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What The F*ck is Climate Change?!


Spaceballs

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Climate Change? Ever heard of it? You know, it's about polar ice caps melting, the rising sea level and countries such as the Netherlands disappearing into the wide oceans of this world. It is supposed to be a sad story of humankind, industrialisation and its severe consequences for the environment and why we should act now. Heartwarming. I am well aware of these problems and dangers.

 

Now, see here, I was one of those avid advocates that tried to do something for this planet. No, Greenpeace was not my cup of tea. Within my small little world I was happy that I could contribute to a better environment by simply practicing waste separation, supporting recycling measures, etc. I was proud that Germany was (and probably still is) among the leading nations when it comes to counter-measures to climate change, and measures for environmental improvements. Just one example: Usually, most of German households have about 4 gargabe bins. One for papers and cardboards (blue bin), one for biological waste such as leaves and soil (brown bin), one for synthetic material (yellow bin) and one for all the rest (grey/black bin). This elaborate system helps recycling all sort of garbage and keep the world clean. Did you know that we pay a kind of mortgage for bottles?

Example: You buy a bottle of water. The water costs you 19 cents. But you pay 25 cents for the bottle. So, alltogether I paid 44 cents for a bottle of water. The tricky issue here, if you give the bottle back, when you drank the water, you get refunded 25 cents. This system works out quite well. People don't just throw their plastic bottles away, but collect them to get the "mortgage" back. The bottles are recycled and reused, instead of littering the environment. Just keep in mind that our oceans are already littered with nano-particles of synthetic material to the extent that fish integrated these particles into their natural cycle. Mh, yummy.

 

Renewable energies is one of the key concepts at hand, which will decide our future - or so they say. When people want to build solar collectors on the roof, they are financially supported by the government in Germany ( to a certain degree - it is still expensive). On-shore and off-shore wind power, geothermics, hydropower. Google them if you're not sure how they work. I just named them to show how many different and proven methods one could use to make a change. Some try. They got my respect for that. Others just don't want to invest for our future generations, knowing that these measures require long-term planning and high costs until they finally pay off decades later. Humans really are short-sighted and ignorant sometimes. No personal offense meant. Sorry for that.

 

All this sounds good to you? Yeah, I like it. It all sounds good, reliable and one could think, "Man, they put some thought into this." However, The breaking point is here: Germany is a small country. We actually account for around 3,5 % of the worldwide CO2 emissions. :mellow: So, Germany is trying to change, but what can it do. So, why do I actually care? I thought a lot of times, why should I care? What good comes from making all these efforts, while the other nations, responsible for most of the CO2 emissions, don't do shit to help? Again, no personal offense to any readers of those nations - I just sometimes get really depressed pondering over those problems. My common sense tells me that we all live on this planet and we all probably want our children to live here as well. I can't imagine humanity building colonies on Mars anytime soon. So we got to take care of what we have. But as long as the three nations responsible for most of the emissions do not change their attitude and close their eyes towards those problems, nothing will come of it. We can try to save the planet all we want and recycle our garbage 24/7 - it won't change a thing.

 

And I still care. Even though I often thought about just f*kng forget about recycling, it has become a habit I still do it. I am aware that the necessary infrastructure is missing in many countries in order to do proper recycling, but I hope that some of, after reading this, consider it a a step into the right direction. Perhaps you will even start recycling... who knows!

 

 

I want to close this post with a video of a little girl that left a strong impression on me, when she spoke. Most of you probably know it already. I still watch it sometimes. People, thinking like her, are the future. Still, this speech, however powerful it may seem while you watch it, you realise afterwards that these efforts will probably remain unanswered. That's a sad truth.

 

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Im not sure what I believe when it comes to Global warming (honestly I havent done much reserach into it) However I am a bit on a "greenie" I guess. I recycle where I can, I try not to use many chemicals when cleaning. I use public transport and walk if its possible.

I suppose also that the fact I have kids has also changed my views on things. I have to teach them to love and look after this world we live in so that they and their kids get to enjoy it. Look at all the damage humans have done, so many extinct animals or animals that are close to being extinct.

 

we also have a 3 bin system here in Australia. South Australia (where I live) has gone one step further and will pay you 10c for every plastic bottle, glass bottle and can you recycle. We also have a "carbon tax" Which is a tax on all major compaines (gas, electricity, oil, minimg etc)

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Belgium exact the same. No mortgage on plastic bottles though, only on glass. Although we are used to that system because of the fact we live at the border and often go shop in the Netherlands. We personally got 2 solar collectors installation on the roofs of our home .My stepdad knows somebody who installs them for a living and until start this month you could get , and still do if you are in the system, INSANE amounts of money from the government for doing so. First installation earns 250 euro subsidy / 1000 watt and second I think 120 euro / 1000 watt :P (use to be amounts up to 400 when the installation also were more expensive). This for the next 20 years...

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My neighbour has got 4 solar collectors on his roof. They are not for electricity by warm water. This way he saves up to 700 litres of oil every year. With the current oil price of about 90 euro cents, that makes quite some savings at the end of the year. Of course, the installation was expensive, but ten years from now, with oil prices still rising, it will make a difference.

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They do the same in the USA, you can return cans and bottles (plastic and glass). They also do the same in the Netherlands, recycling glass/plastic bottles.

 

Anyways, there is another renewable energy that wasn't mentioned here, which is Fusion. Don't get this confused with Nuclear fission, it is different.

 

There is another thing to think about even if all the house holds in the USA had zero waste, it wouldn't make a big difference in the overall waste that the USA puts out. The change has to come from the major factories/businesses first, that is what will create the biggest impact.

 

The world isn't perfect. It is easy to say that instead of spending on war, spend on it on research for renewable energy. Easier said then done, looking at how many evil people there are in the world. Obviously it would be better to live in a world without war, but at this point in time that just isn't possible. Hopefully in the future it will be. Gotta be honest, I disagree with a lot of what she is saying in this video (I know she is 12 in the video), which is why she doesn't rlly know what she is talking about. Though it is amazing that she was already thinking about this kind of stuff at a young age and was able to speak so well about what she thought. I am horrible at speaking in front of people lol.

 

I enjoyed reading your blog post dude. Though I was expecting something different from the Title lol :)

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@anjl: Thanks for your input. You pointed out a major aspect, concerning large enterprises, etc. It is true that change can not only be achieved by your average citizen, but that we need to think on a whole new level.

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