Climate Change

 

The Earth's climate naturally changes over long time periods. Over the 4.5 billion years that the planet has existed we have swung between cold and warm periods. Ice ages have come and gone and have lasted for up to 100,000 years. They have been followed by shorter, warmer periods one of which we are in at the moment. The Earth's average temperature is around 4 C hotter than it was during the last ice age some 13,000 years ago.

There is one major difference between previous periods of warmth and this one. In the past they have been due to natural events and have taken thousands of years to evolve, so species have had time to adapt, but this time it is caused by the World's 5.8 billion beings.

CAUSES. Every time we use electricity we are creating C02, which is not only a naturally occurring gas crucial to our survival but also the main contributor to climate change. Our electricity is mostly generated by burning fossil fuels which create C02. Carbon Dioxide and the other greenhouse gases occur naturally and form a blanket round the Earth trapping heat that would otherwise escape into space. The heat rebounds onto the Earth's surface and the temperature rises creating what is commonly called the "greenhouse effect . We have been pumping additional C02 into the atmosphere for 200 years thus intensifying the effect and increasing the Earth's temperature.

We are increasing the temperature so quickly that nature can no longer cope. This warming will also have widespread impacts on climate conditions all over the globe, causing more droughts, storms, floods and other weather extremes. Deforestation, particularly of the Rain Forests, has also caused a build up of C02 and there are fewer trees to absorb this. Glaciers are already melting in places as far apart as Switzerland and New Zealand bringing with them avalanches, soil erosion and dramatic changes to river flows. The oceans and seas are warming, causing coral to die and putting many marine creatures at risk. This threatens to submerge many parts of the World including 300 Pacific Islands and wetlands as far afield as Argentina, Bangladesh, Nigeria and the USA. The danger is that if these unusual weather conditions become permanent or extreme numerous plants and animals will simply not recover. Cold kills germs and disease bearing insects such as the mosquito. As the World warms up germs, bacteria and other carriers will multiply.

WHAT CAN YOU DO ?

Everyone can do something to reduce the threat of climate change such as:

1. TRANSPORT - reducing car journeys. For instance cutting out 1 car journey a week will help as will campaigning for better public transport and using it. Check our transport section for more ideas.

2. ENERGY - Reducing energy consumption. Turn the central heating down 1 C. Insulate your house and loft. Use energy efficient appliances ( A is the most efficient G the least). Use low energy light bulbs. Check our energy section for more ideas.

3. WASTE - Re-use and recycle paper, glass, aluminium, tin and clothing. Don't buy disposable products, especially plastic, or anything with a lot of packaging. Check out our waste section for more ideas.

Consider choosing an Electric Company that supplies green tariff electricity.

Chemicals in the Environment

In the last 50 years, since the end of World War 2, the manufacture and use of chemicals has dramatically increased. The resultant pollution of the atmosphere and contamination of soil and water, already widespread in industrialised countries, is on the increase in developing countries. Every ocean and every continent from the tropics to the polar regions is now contaminated.

Many synthetic substances in our environment are highly toxic. Some of these chemicals, known as persistent organic pollutants, remain in the environment for long periods and bioaccumulate (becoming more concentrated as they rise in the food chain). Methyl-mercury ingested by fish, for instance, is found in high concentrations in carnivorous aquatic mammals and is believed to affect humans who eat it. Over 30 years ago Rachel Carter was pointing out in "Silent Spring (1962), that "what we do to animals we do to ourselves .

Today there are at least 300-500 measurable chemicals in people's bodies, that had not been found in anyone's tissue before the 1920s. The known and suspected effects of many chemicals, including direct poisoning, cancers and reproductive damage, have been well documented. However, new scientific evidence indicates that many synthetic chemicals in our environment also pose another threat. Some of these chemicals mimic human hormones and so disrupt normal hormonal function in wildlife and humans. The true extent of this problem is unclear, as only a handful of the tens of thousands of chemicals in our environment and in active commercial use have been tested for their potential as hormone disruptors also called endocrine disruptors).

