Climate Change Survey
Climate change is the greatest environmental challenge facing the modern world. Although a few people still try and deny it, almost everyone now accepts that the world is getting hotter and that this is because of human activity. When we burn coal, oil or gas; drive our cars, or fly, we are adding to the amount of Carbon Dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere; which is then trapping more of the sun’s heat (the ten warmest years on record have all been since 1990). Glaciers and ice caps are melting, causing the sea level to rise, changing the path of currents in the oceans and affecting weather patterns making more extreme weather events such as floods and heatwaves more likely.
All countries will be affected. The world’s poorest countries will be hit earliest and hardest, with the strong possibility of creating millions of “environmental refugees”. Global warming will also do untold damage to richer countries like ours. For example, the floods in Britain in 2000 cost the country over £500 million, whilst the 2003 heatwave (the hottest for 500 years) claimed over 2000 lives.
Global warming is happening now and we have only a very few years to stop it from becoming uncontrollable. But we can stop it:-through a mix of technology and changes in our behaviour; through international agreement and action at every level, from the personal to that of national governments.
The government has announced plans to introduce a Climate Change Bill into Parliament, bringing forward measures to help us respond to this gravest of challenges to our planet. In addition, things like taxation policies, and grants and subsidies can influence the way individuals and businesses behave. Please click on the link below to see my survey containing a number of options- both for the Climate Change Bill itself and for other measures. It is very important for me to know what you think, and I very much hope that you will take the time to complete it . I look forward to hearing from you. In the meantime, if you would like to know more about the problem and what you can do about it, you may like to look at the following websites: www.est.org.uk (the Energy Saving Trust), www.carbontrust.co.uk, www.defra.gov.uk. To find out how much carbon you produce, go to www.carboncounter.org.uk
What would you do to cut carbon emmissions? Implement your own green policies on the BBC interactive game online…
More details about the game and what you need to be able to play it are availble on bbc.co.uk
