Being Green is Big News
Whether it's global warming, climate change, rising sea levels, disappearing polar ice caps, recycling, freak weather, renewable energy, GM food, save the whale, pay-as-you-throw, air travel, gas guzzlers...
But what's the truth behind the headlines and, more importantly, what can we all do about it?
Steve Jones answers your burning questions on all things green.
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Question 1
Everyone keeps going on about plastic bags in supermarkets but what about bin bags? Surely this is as bad if not worse. Can you recommend any green alternatives that are practical for peddle bin liners?
Steve Jones: One alternative is to use items like plastic bags that you were going to throw away anyway as bin liners. It seems crazy to me to buy a new clean bag to line a bin with. Depending on your bin, you could just line it with newspaper and throw the whole lot away when its full. Personally I use a larger bin that takes whole refuse sacks, made from recycled plastic and try and keep my landfill waste to a minimum by composting and recycling.
Question 2
It was far warmer in the 15th Century. For instance the Chinese charted the whole of Greenland - i.e. they sailed around it. How does this tie in with the fact global warming is caused by us?
Steve Jones: The global climate has varied over time due to other factors than human activity, such as the wobble of the earth’s axis, changes in our orbit or even huge volcanoes bringing about events like ice ages and long periods of heating or cooling. Scientists can measure these changes by looking at core samples drilled into the ice caps and by sediments deposited in the sea from big glacial melts.
Up until recently it has been hard to spot changes due to human activity due to these background variations, or natural climate changes, however now armed with all that data it is easy to spot the natural variation as it falls into predicable patterns.
Changes bought about by us releasing all that CO2 into the atmosphere stand out clearly once you have made sense of the ‘background noise’ of these natural changes. There is some great stuff on the Met office website if you want to know more, check their climate change myths section.
