What to do about global warming
August 27, 2007 | 6:39 pmGlobal warming and its effects have received much attention lately. Our future, or should I say possible future, is painted before our eyes in media and it is a terrifying scenario. Especially young people, who will inherit the earth, are rightfully scared. Scientists all agree that we have altered the balance of the earth. We have disrupted the earth’s eco-systems. It is a complex issue, because it involves economy, world trade and relationships between countries as well.
We can hide our head in the sand like an ostrich. We can accept facts and be paralyzed or apathetic. The world could end up in chaos as countries begin to fight another for oil or fresh water. Perhaps we will be forced by governments to change our lifestyle dramatically. But another possibility is to work together real hard, all of us, on all levels, to change our future while we still have time.
A real interesting effort in this direction has been made at Tällberg in Sweden. For a number of years there have been a conference in June called Tällberg Forum, where some 400 leaders, politicians, businessmen and scientists have met informally and discussed global questions, ecological systems and economy. Some of the meetings are open for all visitors.
The conference is arranged by Tällberg Foundation, a non-profit organization started in 1981. Its mission is to deepen the understanding of issues related to leadership and change in society and business. The Foundation’s main focus of activity is to gather leaders from around the world and from a variety of backgrounds for discussions and reflection. Some speakers who have visited the conferences and seminars are Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General and Mohammed Yunus, who founded the microfinance bank in Bangladesh.
I have not been there, but have read articles and books published by Tällberg Foundation. I would very much like to go there next summer. The future concerns us all. How can we live together? How can each one of us contribute? We need all the encouragement and practical insights we can get.
Not only individuals have to reflect over there questions, but companies also . Better to adapt to the system change in time and even see business opportunities ahead of time. I will come back to the business perspective later.
I read this article in Newsweek a couple of days ago about major corporations and their plans to derail the efforts to fight global warming. I got pretty bent out of shape.
My anger turned into a desire to do something. This morning I was checking out Google’s new “Google base” and came across this article:
http://base.google.com/base/a/2560087/D6726493050951623104
The thing I found interesting was not so much the article itself, but the website it was referring to. I wanted to share my thoughts and experiences, with regards to that site, in a way that might move others to action. (BTW: The article in Google base is actually amusing and is worth a read)
I spent my lunch break going through the entire website and, let me just say, these guys seem to have something here. They have a pretty extensive FAQ page that I found very informative.
At first, I thought that it was a joke or maybe even a scam, however, I was persuaded otherwise. In their F.A.Q. page they addressed the fact that there are scam artist that prey on the naive. They actually gave links to the authorities, the FBI and their state’s Attorney General’s office, to use if participants feel they have been defrauded!
I want it to be understood that I am a skeptic and pretty tight with my financial resources. I am also EXTREMELY environmentally conscious. That being said, I really felt that this might amount to something. Other green skeptics should browse though the F.A.Q. page as well as the rest of the site and see if they come to the same conclusions.
I showed the site to several of my co-workers and they all searched through the site, as well. At last count, myself and about 30 of my co-workers have taken part in their program.
What this organization, the Adopt the Atmosphere Foundation or ATAF, offers is sponsorship or what they call “Adoption” of the Earth’s atmosphere. They have divided the atmosphere up into “columns” that are each 400 Kilometers high with a 100 square Kilometer base. People can adopt or sponsor an atmosphere column and become a member of their organization for a nominal, and 100% refundable fee.
There are several graphs on their site that clearly explain what the fee is spent on. About 85% will go towards environmental charities, environmental lobbying, and environmental issue awareness campaigns . The rest is divided up in administrative office expenses.
The thing I thought was so intriguing about ATAF was that they are hoping to eventually register the adoption/sponsorship of the entire atmosphere! I guess they plan to use the registry of adopters as a platform to be heard in the international community.
That’s kind of interesting! If the entire atmosphere is divided up and sponsored by environmentally concerned individuals and the concise, detailed records of these designated sponsored columns are kept by an organization in a database registry, the members of that organization would have some real clout.
Even if the only outcome of a massive registry of adopters is a raised level of environmental awareness, than I say, “Good on ya!” to those who’ve orchestrated such a thing.
FYI: The ATAF website is http://www.adoptatmosphere.com
Thanks for the comment and the links. It is great to hear that you moved into action and got the people at your office interested also. I checked out the site and it was interesting. How each of us can contribute to change the environmental crisis can be difficult to grasp, so it is good that organizations and companies formulates and “packages” ways for doing it. We need to use our fantasy and work on all levels.