I have watched the film and read a lot of the documents-it really does put the lie to a lot of the b0ll0cks we are told as being absolute truths.
I have always thought that there was too much politics involved in the whole 'Climate change' thing.

John

Well all I say on it (working in the renewables industry) is that the Met Office has been looking at it (the weather) far longer than some of these government f-wits and even they still can't get it bluddy right.....so what chance has anyone else.........

That Burt Ratan link is excellent.

It strikes me that many of these reports are government funded research, and the only way to continue receiving funding is to give an answer that the sponsors want to hear. There is therefore a good reason to tell them what they want to hear.

Now add to that all the possibilities to either tax us for not doing as dictated (e.g. car tax on co2 output, despite them drinking more gas and so paying more tax anyway), or all the latest and greatest products to either monitor or reduce the various bad items.

Its clear to see the scale of all this. Fair play to all those that manage to make money from this, but I'm sorry, I agree with what mr Ratan says: most reports seem to either take data out of context, or select a subset of the available data.

What really winds me up is all this carbon-neutral / sustainable b0110cks.
How can it make sense to transport stuff hundreds or even thousands of miles just because its sustainable.

And the best one yet, how can it make sense to apply a landfill tax, such that people now fly-tip 100 yards from the actual rubish tip.
The whole world is f_cked up not by what we actually do, but by how the various governments try to manipulate what we do.
Iom of course ;)

Science is like religion, choose the best evidence for your particular need.

IMHO - make your own choices that are within your control.(act local, think global)

I have just signed of on our house plans, 40,000 litre fully connected rainwater tank, solar panels, full insulation package, utilising all current building and construction techniques to make it eco friendly.

It has cost a lot, but it makes me feel good having played a part being given the opportunity.

It doesn't make me feel as good as hammering through the gears on my bike....maybe that makes me Corse carbon neutral?

glad you can afford it. Most can't. And having to break the bank withkout actual factual evidence is too high a price to pay. Too many have bought the hype and, like Hollywood stars, see kudos in saving the planet.

I've said before, I'm more worried about where all the waste we produce is going to go, the rest is a far 2nd.

Sorry Bradders, missed my point, I have made a choice to afford it, as i do when i reuse and recycle, choose sustainable options etc.. It is all about individuals making a choice, nothing to do with money. I'd much rather buy another race bike?

'Make the choices that are within your control'

No one complains about airline security measures post 9/11 do they? No one would have believed the hype on the 8/11 either....

So the choice is to recycle.....which is then all shipped somewhere for landfill.

If it was as bad as some lead us to believe, ban air travel, ban any vehicle which would not met the new standards, new or old, as a start. Make produce only availiable locally, restrict distance people can travel to work or leisure and get back to local community.

In other words, take industry back 100 yrs and accept, rich or poor, surviving is enough, want no longer exists only needs.

Unfortuntely nice soundbites like act local think global mean nothing; to act too early is as bad as acting too late.

I think about it like his: I work for a company 100 yrs old. It's like making heavy financial and srategic changes for the next 100yrs based on the last 5 mins of trading. I'd be mad too, so why take decisions onthe last 100 yrs of history without thought to the prevous millions?!

Chris,

good luck with the new house.
We've recently (well still not finished) been renovating and converting an old place.

The daft thing is all the goals set, which are generally just an arbitrary figure.
All this low emissions etc takes little account of how the buildings will be used.
And if you struggle to meet the figures because, for example, you have a large glass area to make use of passive solar, you can offset this by doubling the loft insulation, regardless of whether its actually being effective or not.

We chose not to go with solar panels as the payback period is too long, and we're surounded by mature trees so they would go green (with algea) in no time at all. We do collect rainwater though. Funny thing is, the calculations show that to run the pump to pump this up to the header tank for use by the toilets actually costs more than to use mains water would...

Like you say, if it makes you feel better for what you do, thats great. :)

We burn a lot of wood too, all of which comes from the trees in our garden. Some say this is not good, but recently its become acceptible as its considered carbon neutral now, and it does after all mean we use less gas for heating.

I do like the idea of do what you can locally, but thats more becuase I get fed up hearing about how we should be helping the other places in the world sort their problems out. We have enough problems of our own to worry about.

There's a fair few things that can be done to combat fossil fule polloution, the problem I've seen in my daily job, no one wants it on their back doorstep (NIMBYISM)......the problem with that is that there's only so many places renewable projects in the UK can go and the NIMBY's instantly block them.

The other problem is that the national picture is far different from the local picture. I'm really tiring of having national renewables targets rammed down our throats by government spinners, to then have local authorities throw decisions out, not based on plausible arguments but based purely on the fact that the councillors are scared sh**less that if they are seen to back a project they'll be voted out at the next local election...............I've lost count of the number of projects I've been invovled in where that's happened, and yet 2012 is still muted day in day out.

People don't seem to see why Vestas walked out of the UK when there is such a huge market for wind energy. It was because of the red tape in local governement blocking projects...............

Until each and everyone grasps the (perceived) nettle not a lot will happen.

Agree with you guys above, thats the challenge, everyone is in a different place and time. Individuals, communities, countries etc... It needs a long term view and local govts and national govt struggle with that, as do the public!

No wonder there was no agreement in Copenhagen?

As long as people keep it on the agenda, we might see some positive actions happen.