Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Ok so the "INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE" has just produced it "
"Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis"( click to read the report). To sumerise this briefly:

1. Do nothing and we are screwed
2. Do a little and we are screwed
3. Do a bit more and we are still screwed!

We have VERY little time left to get our collective brains together and actually act. If we sit and wait for our lofty politicians to do something then go to point 1and point 2 above. We maybe lucky and they then get all excited and start on point 3 above. We really can't rely on them to lead us. The last few years have shown me that our politicians do not lead us where we want to go (Iraq, Afganistan, democracy), no they go where their short term gain is or their mid term monetary gain is for their friends.

We must act, we do not have to really do much to start really making a big difference. How about looking at this in a way that might be eaiser. Insurance has gotten more and more expensive over the last decade and by 2010-2015 (between three and eight years away) it is set to more than triple. In the last thirty years in the US alone insurance damages have gone from an average of $1,000,000,000 per year to €17,000,000,000 PER YEAR. Just imagine that you bought a beautiful new home somewhere near a coastline in the US (54% of all Americans live within a 50 mile drive to the coast), you insure your home against all risks but within the next year or so a nasty pesky hurricane, tornado, tidal surge or just really bad storm distroys it. Your covered with your insurance right.... wrong. As quoted in Newsweek 29th Jan 2007; "We believe what the scientists are telling us", says Michael Trevino, a spokesman for Allstate insurance, which paid €5.7 billion in catastrophic losses in 2005 and they have sharpely cut back on this kind of coverage. "The country is in the beginning period where we.ve sustained more frequent and more intense hurricanes," he says. "We believe it would be bad business to continue to add to our risk".

In short you are screwed, and I do not blame them, or any other insurance company for not covering this. I must admit where I sympathise with anyone suffering loss or damages on a human individual level, we have only got ourselves to blame for this, not pur leaders, or company owners (ok they could have helped a damn bit more). But we vote them in, we use there products, we throw things away, drive the big cars, go on REALLY SHORT journies and use needless power. I have been one of those wasters, but I am changing.

In my previous post I am recylcing just about everything and now I have changed my power supplier to a Wind Generating Power company http://www.airtricity.com. Within the next few months I will be changing my car. I will be doing a bit of research as to weither it is better to buy one of the brand new dual powered cars, like Saab Biopower , Biofuel Focus, or one of the hybrids. Needless to say I will use a bit of brain matter and reasrch to see which is the best in the long run, converting my existing car for biofuel or a better second hand. But what ever will have the best and least impact to the enviroment I will go for (yes and only use it when I really need to).

My friend Trevor Sargent TD (http://www.greenparty.ie/people/trevor_sargent) got me the wormery and he has saved me and will save me thousands. And I must say that of all the politicians out there he is one of conviction, honesty and integrity. We need more like him! I always viewed myself as a liberial, enviromentalist, tree hugging neo-conservative. But I finally got off the fence and see myself as a "Envirocapitalist" (you have seen it first here)!

Hopefully over the next few weeks I will be redeveloping the www.gogan.com site proper, and I will be putting in much more information on the enviroment and will leave here more for the daily/regular rant!