Climate change Archives - Climate change solutions. How to go carbon positive with hemp offset and sustainable living

16th January 202116th January 2021

Solutions to climate change: How to avoid a ‘ghastly future’ for humanity

Scientists sound the alarm (again!) in a new report in Frontiers in Conservation Science

Solutions to climate change must be devised and implemented fast, if we’re to have any hope of a decent future for our species and our planet. A team of 17 scientists has published a sobering report, titled Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future. It states that ‘future environmental conditions will be far more dangerous than currently believed. The scale of the threats to the biosphere and all its lifeforms—including humanity—is in fact so great that it is difficult to grasp for even well-informed experts,’ and wonders if any of our existing political or economic systems are capable of dealing with the disasters that lie ahead. The report also calls on scientists to speak out ‘candidly and accurately’ when engaging with government, business and the public.

The good news is, we have a plan…

10th January 202110th January 2021

The heat is on! 2020 was the joint hottest year ever!

As if we didn’t need any more reminding, the world is getting hotter

2020 joins 2016 as the joint hottest year on Earth on record. With alarming heatwaves, forest fires and a record 29 tropical storms in the Atlantic, the average global temperature was 1.25C above the pre-industrial temperature (1850-1900). We are inching ever-closer to the 1.5C temperature rise that will bring significant climate emergencies, and the 2C rise that will spell almost certain disaster.

brad-pitt-global-warming-warning-2020-hottest-year — Will you listen to Brad Pitt, at least?

15th November 202027th November 2020

Three reasons to believe in a better world: US election, vaccine, puppies Sadie and Archie

30th October 20205th December 2020

David Attenborough has a must-watch film on Netflix, A Life on Our Planet

David Attenborough and his emotional call to action

David Attenborough has got to be one of the most-loved people in the world, and he’s part of the fabric of our lives. So his new Netflix film, A Life on Our Planet, comes at just the right time. Just when we think we’re finished, Attenborough delivers the good news that it’s not too late if we act now. He has a vision. And it’s not that complicated. We must halt the growth in the world’s population. We must intensify efforts to create no-fishing zones. We must change our meat-eating obsession. For it’s no longer ‘just’ about saving the planet, it’s about saving humanity.

20th October 202022nd October 2020

Why do we change clocks, are daylight savings for environmental benefits?

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Changing clocks, daylight savings, Franz Ferdinand

We’re so used to changing the clocks for daylight savings every spring and fall. But why do we do it? Enjoying these October evenings? As summer slowly dies (northern hemisphere), those endless evenings have been gradually ebbing away, and our bodies and brains adjusting to the new normal of dark and cold. Then. Bang. The clocks ‘fall back’ an hour, late on Saturday night. The fantasy of ‘an extra hour in bed’ is instead the shock of earlier darkness where once was light. The reason why the clocks change is lost in the bullshit of World War One, when the ‘glorious dead’ piled up pointlessly in filthy trenches, in defence of stupid treaties and something to do with the Austro-Hungarian empire (like, what even was that and who the hell was Franz Ferdinand, besides a Glaswegian band from the 2000s?). Allegedly, changing the clocks for winter gave the peasants an extra hour of hellish toil in the mornings, or it saved on candles, or something. The Germans brought it in, just before the British, in 1916. Take me out, kaiser!

14th October 20208th November 2020

Why the world needs America to fire Trump

Fire Trump: The US Presidential Election 2020 poses an existential threat to the planet

A worsening climate crisis is one of the more visible legacies of Trump’s failures. If the US electorate doesn’t fire Trump, we are literally going to hell in a handbasket, brimming with anxiety and despair. We encourage all Americans to use their vote on or before Tuesday, November 3, 2020. Here are our top 5 reasons to fire President Trump…

2nd October 20202nd October 2020

Will you help fix the world, and do us a favour, by taking our surveys?

We need you to do us a favor, and help fix the world

We believe in surveys, as they are a valuable tool to learn about how we can get people to work together to help fix the world. Your opinion really matters to us. Your opinion can make a difference.

13th September 20201st December 2020

How to build Utopia: Goodbye nostalgia, hello future!