We do not know enough about the toxins now present in our environment: what they are, where they are, and how they affect living systems

THE RIGHT TO KNOW.

Communities have the right to know about the toxic chemicals entering the environment. This was the principle adopted at the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development in Rio in 1992. On this principle environmental groups like WWF and Friends of the Earth have based their "Right to Know campaigns which aim to force government and industry to give access to environmental information.

Computerised data bases of toxic chemicals, often called toxic chemical inventories, have been set up to keep track of and record chemical information on polluting factories and the use and emission of toxic substances In many countries this is not done at all and, where it is, it is not often done properly.

The UK currently collects information from some industrial polluters and publishes this material in a Chemical Release Inventory. However, without sophisticated analysis the information in the inventory is of little value for local communities in better understanding the impacts on their local environment arising from pollution. It is also incomplete as information is collected on only a section of pollutants and from only some polluters.

In 1965 Friends of the Earth exposed the nation's top polluters when it launched a computerised A-Z of the dirtiest factories in England and Wales. Anyone with access to a personal computer and connection to the Internet can now find out who is contaminating their local environment and use electronic maps to locate the polluter. The Internet site is " www.foe.co.uk ". This use of the Chemical Release Inventory allows users to explore electronic maps of England and Wales and locate polluting factories as well as finding out exactly which chemicals are being pumped out into the environment and in what quantities.

In the United States there has been far more progress in making environmental information available to the public. For instance the annual compilation of a Toxic Release Inventory has been a powerful motive force behind companies' performance in reducing polluting emissions. League tables of the most polluting companies are published along with maps of where they are and lists of the pollutants they have released. Anxious to get out of the polluting top ten and to reduce the risk of being attacked by local communities and so maintain their community licence to operate firms have taken steps to reduce pollution. Since the Community Rights to Know Act reported reductions in toxic emissions are about 43% for the whole country. This has kept millions of iSounds of chemicals out of our lives. It has helped people to stay healthy and live longer, to spur innovation to help businesses work smarter and cleaner and become more, rather than less, profitable.

What happens to materials I put out for recycling?

 

Sometimes there are rumours that you spend your time separating your rubbish only to have it landfilled with the rest of your waste, please be assured Colchester Borough Council makes every effort to recycle all the materials you put out for recycling:

Glass - 9% of household waste. Glass bottles are melted down and made into new bottles. Less energy is required to melt cullet than convert raw material into glass. One tonne of recycled glass eliminates the need for 1.2 tonnes of raw materials.

Cans - 5% of household waste is metal. Steel and aluminium cans are also melted down and can be made into new cans and car parts. Every new steel can contains 25% recycled steel. Recycling cans saves energy - Aluminium can, 95% energy saving. Steel can, 75% energy saving. Recycling also reduces the need for aluminium ore mining and imports of the aluminium ore, bauxite.

Plastic Bottles - 6% of household waste, by weight. They can be turned into fleece jackets, rulers, furniture, drains and car dashboards. It requires 20,000 plastic bottles to recycle one tonne of plastic.

Paper & Card - 27% of household waste. To keep up with UK paper consumption, a forest the size of Wales is required every year. 2.5 million tonnes of paper ends up in landfill sites every year. so by recycling we save natural resources and energy - paper recycling uses 40% less energy and 40% less water than new paper manufacture.

Textiles - 3% of household waste. 95% of all textiles thrown away are recyclable. High quality second-hand old clothing can be sold for re-use, usually through charities. Medium grade textiles can be recycled into industrial rags and wiping cloths. Low grade textiles can be recycled to produce filling and flocking for the furnishing industry.

Oil - It only takes 1 litre of engine oil to pollute 700,000 litres of freshwater. It's an offence to pour engine oil down the drain. Engine oil can be recycled and refined for secondary use. Take used oil to an oil recycling bank. For free advice on engine oil disposal and to find your nearest Oil bank, contact the OIL CARE HELPLINE: 0800 663366.

