Home Building Blog - Eco-Friendly and Green
It’s too late?
October 29th, 2007 by Ryan JohnstonIan Sample, science correspondent for the Guardian UK writes that it may be too late for greenhouse gas cuts and that scientists are alarmed by the rate of climate change that is happening now.
Cutting greenhouse gases and switching to sustainable development are unlikely to prevent disasters caused by climate change, one of the world’s most respected environmentalists warns today.
Professor James Lovelock, the leading independent environmental scientist, claims that even the most pessimistic outcomes predicted by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) fail to recognise the speed with which global warming will progress.
In a speech at the Royal Society, Prof Lovelock will describe how he has arrived at an “apocalyptic view” of the future, in which 6 to 8 billion people face diminishing food and water supplies in an increasingly intolerable climate.
Earlier this year, the IPCC published its final report on the likely extent of global warming. It concluded that average global temperatures could rise by as much as 6.4C by the end of the century if carbon emissions continue to increase. A rise of 4C was most likely, the panel said.
The rising temperatures could force hundreds of species to become extinct and trigger conflicts in countries struck by droughts and severe flooding.
It’s too late for greenhouse gas cuts, says scientst - link
Tagged as: green-house, climate change, global warming, sustainable, environmentalism, science, food, water
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Tags: green-house, climate change, global warming, sustainable, environmentalism, science, food, water
Small business and sustainability
October 29th, 2007 by Ryan JohnstonForbes Magazine writes about how it’s easier for small, private companies to go green than for large public companies which are more focused on the bottom-line.
A lot of people talk about sustainability.
Barry Russell, CEO of a small high-end decorative tile manufacturer called Encore Ceramics, goes way past the point that he can obviously justify it for the bottom line.
All three cars owned by the company are hybrids. Russell buys carbon-offsets for air and highway miles logged by the company. Solar panels on the roof produce some electricity and the rest is green-tagged. More solar panels are going in. Leftover clay and glazes are recycled so they don’t become pollution. Packaging is almost exclusively recycled paper. Motion-detector switches turn lights on and off automatically.
“Am I crazy?” says Russell. “Maybe.”
Not so much crazy as ahead of the curve in a growing business ethic that is saying companies need to save energy, recycle more, produce less waste, and reduce the need for foreign oil, said James Sweeney, professor of management science and engineering at Stanford University.
Tagged as: sustainability, business, environment, ethics, green, eco-friendly, public, recycle, waste
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