Wednesday, July 23, 2008

It Strikes Me Funny: Is Deforest City visibly getting greener?

A recent headline certainly sounds positive:

“Forest City getting greener” (Free Press, July 18)

In the accompanying article Gordon McBean, a professor at UWO and winner of a Nobel Prize (for work on climate change) says London is on the right path toward combating and coping with climate change.

Jay Stanford, London’s director of environmental programs says London “is seeing a stabilization of greenhouse gas emissions.”

And after a steady rain we appear to have pretty darn good looking lawns too.


However, “on the right path...stabilization of GHG emission...and pretty darn good looking lawns” does not mean we’re getting greener.

When Mr. Stanford said, "Now we've got to get to the reduction” I thought the following:

Admittedly, we are working hard to stay even but we’re not getting greener.

“Getting greener” begins when reductions in emissions are made and they go deep enough to make a noticeable difference.

Am I on the right path?

[Click here to read about one personal way to make reductions @ It Strikes Me Funny]

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2 comments:

Mojo said...

Breaking even isn't positive progress (or is "negative progress" the better term here?), but you have to hit the zero sum point before you can talk about reductions.

And as you can see in this photo, those good looking lawns can be a sign of progress. Not the same kind of progress, but still important.

G. Harrison said...

you're right, mojo; stabilization comes before reduction, as I was intending to mention in tomorrow's post and in next week's column.

"larger measures", some mentioned in article I linked to, are desperately needed and our city seems to be a bit slow on the up-take.

cheers,

gord h.