New Voice

There are whole masses of positive news items circulating the science media. When you read around, the collection is not always particular to the fear-mongering I discussed in an earlier post. When I sat down a few months ago to begin these selections on the new science that may impact on climate change, I always imagined it as a positive approach to a vastly ominous situation. I think that this positivity is expressed in the media, with multitudes of blogs and news sites discussing the effects of climate change but through the prism of significant counter-action from the global community. I think in my posting I may have got side tracked in my last two pieces and begun the tremulous fixation of the ‘deer in head lights’, as the all powerful wonder of nature became all too clear in my readings. Partly, this was the blame of my picking through that mighty tome of a work, On the Origin of Species, which has enamoured my mind for the past while. Given the timing (2009, one hundred and fifty years since it was first published) it seemed an apt period to finally embrace the book and see if it was (in my opinion) as comprehensively argued as it is understood to be. Having completed the work, it seems there is no question but that it makes its point; rather well if I might say.

I’ll natter about the Origin in a future post, as I’m still trying to grasp the totality of the picture that Darwin introduces: but I will say that the work is vastly more interesting than its title suggests, and very easy to pick up and read through as a general reader, which was Darwin’s intention. As I mentioned this book was partly responsible for the introduction of an overriding image of nature, which has entered my thoughts, as a thunderous, mountainous force peerless in its global majesty. This sits well with the current event of adverse climate change. But how to be positive in this realm of monumental climatologically attrition? I think this is well showcased in the number of significant green revolutions taking place across the planet. Take for instance, Samso, a tiny island off the coast of Denmark: suffused in greening the Scandinavian landscape Denmark is already well known for its efficient renewable measures. Samso is 100% energy self sufficient, with all its electricity coming from wind farms; many house are heated by burning straw and many vehicles utilising biofuels for combustion. All of which describes an oasis of green energy, where the island produces so much that it sells to the mainland, and indeed, to third party vendors.

Not quite as self sufficient but remarkably well adapted to the new greening world is Costa Rica, which is involved in a staggering endeavour to become completely carbon neutral as a society. They began the process with large scale reforestation, but are now into biofuel plantations and wide ranging automobile carbon reduction. Costa Rica is a useful example (not lost on the many webpage’s describing their world leading policies) as it leads the way for the globally recognised Happy Planet Index. This brilliant exercise in putting life ahead of wealth is currently in the process of taking over from gross domestic product (GDP) as the fundamental indicator of true societal bliss. The index is, well, an index of human well-being alongside the environmental impact of the particular country, which is deemed essential since how can you have a well-being minus an environment. See the link a few lines back for further detail. Suffice to say Costa Rica is winning: not least because of its environmental measures. Which can only be construed as a positive thing for the world; and I feel as the HPI grows in stature such listings will be a measure of how well a country represents its people.