How to stop worrying about climate change

Are you worrying about climate change and oil? The media would have us believe we are nearly bankrupt in both areas. It's no surprise if you are worrying. Every news paper and television news program is portraying imminent disaster.

A long time ago, media and sales agencies came to the conclusion that 'fear aids the sale'. There can be no better way to have people rush to the shop than to fill them with fear of what might happen if they don't buy that product today. Scarcity is commonly known to be one of the best sales aids. Buy it before we take it away. Get it now before it all runs out.

Yes, but is it true? Are we undergoing a major climate change? True, false or don't you know, are we are running out of traditional fossil fuels like petrol and gas?

Well what is true is that more than 95 percent of all scientists who have looked at this issue have concluded that, yes, we are in the process of significant climate change. If you watch Al Gore's harrowing film An Inconvenient Truth, you will no doubt recall the shocking statistics of just how far into the process of climate change we actually are.

It is of little consequence to me whether the climate change is man made or not. What is important is to know that if we reduce the amount of carbon dioxide we emit into our environment, we will reduce the effect. What we know is that, by using renewable energy sources like solar power, wind power, hydroelectric power, biomass and the like, we will radically reduce the level these emissions.

What is also the case, according those who study these things, is that our supply of petrol is finite and as such, it is running out. The popular view is that we are talking a 50 year maximum. Of itself, that is not a problem. The problem lies in the belief that we are not prepared for this. We are concerned that we do not have the infrastructure to energize the modern world without the input from the oil industry.

However, developments are happening all the time in and around the new renewable energy industries. For example, in the car industry, those with 'cleaner' credentials are the ones who are staying in profit, while the older gas guzzlers are losing money badly. This is not some weird coincidence. The automobile industry as a whole is moving towards a new green agenda. Electric cars are not a thing of the future. They are with us now!

With the election of Barack Obama, you could say that this is also the case with politics. People are turning to cleaner options as their solution. Undoubtedly, solar power is one essential part of this solution.

Now the question is, 'Should we be worried about the future?' 'Will we get by without traditional fossil fuels?' Our answer at Go Solar Power For Homes Dot Com is simple. We have enough resources to get through this, to turn it around, to set up a world for everyone with no one left out, and we don't have to strangle the life out of the planet to do it.

Still sceptical? That's fine but please consider the following:

What if we were to give one percent of our income towards preventing further climate change?

Using UK government statistics at statistics.gov.uk, the average wage in the UK for full time employees per week is £479. So, the average annual wage in the UK works out at £22,992.

One percent of £22,992 is £229.92 which works out to £4.79 per week.

So, investing one percent of earnings towards stopping climate change would cost the average person in the UK £4.79 per week, or £19.16 a month (the equivalent of £229.92 per year).

Now, this is where it starts to get interesting.

Again according to official statistics (this time from www.cia.gov, figures for July 2007), the UK has a population of 60,776,238.

If everyone were to invest one percent of our earnings towards addressing the issues relating to climate change, we would raise roughly £291 million per week. Now, let's take one third out to account for old age pensioners and children and we are still left with £194million per week.

This is an amazing figure and could really help tackle climate change. Investing £20,000 in wind or solar power for homes would maybe not take the average home completely off-grid, but it would certainly massively reduce our use of traditional fossil fuels.

So, if we were to invest that amount per home, we could give roughly 10,000 homes per week wind or solar power. Within a very short time, we could have the whole country fully invested in renewable sustainable clean energy.

Persuading industry of the need to use renewables will always boil down to finance. Can we provide insustry with enough incentives to go green? Well, all the signs are that we already are doing so. We talked about the automobile industry earlier. the whole industry has recognized that it is 'Adapt or die', and they are acting accordingly, investing in new cleaner technologies.

If we keep going in the direction we are heading we will get to our chosen destination. So, now that we have established the fact that we could easily resolve the climate change issue using solar power and other renewable energy sources, here comes the kicker.

Would you be willing to pay one percent of your income (on average roughly £4.79 per week) to help tackle climate change?

Individually, you may say 'Yes', but what about everyone else living in your street? ... in your village, town or city? If we could get everyone on board with this, then the problem would exist no longer. However, there is a significant number of people who would be reluctant to do that, saying it is a government tax and they object to taxes as a knee jerk reaction.

So now you can see we have a different problem from the one we started out with.

Can we get by? With just one percent of earnings, we could easily get by. That is not in question. There is no need to worry about climate change. We can easily resolve it.

Do we have the will to resolve it? That is the question.

Article Source: http://www.rightbiz.com

As a travel magazine editor and publisher, a life coach and trainer, Sam Deane has seen the world. Nowadays, he dedicates most of his free time to maintaining the well-being of this precious, miraculous planet on which we live. Sam runs an important and lively blog about solar power. www.gosolarpowerforhomes.com

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