Climate Change - Real of fake?

Global Climate Change – real or fake?

Every single day we hear a new piece of evidence on the news about Global Warming. We are bombarded with information about carbon dioxide, solar flares, rising oceans and much more. It is all a bit scary if you take it for real because it means the world as we know it is not sustainable.
Global Climate Change – real or fake?

From time to time, the media will try and counter balance this torrent of climate change science with some stories about why global warming is not a problem after all (to ensure that both parts of the story is heard). Balance in reporting is important and people deserve to hear two points of view on such an important topic as, well, the end of the world as we know it. Right?

Ok, I have gone onto a bit of a sidetrack here but stick with me. Lets imagine you have a lump on your leg. It looks a bit strange, feels odd and gives you a bit of a creepy feeling but you are too scared to see the doctor to understand what this is. Your wife tells you to go and you keep telling her that you will do it next week. The lump keeps growing and you do nothing. In fact, you begin to live with the thought of the lump and it stops bothering you.

This reminds me of what we are seeing happen around us today. It is very typical human nature, playing out right before our eyes. Except the lump is our planet, the one and only place we have to live. Now I spend a great deal of my time looking through scientific articles, counter articles, I read peoples blogs and comments. There are soo many different points of view on this subject. They are ranging from religious beliefs that we are meant and bound to use gods resources to that the water will rise 80 meter and the world will end. Impossible to find common ground.

As we are living in a relatively free world where the consumer, that is you and me, are ultimately responsible for the outcome of tomorrow we are faced with a dilemma. We are the responsible parts, the drivers of destructions of everything around us but not prepared to pay any cost to become friends with nature again. In other words, we are doomed as we are, regardless of climate change.

Climate change is only one of a pile of problems which are building up on this wonderful planet of ours. We have increasing amounts of nuclear waste, pollution, species loss, habitat destruction, forest removal. You name it, we are doing it. And the CO2 is just the top of the iceberg.

I sit there in my car, heat my house, watch the news, use my PC. Everything I do makes CO2 and its the same for everyone around me. I can kindly ask my friends to cook with a lid or change to energy saving bulbs but they don't. Why is that?

We don't accept our role on this planet as protectors. We are still stuck in the mentality that the planet and its resources are infinate. And our lives are too short to know any better. I fear for tomorrow and with good reason. Because the more you read, the more you understand that this is not a scary bedtime story, it's the real thing and we are all in this mess together.

Nuclear Power - not as green as they tell you

KnowYourPlanet researcher Joe Baylis, set out to calculate the true carbon footprint of a nuclear Power Plant by kWh. Here is what he found

"Several writers have referred to this technology as carbon emission free. This simply is not true. In fact, it is estimated that the process as a whole produces up to 140g of CO2 per kilowatt hour (kWh) of energy produced2. This is after taking into account the building of the power plant (a vast undertaking), the mining of uranium, transportation and processing of the ore and eventual radioactive waste, and the dismantling of the plant."

Taking into account that the second least CO2 intensive non renewable energy is gas at 340g CO2 pr kilowatt hour (kWh), one must wonder how this is being sold to us as a carbon free source of energy. Of course it is not carbon free. The Uranium must be dug up by heavy machinery in very low concentrations, typically 1 kg pr 1000 kg soil or less, refined in thousands og energy intensive centrifuges (which also produce a lot of radioactive waste), further refined and transported and then used in a very complicated Nuclear Power Plant, a place which itself to be built is quite a Carbon investment. If you take into consideration the de-commission and storage you end up with quite a headache.

Im sure most of us would not want this in our back yard.

Read the full article here:
http://www.knowyourplanet.com/news/the-nuclear-resurgence-1

What is a heat pump and how can it be used for my benefit?

Ever wondered what a Heat Pump is?
How it works, where I can install it and how much it might cost?
This video will give you a brief introduction to this technology, so if you are thinking about Heat Pumps for your home, this video is a great place to start.

Heat Pump Overview



For more information about heat pumps you can go to http://www.knowyourplanet.com/learning-zone/alternative-energy/heat-pumps-1