Help us make a change......

[M3chanical_animal]

Hi all,

Everyday thousands of flights take place all over the world forcing huge amounts of Carbon into the atmosphere and adding to global warming. However non profit orgnaisations give people to opertunity to reverse this and make thier flight Carbon Neutral - the money given is used to plant trees to abosrb the carbon created by your flight, make energy saving light bulbs available in developing contries for free and also fund research into renenwalbe carbon free energy alternatives.

For expamle a return flight to Italy can be neturalised for as little as £5 - not exactly a huge amount to help save the planet.

For some time now I have been thinking of putting a petition together to pressure all flight companies to add an option when booking you flight to make it Carbon Netrual - you then pay the extra money when you book and the flight company then passes this onto a goverment approved non proffit enviromental organistation to reverse the carbon footprint of your flight - its something as simple as this that could have a huge impact on saving our planet before its too late.

Let me know if you would be interested.

:)

[laverne2004]

hi not wanting to be thick but how can you reverse the carbon footprint i thought that once you fly the damage is irreversable :confused:but a brill idea

[M3chanical_animal]

Hey Laverne,

There are many ways to reverse your Carbon footprint - the idea is that if you take a flight a certain amount of CO2 is given out into the atomosphere - if you then plant enough trees to absorb this Carbon within one year you will therefore reverse your carbon footprint and in the long term you actually end up in a Carbon positive situation rather than a carbon negative. Think of it as a carbon debt and by doing more and more, ie using Carbon neutral companies to get trees planted, recycling more so that carbon is not produced remaking materials from scratch, using energy efficient lightbulbs and having your energy supply coming from green power (most suppliers now adays provide this option) you bit by bit reduce your carbon debt until you are balanced out and are riding the world of the same amount of carbon that you are producing.

Obviously the amount of damage done to the world has got to a point where most of it is irreversable with rainforst being chopped down, species extinct etc but there is still time to cool the planet down in time to stop global warming being the end of it all. Its the Carbon in the atompshere that reflects the suns rays back to the planet and stops them escaping therefore raising the temperature of the planet - if there is less carbon then the more heat can escape and we can reverse global warming :)

[laverne2004]

thanks for explaining to a complete novice on green issues i understand a lot better now, i don't think that anybody would mind paying a little bit more if it is going to help, if everybody does nothing i dread to think what the world will be like for our children, we should all be doing something however small.

[M3chanical_animal]

I totaly agree - the main problem is that most of the stuff is so easy to do its just that the knowledge is not out there - its scary to think that if everyone turned of the electrics they dont need to use for one night - I'm talking about lights in rooms that your not in, Tv's and bits and pieces left on standby overnight instead of bein turned off there would be enough energey to run a small village for anything upto 3 months! imagine if everyone conserved that energy everynight............

[tiger]

It's good for you to give a reminder M3. I try to do all the things you suggest, but it's easy to slip into bad habits.

[Gizmos]

we've stopped using our lights on timers - with having curtains closed you cant see them anyway so not worth it

[Mamzie]

Its a great idea, but I just can't make my mind up about these carbon forests. They are ok as long as they are growing, but then what happens if they are harvested???

The carbon would be released back as far as I can tell if they were paper or fuel... Its not going to be tied up as long as it was in a fossil fuel, even if it was turned into a really good piece of furniture.

I think that micro generation should be pushed much harder and supported more for retro fitting to existing properties.

[Gizmos]

as an aside Tesco do compostable bin bags and they are on special offer at the moment ;)

[tiger]

Its a great idea, but I just can't make my mind up about these carbon forests. They are ok as long as they are growing, but then what happens if they are harvested???

The carbon would be released back as far as I can tell if they were paper or fuel... Its not going to be tied up as long as it was in a fossil fuel, even if it was turned into a really good piece of furniture.

I think that micro generation should be pushed much harder and supported more for retro fitting to existing properties.


From what I understand, and I might be wrong, but young trees absorb more carbon that older ones, so if felled trees are replaced and the forests managed then it should work. If the trees are used for fuel then it would release the carbon back into the atmosphere, but it's only what would have been there in the first place, so it's better than fossil fuels. Not all the carbon would be released back as the leaves will have trapped some and it would have returned to the soil when they dropped.

What I would like to see is help given to developing countries to help them create cleaner energy.

[boffin]

From what I understand, and I might be wrong, but young trees absorb more carbon that older ones, so if felled trees are replaced and the forests managed then it should work. If the trees are used for fuel then it would release the carbon back into the atmosphere, but it's only what would have been there in the first place, so it's better than fossil fuels. Not all the carbon would be released back as the leaves will have trapped some and it would have returned to the soil when they dropped.

What I would like to see is help given to developing countries to help them create cleaner energy.

I think it's the other way round tiger...old trees absorb more carbon (I'll check my book though!)

It's 'The Revenge of Gaia' by James Lovelock...It's quite depressing...he suggests we may have already passed 'the tipping point' in terms of global warming...

Anyway it's good to hear about M&S (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6262453.stm)...And one developing country (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/6277049.stm) is putting some of us to shame :rolleyes:

[tiger]

I think what I'm thinking of is that young trees grow at a faster rate than old ones and so have the potential to absorb more but I suppose taking them size for size then the older ones would absorb more. I suppose that's what managed forests is all about, getting the balance right.