Global warming

[Oliver's mummy]

What is every ones opinion on this?

i am opposed to any waste of energy, like for instance when people fly away, abroad for holidays(i know probably a lot of you do )

but i dont think of that as a neccity(sp?), i have never been abroad and never will!!!

also i always turn off the lights in the house that i'm not using, i always have done, i do it automatically, i always turn off plugs that aren't being used, turn TV off stand by etc.

also i discovered Lush shops in my town latley, got a gift voucher from my sister, it smells really over powering and sickly, but it is ALL eco-friendly things and the products are lovely and do your skin more good, all packaging and tubs are recycled things i think 8)

Also to add to a never ending post , i am only going to buy bio-degradeable nappies, baby wipes, sacks etc, as i think one person can make a lot of difference!!!

any one else thought about this? or not????


ANY OPINIONS APPRECIATED.

 

[Melly+2]

i dont really think bout it tbh but i do switch ights off so

 

[Oliver's mummy]

i dont really think bout it tbh but i do switch ights off so

i know what you mean, but you see so many programs now on it so you become so aware, like for instance i don't relate to these people who at xmas have flashing lights outside of their home, its a waste of money and energy, why not spend the money saved from that on more eco-friendly toys for your baby or even just a toy you think they'll really like, each person makes a difference

before i never really had an opinion on this but IT WILL AFFECT OUR CHILDREN AND OUR CHILDRENS CHILDREN!!!!!!!

 

[cassi]

Even better buy reusable nappies

There was a topic on this a few days ago
I try my best I have switched washes (except the nappies) down to 40, I try and turn off lights but DF dosnt I am going to make DF clear out and bring in the recycling boxes next week. I use reusable nappies.

However I do love my holidays and to us it is a neccesity to get away and spend some quality family time away from work. We are going to Scotland tomorrow (driving), but flying to fuerteventura in may and im going to magaluf in october and we may go somewhere for our birthdays in June or July too.

Our main car is a diesel...

 

[Becks&Riley]

I dont think about anything tbh
I only switch off lights etc to save me money

 

[cassi]

I just re read my post and how vain do i sound!

people in the world with no food or drink and im there typing "yeah holidays are a neccesity for us"

what a bitch I am!

 

[budge]

im very econmical. always have been though.
I recycle everything too and buy a lot from charity shops too!

 

[gingerpig]

The environment agency did a report which showed that ecologically speaking the imapct of reusable and disposable nappies is practically the same on the environment - with reusables it's all the water and electricity and detergents used to clean them, but with disposab;es its the materials and processing used to make them plus the huge impact on landfill facilities. The report has been criticised as it was supposed to have been partly funded by disposab;e nappy company, but I've read it and it's not. In fact it's panel of advisors had more representatives from reusable nappy companies than disposable ones. I was going to use biodegradable disposals but as Cassi knows our rubbish is only collected once a fortnight. I actually think this is a good idea, the thing that is a pain is that the council doesn't collect enough recycling. We are attempting to compost our waste which is helping hugely, and I did read that some of the biodegradable nappies can be composted in a wormery... Then it gets more expensive, and sadly I don't really have the time for that. Our composter is overflowing already, not sure we're doing ti quite right. Maybe that's something you can experiment with Sartett?

There's all sorts you can do to reduce the impact of flying abroad - there's a scheme in Wales where they plant trees according to how far you are flying. There's more schemes on this site: http://www.carbonneutral.com/shop/resul ... t1=Flights We planted a couple of trees when we went to Dublin last year, but it can get expensive!

 

[glitzyglamgirl]

The environment agency did a report which showed that ecologically speaking the imapct of reusable and disposable nappies is practically the same on the environment - with reusables it's all the water and electricity and detergents used to clean them, but with disposab;es its the materials and processing used to make them plus the huge impact on landfill facilities. The report has been criticised as it was supposed to have been partly funded by disposab;e nappy company, but I've read it and it's not. In fact it's panel of advisors had more representatives from reusable nappy companies than disposable ones.

Thats really interesting thanks for sharing, I might have to rethink my adamance on using cloth nappies - I guess biodegradables make the most sense after reading that!

On the issue of global warming, there is also something called global dimming that scares the bejeezus out of me.

