Incentivizing the general public to combat climate change.

With the skyrocketing energy prices and the credit crunch affecting more and more of us, it is no wonder that we are becoming more reluctant to act even if we don’t fool ourselves into a false skepticism about the human causes of global warming.

In hard times people will look to any excuse to either avoid or even acknowledge their responsibilities if it costs them. Global warming, or more accurately, climate change is a fact Even though we in Western Europe are not feeling the full force of it yet, it does not mean it is not happening. The evidence is growing, yet, as it is said, “There are none so blind as those who will not see.”

Mother Nature has been around for billions of years and will always survive. What is not certain is our survival. We are talking about saving our home - the planet earth. We should make sure that our home is still habitable not only for our children but their children too.

In short, we have to reduce our carbon footprint and our ever-increasing reliance on fossil fuels. High oil prices of recent years will go a long way to achieve that in part, this is a simple case of economics in action, but this will take too long. Rather than implicitly punishing us through global economic forces, possibly strengthened by green taxes the best way to achieve our goals of continued human civilization would be to harness those same economic forces and incentivize the general public to take action.

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The world’s wetlands contain approximately 771 billion tons of greenhouse gases, namely carbon dioxide and methane which is equal to one fifth of the entire earth’s store of carbon.

If the world’s wetlands are destroyed they could release this powerful carbon bomb and unleash a climatic catastrophe upon the planet. As if we weren’t in bad enough shape as it is. Climate change and development are destroying large areas of wetland, and as they are drained, or built upon, their huge stores of greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere.

If all of the wetlands on earth released all of their store of greenhouse gases, there could be a rapid and catastrophic rise in global temperatures. The likelihood of all these gases being released is, of course, very slim. But even a fraction would have a significant impact.

Wetlands include swamps, marshes, river deltas, river flood plains, lagoons, mangroves and even peat bogs and tundra. These wetlands account for approximately 6% of the planet’s land surface, but store 20% of it’s carbon. In the past these wetlands have been destroyed, being viewed as an impediment rather than an aid to civilization. In the past century almost 59% of these wetlands have been wiped out worldwide. This has occurred through drainage for agriculture mostly, although other types of urban development have also contributed, such as peat cutting and groundwater pumping.

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These days the state of our environment is forcing people and manufacturing companies to do what they can to protect it. There are many ways to protect the environment such as recycling, using less energy, creating less pollution and whatever else you can think of.

There is a Japanese environmental equipment manufacturer and supplier called Fuji Energy Co. who have created a compact processing device used to transform used engine oil or other waste oils into fuel oil.

What this device does is it mixes already used engine oil and Type A fuel in a 40 to 60 ratio, heats it up to 60 degrees Celsius and then it takes away the solids using a centrifuge. After this process, the oil goes through a precision filter roughly six or seven times, which breaks it down to micron-sized units. When these units are emulsified, you then get an alternative fuel for boilers with basically the same composition as Type A fuel oil.

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Perhaps, you have noticed the increasing speed of the green movement, almost to the point of being thrust down our throats. We are told that we are doing this to prevent of further addiction to foreign oil and that this is the right solution. Is it really? Now obviously no one likes pollution in their water or air, however there are some issues that must be addressed with this trend.

For instance some folks are taking advantage of the situation, and marketing green without actually having anything that is really green to offer. I see that the green movement is often in “name only” and there are lots of hypocrites as well as “quick-buck” entrepreneurs willing to put the words:

• Environmentally Friendly
• Eco-Safe
• Natural
• Organic
• Green

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