Global Warming: The Local Warning

My laptop is on full power. Despite being a quill-and-parchment girl I’m currently using the maximum amount of energy available as I type. Not good. My empty mug betrays the fact that I boiled a full kettle of water for only one gland reducing lemsipy beverage. Also, not good. Potentially worse than this though are the strings of fairy lights festooned around my room: all 60 odd bulbs worth. Oh what good that electricity could be doing for the needy rather than enhancing the visual aesthetics of my surrounding environment. And just to condemn me past redemption, the heating is on despite the fact that I’m bundled up in a rock climbing worthy jumper and a warm snuggly scarf.

On Friday, two other Oxfam activists and I invited Hugh Bayley MP to campus to give a talk and lead discussion on the age-old “hot topic” of our generation. It is crucial that interest and momentum is maintained in this eco issue ahead of the UN-sponsored Climate Change Conference in Bali this December. World leaders are meeting to decide policy to tackle the changes in our environment, and they need to deliver pro-active solutions before damage continues and becomes irreversible. Hugh Bayley has a wealth of experience in the environmental sphere and harbours much sympathy for the plight of the developing world in relation to the extreme weather conditions they must endure for our industrialization.

Global warming contributes to the poverty cycle, as it is the lesser developed countries that are most likely to be hit by droughts and flooding which can then set back their economies by up to 7 years each time. They need to be given financial and practical resources so they can adapt to climate change and be given a chance to survive. And of course, this is not only a global issue that affects millions of individuals thousands of miles away from us. The East Anglia flooding this week and the extreme wet weather that we endured over the summer are all signs that shifts are happening in our own atmosphere and environment. Living in York, we are accustomed to assuming that Clifford’s Tower car park is under water unless otherwise stated. This is merely awkward for us, but in sub-Saharan Africa such an occurrence could have devastating effects.

If you still need convincing that climate change is actually occurring, then do one thing. Watch An Inconvenient Truth. I’m sure that evoked a snort or at least an eye roll from some of you, but I stand by this brilliant Nobel Peace Prize winning creation (of course, it helps that I can introduce it as that). Yes, Al Gore has chosen rather excessive statistics that support his thesis. Yes, the whole film does look rather a lot like a power point presentation on a huge scale. But amidst the slick lighting, politician-esque script and roguish tones is this bare fact: if we continue to do nothing, we will destroy the very planet that gave us life. And if cosy nights in with political DVDs aren't your style then follow this youtube link for an equally convincing summary of why hotter is not always better.

I do try and do my bit for the world. My wormery-obsessed housemate and I recycle, and I walk where I can, and take buses where I cannot. By attempting to solve this problem however we are all, quite literally, trying to save the world. And for any undergraduate with essay deadlines, laundry to do and a pile of stagnating washing up that’s spawning new life forms, that is rather a daunting prospect. Change ultimately must come from those with the influence to affect a habitual shift in whole populations. Until our governments engage with realistic and significant environmental policy, we may as well hold bonfire night on the polar ice caps each year and hope for the best.

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