Basically, all the pollutants in the atmosphere (especially from planes) have created a shield from the effects of global warming. Without this shield we would be a seeing the negative results of global warming a lot sooner. It may explain why it hasnt been taken seriously enough as the projected effects of global warming didnt take into account the counteractive effect of global dimming, and we havnt seen those projections in reality because of the global dimming.

warming and dimming needs to be dealt with together, if we cut down on just the atmospheric pollutants we will suffer from the warming, wheras if we only deal with greenhouse gases we will suffer from the dimming. It is believed that glbal dimming, caused by our pollutants, is responsible for the droughts of africa, and consequently millions of deaths and suffering overe the last few decades.

You can read more about it here http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/dimming_prog_summary.shtml[/url][/i]

 

[nicki]

We recycle as much as we can, plastics, cans bottles, paper etc. I turn lights off when not in the room also when there are 2 or 3 wee's in the loo then i'll flush as it wastes so much water. (If its brown let it drown, if its yellow let it mellow!!! ) I also always put a full load of washing in the machine rather than 1/2 a load. I guess everyone could do alot more to protect the enviroment like not use a washing machine/diswasher/tumble dryer/car/plane/computer/lights etc but then if we did that we would be going back in time!

We do go on holidays & I'm cabin crew & DH is an air traffic controller so flying kinda of puts food on our table! Its also a neccesity to bring in imports from abroad, i.e medicine & food etc. The airlines do need to do more to help the environment tho.

My DH's car is a diesel mines petrol & we do try and walk wherever possible & not drive.

When we move I will have a compost bin, grow my own veg (gardens not big enough where we are at the mo.) and we also have 2 water butts in the garden.

Every little helps I spose!

 

[cloud9]

we aren't using reuseable nappies, We didn't feel it would cost us less as we don't have a dryer or anywhere to put one which would mean we would have to buy an new washer dryer which we don't need and therefore dumping a pefectly good waher in a landfill site, the extra electirc , it seems like a lot of effort for something that seems to be extra work at a time when you need less.
We do our bit though we do recycle what we can, I turn lights off although for finacial reasons to be honest.

I just think it has to be prectical for your life

 

[oldermum]

I recycle plastic, glass,tins, paper, etc, we have garden waste bins which goes to making compost.

I fill my washer to the brim and only wash at 40 degrees, we don't have a car so use public transport, walk to school, give clothes to charity and charity shop myself.

Planted 6 conifers and one tree. Never go abroad(you wouldn't get me on a plane anyways).

But the world is dying

The Global dimming story is awful, very very bad times we are living in, and to think that it's been talked about for 20 years and people(goverment) are only really just wakeing up to it, is pretty sad.

 

[Oliver's mummy]

thanlks for every ones replies, i didn't expect there to be this many, i am not as green as i'd like to be , as i don't live in my own house i cant tell my mum how to control her house really can i, i tried once and then she got really pissed with me so now i don't bother, i'm using spirit of nature nappies as they are more convenient and degrade fairly fast!!!!

i didn't expect all of these people to have such an opinion about it

thanks to all the people who care after all it is OUR earth!!!

 

[Gaby]

I'm gonna use reusable or biodegradable nappies when i have children. We had a talk at school once about global warming, etc, and we were told that if henry viii had been put in disposable napies, they'd still not really have started degrading even today. Sad isnt it.

 

[jenna]

i try not to leave lights on and recycle paper. But i dont think that global warming is as bigger issue as they say. theres many books and things that say that everythings melting and getting warmer because where still leaveing the "ice age" and all that.

I dont know, im not very clever...

 

[gingerpig]

Jenna that's a really good point - we are actually still coming out of the last Ice Age, so some warming is to be expected! I tihnk we're in an inter-stadial - ie warm point between 2 Ice Ages. There was even a mini Ice Age in medieval times due to the same effect. You're right, because of this, the issue is not as clear as it could be, although I think now there is a general consensus that the rapidity of the rate of temperature increase is more than would be expected if it were a purely natural process. So although some of it is natural most of it is due to human activity. I think even if global warming weren't an issue, learning to be more mindful and respectful of our environment is a good thing - at the risk of sounding like an old hippy lol.

 

[glitzyglamgirl]

i try not to leave lights on and recycle paper. But i dont think that global warming is as bigger issue as they say. theres many books and things that say that everythings melting and getting warmer because where still leaveing the "ice age" and all that.

I dont know, im not very clever...