RECYCLING

We dump around 83% of our waste in landfill sites. Unfortunately some sites are poorly managed which causes a range of environmental problems not least the production of methane gas, which contributes to climate change. A liquid called leachate is also produced as the waste decomposes This can seep into underground rivers and streams and into the surface water to pollute the natural environment and cause health problems. A further 9% of household waste is incinerated and this can create pollutants such as extremely dangerous dioxins, heavy metals and the gases that cause acid rain.

Recycling waste helps avoid these problems. For example recycling aluminium cans and foil saves 95% of the energy required to produce new aluminium. Recycling these, paper and glass also reduces the need for raw material extraction, which often causes widespread environmental damage- and it also reduces the need for landfill space and incinerators.

Each year in Britain we use more than 6 billion drink cans, 12 billion food cans, 1.7 million tonnes of glass and an average of 2 trees worth of paper each In 1996 almost 25 million tonnes of household waste was generated in England and Wales. More and more people are now recycling their waste. Recycling is the processing of waste or rubbish back into raw materials so that it can be made into new items. Even so before recycling we should attempt to reduce our waste, by buying fewer disposable items and more that have a longer life span. We must re-use our products- using the same bags for shopping, buying refillable items and repairing products instead of buying replacements.

WHAT CAN BE RECYCLED?

A typical household dustbin contains glass, paper, card, plastic bottles, steel and aluminium cans and biodegradable waste such as vegetables- all of which can be recycled. Each ton of paper recycled saves 15 average sized trees, as well as their surrounding habitat and wildlife. More than 20% of our waste is compostable.

Composting is simple and the end result improves the quality of the soil without using chemical fertilisers, peat or commercially produced compost.
Glass: This is one of the most easily recyclable materials. In the UK we now recycle 29% compared with 15% a few years ago. We still have a long way to go to match the Dutch who recycle 75%
Plastic: An estimated 100 million tonnes of plastic is produced worldwide every year, accounting for 4% of oil consumption. Harmful toxic chemicals are used in some plastics to make them flexible and to stop discolourisation and cracking. A great deal of plastic is used in packaging. Where possible do not buy disposable plastic products or anything that comes with plastic packaging in the first place. Re-use whatever plastic containers you have for storing household items- though not food- and always re-use plastic carrier bags. Plastic recycling schemes are slowly becoming available. Your old plastic can end up becoming drain pipes, fence posts, telephones or even fleece jumpers.
Cans: Facilities are widely available.
Textiles: These can be recycled by taking them to a local charity shop where they will be sold to aid the work of the charity.
Furniture: If this is in good condition charities such as the Salvation Army will accept it. In Colchester the Shake Trust (Colchester Furniture Project) will also accept it if it is in good condition. They pass it on to local people in need. Their telephone number is 01206-543438
Paper: Paper recycling is widely available and is probably the most recycled material.
Always try to buy recycled products, but be cautious of those with broad environmental claims because there may be little evidence to back them up. In the case of paper look for the highest content of post-consumer recycled paper. Look for wood products bearing the Forest Stewardship Council logo which tells you that the wood comes from a sustainable source.

Recycling is not a new idea. Since life began one species' waste has been used by another as a resource. This is known as the "closed resource loop of natural ecosystems and we are mimicking this whenever we re-use or recycle our waste.

• For further information please see the following web sites www.wwf-uk.org.uk

• www.greenpeace.org.uk

• www foe. co.uk

• www doc.mniu. ac.uk/ariclace/factsheets

Socially Responsible Investments (SRI) performance

Ethical investment is becoming increasingly important in pension fund management due to a huge rise in public awareness and demand. More than 75% of UK adults believe that their pension scheme should operate an ethical policy (EIRIS and NOP Solutions).

Investors are worried about the world they live in - risks, congestion, climate changes, food scares. Companies that address these challenges are likely to be well managed, and therefore avoid known and future risks, thus reaping future rewards.

With this core understanding, the investment community has been searching for the mechanisms to measure good, ethical and environmental management performance and corresponding business indicators. The weight of evidence is quite strong and new pieces of research strengthen this link.

The money committed to UK ethical investment (unit and investment trusts) has doubled since 1996 and is currently in excess of two billion pounds, and at over 1 % of total in investment trusts (EIRIS in Green Features, Sep/Oct 98), this represents significant opportunities for growth.

