARE THE BRAZILIANS NUTS?

For a country that successfully hosted what was probably the first latter-day world summit on global warming in Rio in 1992, Brazil’s recent decision to lay bare even more of the Amazon Rainforest seems totally irresponsible.

These vast areas are described as the “Lungs of the Planet” because they constantly recycle carbon dioxide into oxygen. They are also home to numerous indigenous tribes who live and survive under the forest canopy, plus millions of plant species, animals and insets.

But Brazil is not a wealthy country and the major road it plans to build across the rainforest will help its economy by releasing more timber into the hands of avaricious multi-national logging companies and others who seek to expand there fortunes in this region.

Surely it’s time for the world’s wealthier nations to arrive at some financial solution to kerb this rampant destruction of our life blood by subsidising the Amazon Rainforest countries, including Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru? There are numerous wealthy individuals who could well afford to shed some of their fortunes in this direction too!