Ive heard those theories aswell, that its all a natural occurance blah blah, but its not....end of. Its probably written by the same people who insist the holocaust never happened!

Heres a scary thought for you - at the current rate and if nothing is done like YESTERDAY, in 25 years Britain will be completely different - the temperature will go up to such an extent (only a couple of degrees but thats all it takes) that we wont see green anywhere in nature -it will all dry up. The consequences of this are astronomical.

 

[gingerpig]

Glitzyglamgirl, I'm sure you're not seriously suggesting that David Irwin and his ilk are responsible for saying that global warming is part of the last Ice Age? Why would such a well-known anti-Semite say such things? I suspect you are joking, but you know I'm not sure holocaust denial is something to take lightly... Nor is global warming, but it is scientific fact that the world would naturally be warming up - as I explained in my last post, its the degree and speed at which it is warming that indicates it is more to do with human intervention than purely natural processes. I do agree there will be people who's political/business agenda's mean they will over emphasise the degree to which natural warming is happening and say that is more than human intervention.

 

[beanie]

Re the study between disposibles and reusables - it was very flawed. the cloth nappy users on there washed their nappies on hot washes, used ordinary soap powder, tuble dried and some even ironed their nappies ( ) so obviously there would be no difference. However the majority of nappy users wash their nappies on a 40 degrees wash (obviously if soiled a 60 degree wash can be used if you wish) , use enviromentally friendly washing powders or even better soap nuts, and don't tumble dry. the savings enviroment wise are much more marked in those circumstances. It also assumes that people are using the paper liners when the vasy majority of cloth users use fleece liners which are reused. Here is more information about it

Environmental Issues
It is a common misconception that there is very little difference between disposable and reusable nappies in overall environmental impact. This misconception is based upon two scientific reports on the lifecycles of nappies produced by Procter and Gamble in 1989 and 1990. (Procter and Gamble are the makers of Pampers disposable nappies)

Independent studies have since critiqued these studies finding that the assessment was flawed in that it focussed on the environmental impact during the nappy 'use' phase without proper assessment the impacts of both the production and disposal stages of the nappy lifecycle.

A subsequent study conducted by Landbank Consultancy in 1991 had the following findings;


Impact per Infant per year3

Cloth
Disposable
Impact difference

Energy
2532MJ
8900MJ
3.5x

Waste Water
12.4 cubic metres
28 cubic metres
2.3x

Raw materials: non renewable
25kg
208kg
8.3x

Raw materials: renewable
4kg
361kg
90x

Domestic Solid waste
4kg
240kg
60x

Land for raw materials
1,150-6,800ha
29,500-32,300ha
4-30x


Australian research is currently being undertaken by the University of Queensland. Results are based on a full life cycle assessment of 2.5 years of nappy wearing by one child, assuming 6 disposable or 9 cloth nappies are used each day.

Preliminary results have indicated that cloth nappies use more water than disposables. Half of the water consumption of cloth nappies is used in the cotton production, the other half in washing. The water used to wash nappies represented 3-5% of the household water consumption.

It should be noted that the water consumption between individual households varied greatly and it would be simple to use cloth nappies in a water wise household and still use less water than in a regular household using disposable nappies.

"Napisan" and equivalent nappy soaking systems have a negligible effect on the waste water treatment plants, as it will be fully reduced in the sewers, if not in the nappy bucket.

Commercially washed nappies use more than double the water of home washed nappies. This is partly due to the water involved in growing cotton as commercial nappy wash services do not reuse the nappies themselves as much as home washed nappies.

Disposables require over 26 times the land area for growing raw materials compared to home washed cloth nappies, and just over 10 times the land area for commercially washed cloth nappies.

also the biodegradable nappies, whilst in terms of raw materials they are better (if you look at what goes into a nappy it is shocking) but our tips are not designed to help them degrade and they will stay around for a long time too. If you have a compost heap in your garden the best thing to do would be to compost the wet ones yourself (obviously not the soiled ones). Also even if you use degradable nappy bags this will still add time onto the decomposing time.

Sorry its just something I am really passionate about for environmental and health reasons. There is a cloth nappy out there to suit everyone, if you don't have a dryer (I haven't for ages now) then a microfibre nappy is the best for you, as it dries in 2 hours just in a warm room.

 

[Gaby]

With the nappies, i'm not really concerned in the energy difference, more the waste of them. We're gonna be taken over by landfils one day