Campaigning groups and others are also considerably more aware of the role of institutional investors and are increasingly targeting them. In effect, "green chips are fast becoming as significant as "blue chips (Lean, G 25/11 Green stocks beat the Footsie).

There is also mounting evidence to suggest that there is a link between good environmental performance and enhanced company profitability. Furthermore, "a good environmental record is increasingly seen as a sign of a well- managed company (Michael Meacher, Former Environment Minister). Companies can therefore not afford to ignore the issue of ethical and environmental investment.

Overall they perform very well against the normal market. This shows that being responsible, ethical businesses need not harm performance. The Methodist Church has outperformed the MSCI index since its launch. The managers of the fund believe their SRI policy aids performance, rather than hindering it.

Retail SRI and ethical funds have generally performed well against pension funds internationally. Among SRI indices, the Dominr 400 Index (US multicriteria ethical index) in operation for over 10 years, has shown good performance levels overall.

In UK NPI Social Index' and Dow Jones Sustainability Index' were launched approximately two years ago and have performed well, but it is perhaps too early to judge their success. A new addition, the FTSE4G00d Series will seek to continue this trend.

The academic studies to date, the majority from the U S have given average to positive findings regarding SRI.

Some ethical funds are:-

• Friends Provident (Friends Ivory and Sime at www.fis.com)
• Henderson Global Investors
• Jupiter Global Green (www.iu~iteronline.co.uk)
• Norwich Union (www.morlevfm.com)

The sort of areas they invest in are involved in renewable energy, telecoms & communications, pollution cleaning technologies; transport groups; Waste management and recycling companies.

Ethically Traded Goods

 

What is Ethical Trade?

Ethical Trade is an important and effective means of bringing benefits to workers in the south/developing world so they can invest more in their own communities. It is having a real effect on large companies in the United Kingdom, encouraging them to look at all their trading activities.

The Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) consists of companies, NGOs and trade Unions "working to improve conditions of employment in the supply chains of goods sold in High street shops in Britain. It exists mainly as a result of customer pressure who wanted retailers to act responsibly to farms at farm or factory level.

The ETI code is based on international standards and, briefly, includes:

• no forced work or slave labour
• no child labour to be used
• no excessive working hours
• no harsh or inhumane treatment
• no discrimination
• freedom of association and the right to bargain collectively
• safe and hygienic working conditions
• living wages to be paid

Fair Trade has a different focus. It is an alternative approach to conventional international trade, being a partnership which aims to assist development in under developed or poverty stricken countries. The aim is to make development more sustainable for excluded and disadvantaged producers in the "South - Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean. These producers have no access to mainstream markets, so Fair Trade seeks to change the unfair structures of world trade to help create a fairer society. Poverty alleviation is the main objective.

These Countries need the opportunity to trade and receive fair payment for their work, not to be ripped off or rely on declining charity handouts for their future development and children's education.

The level of the problem is huge with 1.2 billion people in extreme poverty. At the UN Millennium Summit last year 147 world leaders committed to halving extreme poverty by 2015. The latest study by the UN shows that this is unlikely to happen. A World Bank study shows that aid to Africa from OECD countries fell from $32 a head in 1990 to $19 a head in 1998.

They need fair prices for goods to make up this shortfall. Starbucks is just one of the most recent companies to encourage fair trade supplies with 4,000 shops now selling fair trade coffee.

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (EMS)

 

WHAT IS AN EMS ?

This is a way of controlling a company's activities from an environmental point of view from the beginning to the end, where the materials that make the product originate from and in some cases where that product ends up when used.

One way in which to ensure that all environmental concerns in a business at all levels.

WHY SHOULD A BUSINESS GO FOR A ONE ?

• Leading edge on similiar companies - no sudden need to comply with new green' legislation
• Develop new technology
• Increased and better communications with suppliers, distributers and customers
• Good public relations

INCREASED FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE

• Subsidises from carbon tax etc
• Lower costs - less packaging, lower amounts of raw materials and components, lower transport costs
• No pressure from environmental organisations
• Less pollutants produced - less staff sicknesses, lower insurance premiums and less disruption to production

WHAT ARE THE MAIN EMS?

