N the face of it, measures are now being taken to ensure the environment gets treated better. For examples, disposal and recycling of machines will no longer be a pricey process, which therefore leads to encouragement of better practices. Good treatment of the environment does have a cost. It is a shame that greed remains the one and only enemy to proper preservation of Earth. Legistlation is needed in order to change this.

Happy surfing!

Some people just don’t want to know the truth

HERE is no question about it. Earth is becoming warmer due to various factors, including deforestation, congestions, and endless emissions. What is rather appalling is some people’s refusal to acknowledge this, let alone take action. The reluctance to make a change and help our future has no excuse. Here’s the gist:

The US appears to have rejected draft proposals by Germany for G8 members to agree tough measures in greenhouse gas emissions, leaked documents have shown.

Gloomy outlook (click to enlarge)

ORE scary stuff from the ‘climate department’: on the face of it, throughout my lifetime, I shall see the Arctic sea ice thawing entirely, raising the global water levels in the process. The solution is not a simple one. Technology needs to be found which addresses the issue.

Space-earth elevators and pumping of water out of earth is of course a laughable idea. All we can do, other than control the temperatures somehow, is move soil from one place to another (e.g. higher mountains grafted) or simply accept the fact that our landscape gradually shrinks, leaving many cultures under water for good. This type of problem may become more serious than any political issue that we can think of, nuclear weapons aside. It doesn’t appear as though colonies on other planets are a possibility, not any time soon. Human civilisation could become the victim of its own selfish expansion.

It’s unlikely that you have not seen this already, but just in case, here’s the summary from the BBC.

Billions of people face shortages of food and water and increased risk of flooding, experts at a major climate change conference have warned.

Full report as PDF, with fragments below.

Settlements in mountain regions will become more susceptible to flooding from glacier-fed lakes. River runoff in fact will increase by 10 to 40 percent in high latitudes and shrink by 10 to 30 percent in the midlatitudes by midcentury. That means a mix of good and bad news for Canada and Russia, but bad news for the Mediterranean. It’s bad for China too, which depends on glaciers to retain its water.

Sea level increases will lead to further coastal erosion.

Droughts and shorter growing seasons will hit Southern Africa and the Sahel region.

Roughly 20 to 30 percent of the plant and animal species on earth will experience an increased risk of extinction if temperatures rise in the expected 1.5-2.5 degree Celsius range.

Shell-forming organisms in the ocean will be impacted in all likelihood by increased acidification.

Deaths from droughts, storms and fires will increase. Deaths from exposure to cold, however, will decline.

[...]

Apparently, some people do not mind lying and deceiving on a regular basis as long as they get paid.

“In another case of a government official creating a ‘unique’ interpretation of science, TPM Muckraker reports on Julie MacDonald, deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks in the Department of the Interior in Washington. The Department’s Inspector General issued a report today documenting evidence that MacDonald not only overrode opinions of department scientists to benefit lobbyists, and political interests, but also that she shared internal documents with said lobbyists and a friend in an unnamed online roleplaying game…”

The victim is everyone’s environment and wildlife.

I am no longer excited about travelling for a variety of very valid reasons. But I think I may have just found a good excuse, as well.

One particular part of the article that caught my attention is this:

Air travel

“Green” travellers are boycotting air travel because of climate change. Campaigners have staged sit-ins at airports while hundreds of people have signed up to an online pledge set up by a veteran environmental campaigner. An estimated 3 per cent of people have stopped flying to help the environment, while 10 per cent are cutting back on flights.

Season of the playful penguins from Oyonale

Dead penguins, dead polar bears, larger oceans, and houses under water. Is this the future?

The world’s largest tropical glacier is in danger of disappearing within five years, according to international researchers meeting this week in San Francisco.

Take action and reduce waste. Every little helps.

Let us borrow this story and translate its impact to aspects of software development. In programming, greater reuse of code translates into fewer ‘seats’. Dependently, programmers require waste. Without waste and reproduction there is better utilisation of code replication capabilities. And then there’s commercial software that thrives in waste, leading to a morbid & spontaneous spasm in Mother Nature. Let’s work for Earth, not against it.