Home | Living | Sustainability | Sustainability forum | What are the forum archives? | Archives 2008 (Awareness raising)

Archives 2008 (Awareness raising)

Awareness raising

Climate change
Feburary 08
I'm concerned about climate change, but I don’t see how keeping my TV on standby is going to drown polar bears. It sounds like scare mongering!

Joanne, Fratton

To the first part of your question: the greenhouse gases that go hand-in-hand with wasted electricity (from leaving appliances on standby) contribute to global warming. The polar ice caps are melting as a result of global warming, leaving less land ice for polar bears to live on. And the sea is getting warmer in the process, which is making the problem worse.
I agree that it can all sound very frightening. But like most problems, it won’t go away if we just ignore it and carry on as before. Climate change is a result of our modern lifestyles, so we have to change our lifestyles to overcome it – end of story.
The good news is that the more times we reduce, reuse, recycle, choose energy efficient products, buy sustainable food and so on, the easier it will be to follow a sustainable lifestyle. This is because manufacturers and suppliers will make more of the things we want to buy to keep our custom. Watch and see how many more TV adverts bring up the subject of ‘the environment’ over the next year, and you’ll see what I mean!