• EMAS - Eco Management and Audit Scheme- Launched in 1995
• BS* 7750 - IST environmental monitoring standard - Published in 1992
• 1SO** 14001 - This is the main standard used and is the one that took the place of BS 7750 - It was introduced in 1997

There are other supporting ISO standards intended to add support to ISO 14001

There are also two other less well known environmental standards:

1) Index of Corporate Environmental Engagement - used by the organisation Business in the Environment to compare how the top FTSE 100 companies manage their environmental affairs

2) CONTOUR - launched in 1997, it provides a bench mark tool for companies to assess how they are doing when it comes to the environment and health and safety with the emphasis on practice rather than policy.

* British Standard

* * International Standards Organisation

Alternative Fuelled Vehicles

ELECTRIC/HYBRID

• It costs as little as 1p per mile to run a car on electricity
• Electric cars are extremely quiet with zero tailpipe emissions
• Life-cycle emissions (including power generation and transmission) also show net environmental benefits for electric vehicles, but a key advantage is that health-damaging pollution is removed from urban centres
• Electricity has been favoured for city-based cars and small passenger vehicles with set journey patterns requiring limited range (around 50 miles), though it has also been trialled in some urban buses
• Electric vehicles can be fully recharged from any 13-amp socket in around seven hours. Vehicles can be effectively part-charged when they are stopped for shorter breaks, which can significantly increase range
• New generation electric/petrol or diesel hybrid vehicles offer significant emissions benefits without the range disadvantage traditionally associated with electric vehicles

LIQUIFIED PETROLEUM GAS
(LPG)

• LPG is very cheap due to the significantly lower fuel duty imposed by the government.
• A litre of LPG currently costs less than half the price of petrol or diesel on the forecourts (excluding battery lease costs).
• A litre of LPG allows a vehicle to travel approximately 75% of the distance it could travel on a litre of petrol
• LPG vehicles can significantly reduce the output of key target pollutants - nitrogen oxide (NOx) and particulates - as well as contributing to reductions in carbon dioxide emissions which lead to global warming
• LPG refuelling points are being introduced all over the country. There were approximately 600 in the UK at the beginning of the year 2001 - and the number is expected to double within two or three years
• Most types of vehicle can be built, or converted, to run on LPG. It is easier and cheaper to convert a vehicle with a petrol engine than one running on diesel
• The typical cost of converting a passenger car or light vehicle to run on LPG is around £1,500 (this cost may be reduced by a Power Shift grant). More and more vehicles with a LPG option are now available direct from the manufacturers
• LPG has proved particularly popular as a fuel for cars and vans, most of which are bi-fuel; they carry both petrol and LPG and can change from one to the other at the flick of a switch

NATURAL GAS (LNG)

• Natural gas is available as compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied natural gas (LNG)
• It has proved particularly popular for trucks, buses and larger vehicles. The extra weight and cost of on-board fuel tanks makes conversion to natural gas normally more expensive than LPG for smaller vehicles
• Natural gas vehicles can significantly reduce output of key target pollutants - nitrogen oxide (Nox) and particulates - as well as contributing to reductions in carbon dioxide emissions which lead to global warming
• There are a limited number of public refuelling points for natural gas. Many fleets have chosen to install depot-based refuelling facilities
• Refuelling options for natural gas range from cheap, slow-fill compressors which can refuel a vehicle overnight, to high-tech stations which can refuel a vehicle in a similar time to petrol. Installing a larger refuelling station can be expensive which means the economics work best when 15 or more larger vehicles are involved to spread the cost
• Natural gas is currently the cheapest of all the fossil-based fuels (including LPG) when fuel costs alone are considered. It costs under 6p per mile to run a smaller vehicle (compared with 10p or more on petrol)
• Natural gas engines are far quieter than diesel engines making these vehicles suitable for overnight deliveries and noise-sensitive locations