Nationalism and nostalgia are evolutionary dead ends

One positive from the pandemic struck me today. We’ve changed. We are focused on the future, the promise of a vaccine, the chance to enjoy and appreciate the things we took for granted just months ago. Think back, think about Trump and his MAGA desire to return to the 1950s. Think Brexit and the Conservatives’ fantasy of a return to the 1930s. Think about all the deluded nationalists around the world. They all want to take us backwards, to some imagined older, ‘better’ time. These are all bankrupt ideologies. But there is a better way…

19th August 202027th August 2020

How to start saving the world with one bamboo toothbrush

Time to switch to bamboo toothbrushes

Bamboo toothbrushes are awesome. They feel much more pleasant and natural in your mouth, they help sustain jobs in many interesting places, you can easily write your name on them, and they biodegrade completely after use! From the UN Global Goals: Did you know that 1 billion toothbrushes are thrown away each year in the US alone? That’s enough to stretch around the Earth 4 times! 🤯

Plastic toothbrushes end up in landfills and in our oceans, and are consumed by wildlife and fish who mistake them for food. It’s time to say no thanks to plastic toothbrushes and yes please to more sustainable and eco-friendly ones, like our bestselling bamboo toothbrush. 🐟 🐬 🐠

20th April 202010th July 2020

Earth Day is every day. Try our quiz and you can help save the world

Earth Day is every day

Earth Day is every day! Take our Earth Day Quiz and see how much you know about the challenges facing our fabulous planet, and what we can do to help make the world a better place.

There are 10 questions and you can add a comment with your answer, if you like. When you submit your answers, you’ll get to see all the correct answers, plus your score. If you enjoy our Earth Day Quiz, please share it out, then take action! Good luck!

20th April 202014th May 2020

420 is a demand for change. Legalize hemp and cannabis worldwide now

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What 420 means, origin story

In 1971, five high school students in San Rafael, California, used the term in connection with a plan to search for an abandoned cannabis crop, based on a treasure map made by the grower (sounds like a movie waiting to happen). The group called themselves The Waldos, met after school at 4:20 PM, and were later popularised by High Times magazine. Now 420, 4/20 or 4:20 (pronounced four-twenty) is used as a general slang or codeword for smoking cannabis, and also represents April 20, an annual occasion for cannabis activities, including pro-legalization marches where it is still illegal.

10th April 202020th August 2020

Is Europe a country? How the EU can thrive after coronavirus

Is Europe a country?

No, Europe is not a country, and that’s the problem. Europe is landmass and some islands to the left of Asia, plus some far-flung colonial leftovers. The European Union is made up of 27 countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden. To complicate matters, not all EU member states are part of the Euro, which is a distinct currency. 19 EU countries use the Euro, in what is known as the Eurozone: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.

The European Union loves existential crises

The EU seems to stumble from existential crisis to existential crisis, while failing to create and communicate Big Ideas. COVID-19 is just the latest, but this time real lives are at stake, not just banks’ balance sheets or trade with Britain.

3rd April 202014th May 2020

Beautiful news: Some cool stuff for you

The world can and will be better soon. To deal with the coronavirus we need to minimise infections by social distancing, until the vaccine is produced and widely available. And the news is good, with curve-flattening measures working, and a vaccine formula innovated, just this week. Longer-term, people should be discouraged from eating wild animals, or animals from unhygienic markets. This is to ensure that Covid-19’s cousin doesn’t come along next. We’d need a new vaccine for that.

So let’s rethink how we do things, while recognising that the future is ours to build. Check out some of these three amazing things that will help shape your fabulous future. Ways to grow, cash to be won, and some beautiful news. Share the love and share your own great tips! Check back here often for more good news, or sign up for post alerts!

22nd March 20202nd September 2020

Coronavirus forces us to replace chaos and fear with clarity and purpose

Chaos, as a brand, is dead

Trump’s brand is chaos. And we are easily distracted. As a species, we’re hard-wired to always look out for threats. We now seem to be at peak threat level, with existential crises ubiquitous. Climate change may yet cause the extinction of humanity. Terrorists and dictators threaten massacres and even nuclear war. Economies and stock markets are stalled or collapsing. And now a viral pandemic has the entire world on edge, on pause, or on the front lines against an invisible enemy that sweeps through cities like the angel of death.

So those are 4 significant threats hanging over pretty much everybody right now, kind of like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. We are at risk of a malaise falling upon the world. But the good news is that all these problems are made by us, and can be fixed by us. We just need to recognise the origin of chaos and who benefits from it. Then we need to get up, stand up, do something different.

26th February 202014th May 2020

Purer tap water can cut our bottled water obsession

Bottled water market worth $305 billion a year

Think about how heavy water is. Now imagine the amount of energy that must be used in transporting it from source to your home. Our bottled water often comes from halfway around the world. And it’s expensive. But what about the mains taps in our homes? How come so many of us don’t want to drink tap water, even though it’s cheaper and so much better for the environment?

21st February 202010th January 2021

How to save the planet – Top 5 things you can do in 2021

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The world is sliding to hell in a handbasket and it can often seem overwhelming. Well, fear not. The time to start taking action to save the planet is now. Learn to take the spectre of imminent catastrophe in your stride by making a decisive difference. Arm yourself with these actions and be the hero…

1. Be aware of your carbon footprint, cut your emissions, save the planet

What is your carbon footprint? It is a measure of the amount of CO2 you help generate, mostly through your everyday choices. The average for industrialised countries is 11 tons of CO2 per person per year. The world average is 4 tons. The target for all of us? 2 tons. If you want to accurately measure your carbon footprint, this calculator from the WWF is a good start. If you fund the planting of just one acre of hemp with Readathriller, you pretty much offset your CO2 for a year, so watch out for our CO2 offset packages, coming soon. Meanwhile, use our CO2 offset calculator tools and buy some hemp seeds and away you go into an instantly more sustainable future.

