According to the BBC, Sir David Attenborough has released his strongest statement to date, highlighting the threat of climate change on our planet.
Sir David Attenborough described the current situation as a “catastrophe”. There is however, still time for us to make a change.
We are facing a man-made disaster on a global scale. In the last 20 years, conditions have changed far faster than he had imagined – with the planet quite literally changing in front of his eyes.
Sir David Attenborough went on to explain that although it may sound scary, if we don’t go on to take drastic action in the next decade, we could face irreversible damage to the natural world, leading to the collapse of our societies.
The next ten years are crucial, and Sir David Attenborough believes we can still salvage the changes if we continue to make changes in our lives.
The BBC expressed:
“After one of the hottest years on record, Sir David Attenborough looks at the science of climate change and potential solutions to this global threat. Interviews with some of the world’s leading climate scientists explore recent extreme weather conditions such as unprecedented storms and catastrophic wildfires. They also reveal what dangerous levels of climate change could mean for both human populations and the natural world in the future.”
You can visibly see the change when comparing 1884 to 2018. The world is heating up, as you can see from the snippets of the BBC episode below:
But what can we do to change our course?
For starters at the 2015 United Nations climate summit in Paris, all countries involved came to an agreement to keep the temperate to below 2 degrees and limit warming to 1.5 degrees.
It is vital that we half carbon emissions by 2030 and eliminate them altogether by 2050 globally. Also that emmisions are cut from almost every part of the economy.
Suprisingly or not, 25% of our emmisions originate from our production of electricity and heat.
According to Professor Naomi Oreskes, Science Historian Harvard University, we need to shift the energy from fossil fuels that produce green house gases to renewable energy resources.
Over time, renewables have seen a rapid decrease in price and solar energy power is now leading the way. Solar power is now the cheapest renewable energy. Not only does it have a positive impact on the planet, the impact on your wallet is minimised.
Scientifically it has been proven that by taking these three steps, we could knock off two tonnes off an average person’s carbon footprint:
It was highlighted that we need to eat everything that we buy to avoid wastage.
It is equally important that we avoid air freighted food and instead resort to other options in order to reduce the carbon footprint.
We need to concentrate on reducing our meat and dairy consumption, especially beef and lamb. The problem doesn’t lie in the traditional farming techniques, it lies in the intensive farming methods. This is due to cows and sheep ruminating methane.
Urgent action is said to be needed. Although individually we are unable to change the world, if we all come together as one and make changes to our lifestyle, we can reduce the devastation that appears to be over the horizon.
David Attenborough concluded with:
“There’s a message for all of us in these young people. It is altering all their generation who will inherit this dangerous legacy.
We now stand at a unique point in our planet’s history, one where we must all share responsibility both for our present wellbeing and for the future of life on Earth.
Every one of us has the power to make changes and make them now.
Our wonderful natural world and the lives of our children, grandchildren, and all those who follow them, depend upon us doing so.”
Electricity and heat accounts for 25% of the worldwide carbon footprint, as shown in the image below:
Although changing your electricity methods won’t save the world fully, it will most definetly have a huge impact.
Interested in utilising the free energy methods provided by the planet? Get in touch!
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