Sunday, June 2, 2019

Green Issues

  April was a wet cool month. May was no better as the leaves on trees were just appearing by May 30th. For our area on the globe it is the latest spring in a very long time. This is affecting farmers and will affect recreational sites as rivers and lakes are not getting the sun they need for warmth for water sports. Golf courses are soggy as are other outdoor grassy playing areas.
   Global warming does not just mean increased heat. It means a huge shift in wind currents and ocean currents. All this is filling clouds with violent winds and rain storm clouds that send huge amounts of water in such a very fast pace that flooding is wide spread and more frequent.
  And shifts in our daily temperatures has begun. Europe has already had very warm temperatures to date much like last year. It is predicted that there will be unusually hot spells and this may cause some fierce wind storms a new phenomonem for that geographical area.
   Just watching the news and seeing all the destruction already makes me realize that the loss of all the ice masses globally thus far has impacted lakes and rivers that are now higher from the added sea water that many empty into. There seems no solution to make the earth cool again. 
    Another very environmentally destructive compound is plastic and while we are urged to stop using so much our large food and goods packaging industry has slowly increased their use. We now get fruit in plastic bags or clear boxes. This is for their profit because it makes shipping and displaying easier. It likely reduces manpower needed too. It also aids in their self checkout stations for more ease and a better experience. It is all about reducing jobs to maximize their profits.
   Electric cars are being pushed on consumers with more haste. My experience with a short ownership of a Tesla made me realize that too is not a green solution. Creating power to charge more cars has an impact on the electrical grid. Over time as more cars need to plug in how will the increase be produced? Then there are all those batteries that each car has to have. Are they green?
   While a greener way of life is encouraged the huge industries that need a big bottom line will just herd us to continue to make purchases that will not make a greener planet. The stock market health is far too important for that to become a global reality. There are trade wars happening constantly. Apple and Huawei are a current example. How green are their products?
   Green issues  suggesting that we need to be more responsible on our planet appear to require a total shift in how we create an economy that is not centred around stocks and competitive marketing requiring a great bottom line profit.
   How can that be brought about?

5 comments:

  1. You ask some compelling questions. I too wonder how we will ever get the world green again when all the companies are not helping at all. I try very hard not to use too much plastic, but it is difficult. I use my own bags, but as you say, most of what I put in there is wrapped in plastic, sometimes twice! I also have available bulk shampoo and soaps in containers that I refill. It's not much, but it's something at least. :-(

    ReplyDelete
  2. all of this is so true and you said it so well. DJan brought up the containers for cleaning supplies, that worries me no end. when I was growing up, we had things wrapped as we bought them, wrapped in paper. the paper mills were going full power in the state of Georgia, but even then they were destroying our world but cutting down the trees.. Paper went away and plastic came. I wish I knew or someone new the answers... the biggest problem is there are billions of people on the planet so no matter what choice they make it gets worse.

    ReplyDelete
  3. If it were easy it would surely have been attempted by now. You are right, it is our constant need for greater productivity, greater comfort, bigger turnarounds etc. that make it almost impossible to change human nature and make us think of the world as it will be in the very near future.

    Changing the words ‘global warming’ to ‘climate change’ may help. A lot of people still think of higher temperatures being the sole enemy. The climate of the entire globe changing and all that that implies is to be feared most of all.

    It would help if you could convince the man who rules your nation of the fact of climate change.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Friko I am Canadian. Trudeau is our PM .We have elections in October.

    ReplyDelete