10th February 202020th August 2020

What is climate change?

Are the gods angry with us?

Nobody likes hurricanes or floods, fires or droughts. We offer up prayers to those affected, whether traumatised or killed. Sadly, prayers are completely useless in the face of nature. Nature doesn’t care about gods. It’s chemistry, biology and physics. Nature is what we constructed our god myths around. You could say that nature is our gods. So, are our gods angry?

What is climate change and what does global warming have to do with it?

If the climate is a god, we’ve made it angry by adding heat. Hotter oceans have more energy, so release more water vapour into the air. Hotter air holds more water. Hotter air melts ice caps, leading to higher ocean levels and more devastating storm surges. The melted ice cap water heats up and so the water cycle on steroids continues. This is very basic science, something that most 10 year-olds can grasp. But many older men in positions of power are unwilling or unable to grasp this inescapable, scientific truth. This is bad.

5th February 202014th May 2020

Where’s the beef? Meat meal CO2 footprint calculator tool

Meat CO2 calculator for you to use and benefit from today. It’s so easy to make a small change to your lifestyle that can make a huge difference to climate change. Just commit to replacing a number of meaty meals every week with a vegetarian or vegan option, and the benefits soon add up. A cheeseburger meal has a CO2 footprint of 4.35 kg! As an added bonus, you’re also making a difference to animal welfare. Reducing meat consumption helps put pressure on the meat industry to treat animals humanely if it wants to have a future. Start with just one meal a week and see the difference!

2nd February 202027th November 2020

Is Trump the Antichrist from Nostradamus and Bible predictions?

trump-antichrist-nostradamus-bible-revelation — Nostradamus, what can you tell us about the 21st century in your plaguey, medieval French dialect?

Was Nostradamus right? Our investigation will startle you

Is Donald Trump the Antichrist that Nostradamus predicted, and are we now in the ‘End Times’? You could be forgiven for thinking that the end of the world was upon us, with R.E.M.’s song sounding apt on the radio, some American Christians calling President Trump The Second Coming, and new Bible-scale catastrophes every day. Including actual plagues of locusts in East Africa. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t all so tragic. So what we’ve done is bring together some parts of the Book of Revelation from the Bible and some Nostradamus verses to see if these really are apocalyptic times. What can we learn from the stories of the past? Read on…

14th January 202014th May 2020

Climate crisis – Ocean warming accelerates

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Our oceans are warming at the same rate as if five Hiroshima bombs were dropped in every second

Let that sink in: 5 atom bombs a second! The years 2015 – 19 have shown the warmest ocean temperatures recorded. A new report finds that: “Human-emitted greenhouse gases (GHGs) have resulted in a long-term and unequivocal warming of the planet (IPCC, 2019). More than 90% of the excess heat is stored within the world’s oceans, where it accumulates and causes increases in ocean temperature. Because the oceans are the main repository of the Earth’s energy imbalance, measuring ocean heat content (OHC) is one of the best way to quantify the rate of global warming.”

Climate crisis and the dangerous effects of heat on our oceans

We really don’t know how this climate crisis will unfold if our oceans keep getting hotter at this rate, but here’s what could happen:

31st December 201914th May 2020

The 2010s reviewed: 9/11; digital mind control; a global awakening on climate change

2010s events. What happened?

Jesus wept. What a decade. While a ton of nasty shit went down in the 2010s, we must resist the temptation to wrap our minds up in binge-watched box sets. We can work harder to understand why things are the way they are, and actively embrace the ideas and actions that can make the world better at scale.

9/11 and the Long War

The Saudi regime has benefited most from the September 11, 2001 attacks on the USA. That nearly all the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi is pure coincidence. From Iraq to Syria to Libya, all its regional rivals are now in tatters. Only Iran remains, so expect that rivalry to keep getting hotter. The Arab Spring kicked off the decade, a groundswell of hope leading to only one successful transition to democracy: Tunisia. The Syrian War began in 2011, leading to the Islamic State (IS or ISIS) declaring a ‘worldwide caliphate’ in 2014. The caliphate lost its last pocket of territory in Syria in 2019, and its leader al-Baghdadi was also killed. Who funded and inspired IS? The finger has been pointed at Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. As is usual in these cases, follow the money, look at who has benefited most from Islamic State’s despicable, hardline Sunni Islam philosophy and the current disarray in the Middle East.