Your World Needs You to be a Climate Champion!

We need Climate Champions with green carbon footprints to save the world!

So, we've seen that scientists have established that Climate Change and Global Warming have been caused by people, people like you and me who are just doing what everyone else is doing without realising the harm they've been doing.

If we have caused it, we could stop it, in theory. In practice we would have to make some very serious changes to our lives to stop Global Warming entirely and most of us might find that too difficult.

If Global Warming were a dangerous wild animal running towards us some of us would be running away as fast as we can and others would be standing their ground preparing to fight and kill the animal.

Global Warming is not such an obvious threat or so easy to see. We could try to imagine Global Warming as a gigantic dragon curled around our planet.  Think of Smaug in the Hobbit, lying asleep on the dwarves' treasure hoard. Every time we fly or travel in our car we feed the Global Warming dragon encouraging it to breathe fire and cause droughts and wild fires, or to thrash its tail and cause severe storms, hurricanes and flooding.

Global Warming is like an invisible dragon threatening our world

Now we are aware of the threat Global Warming is to the world as we know it, surely we want to do everything we can to fight it by reducing the amount of CO2 we produce and thereby shrinking our personal carbon footprint.

We live in an age that needs heroes and Climate Champions to join in the fight to protect our beautiful world for our children and our grandchildren. We have to stop feeding the dragon!

The most effective way any of us can reduce our carbon footprint is to fly less often. If everyone took fewer flights, airline companies wouldn’t burn as much jet fuel, so they'd send tons less CO2 into the atmosphere.



If you have to fly as part of your job because your boss or your client insists on it, there isn't much you can do. If you don't do it, someone else will be standing ready to fill your shoes, and your aeroplane seat.

If we fly for holidays we have a choice, but it's not an easy choice. Living in the UK we can often feel desperate for some warm sunshine, we may have a strong desire to see the world, or we may have family living abroad.

Writer and Environmentalist Nicola Baird has taken the decision not to go on any journey that involves flying because of the way flying contributes to Global Warming, Climate Change and rising sea levels. She is passionate about the environment and only too aware of the threat Global Warming poses to low lying islands like the South Pacific's Solomon Islands where she spent some time at the end of the last century with VSO (Voluntary Services Overseas), working on a magazine and getting to know the locals.  Nicola writes about her travels in the UK learning about the rest of the world in her blog Around Britain Without a Plane.

I am wondering if I could take a train next time I visit my European relatives. Flying can be quicker, but for relatively short journeys the time waiting in airports might cancel out the few hours' extra journey time when going by train.

Driving from the UK to Europe or from the South of England to Scotland might not reduce our carbon emissions, especially if we travel alone. The longer the distance, the more efficient flying becomes, because more fuel is used in take off and landing than simply flying. On the other hand flying to Australia will still burn more fuel than flying to France or Russia.

If we have the time it is often best to go by train to travel short distances. It can be more expensive than flying, though, so it's not always a simple choice.

We all have to decide what's best for us and our circumstances, but if we can fly less, we will do less harm to our environment.

According to this article in the New York Times the global average of carbon dioxide (CO2) produced per person in 2013 was about 5 tons. In the UK it was at least 7.1 tons while in the US the average person produced at least 16.4 tons of CO2, in the least industrialised countries it was 0.1 ton!  For average carbon emissions produced in various countries in 2013 take a look at this chart.

". . . the greatest crime you can do with oil is to burn it, with our whole industrial society being built on plastics made from petroleum." - Maslin, Mark. Climate Change: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (p. 145). OUP Oxford. Kindle Edition.

Travel, manufacture and heating produce more CO2 than most other human activities.

So, it would help the world if we could fly less often, if we have any choice in the matter.

We also need to try and drive less if we can walk to our destination or if we can use public transport.

Sometimes better planning can give us the time we need to walk short distances or to take public transport. However, if we're doing the week's shopping and would struggle to carry everything home we probably need the car. If your place of work is hard to reach by public transport and too far to walk it would be hard to get to work without a car.

We can cut back on the CO2 we produce by turning the heating down a bit, or waiting until we feel a bit chilly before we turn it on.

Using a renewable energy company such as Ecotricity or Good Energy will reduce the CO2 we produce. According to the Ecotricity website conventional electricity is responsible for 30% of Britain’s carbon emissions.

We need ordinary people like you and me to become Climate Champions and fight the Climate Change causing giant dragon feeding on CO2 that is Global Warming.

If you can change one of these things this year you will be helping to save the Earth.

In 2008 we switched to Ecotricity and our electricity has been provided by them ever since. When we feel chilly we do have the heating on in the day time but it's usually set at 18° Centigrade.
This year I want to try to stop using the car for short journeys with light loads. That should help me get fitter and lose weight.

Please let me know what you are doing and/or what you plan to do to fight Global Warming this year in the comment section below.