Gradually, we are emitting more and more Carbon Dioxide and other Greenhouse Gases into the atmosphere. If we do not address this problem asap, and alter our lifestyles to be more environmentally friendly, the rate of emissions will continue to rise, causing worse problems in the future. Please read our article What Difference Does 1° Make? to learn about the very real threat Global Warming poses.
Whilst us being a bit more aware of our Carbon Footprint won't solve the problem, a lot of small gestures by people across the globe would add up.
Nothing we do will have an immediate affect, so we need to act now to prevent the Global Warming snowball from growing bigger and bigger and harming our future.
Everyone loves a nice graph, and this one certainly makes interesting reading. As you can see if you click to reveal the bigger version, average 5 year global temperatures have been going up very rapidly.
- Graph courtesy of wikipedia.org
This much is fact, the reason behind this rise is the subject of much debate but the majority of scientists agree that the huge increase in greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels, has greatly attributed to these rises. The temperature of our world has never been stationary. We are always going out of one iceage or into another, but mankinds overuse of it's natural resources has weighed the scales too much, tipped the balance of nature and now threatens our very existence unless action is taken NOW to mitigate and deal with the problem.
Is Carbon Offsetting the Solution?
It's very tempting to think that carbon offsetting is the solution to global warming, but it really isn't! At best it might buy us a little extra time... Possibly raise the awareness of the issue, but it most definately won't fix it. We can't buy ourselves out of dept on this one, we have to take action to reduce emissions and live more environmentally responsible lives. The most dangerous thing about carbon offsetting is making people believe that it's fine to drive a huge 4*4, as long as you plant a couple of trees. It really isn't!!! Greenwash (as it's becoming popularly called) is something we must not fall into the trap of believing.
We believe that as long as people open their eyes to these issues, and take everything on board, then carbon offsetting is a great way of raising extra funds to support environmental causes. With this in mind i'd like to point you in the direction of the carbon offset shopping directory where a percentage of everything you spend at popular highstreet shops such as Marks and Spencer, John Lewis and The White Company, goes back to environmental projects.
