Thursday, 21 Jan 2016 17:04 GMT

Doing our part

There can be very little television that is more bizarre than watching wilderness survival-expert Bear Grylls cooking a half-eaten salmon on the side of a river for none other than US President Barack Obama. This was not some fanciful whim though of a top politician near the end of his final term wanting to experience ‘real life’. Rather it was a serious attempt by both men to raise awareness about the effects of global warming on Earth’s climate. Grylls showed Obama how the glacier they were traversing


There can be very little television that is more bizarre than watching wilderness survival expert Bear Grylls cooking a half-eaten salmon on the side of a river for none other than US President Barack Obama. This was not some fanciful whim though of a top politician near the end of his final term wanting to experience ‘real life’. Rather, it was a serious attempt by both men to raise awareness about the effects of global warming on Earth’s climate.

Grylls showed Obama how the glacier they were traversing in the Alaskan wilderness had shrunk massively during his time at the White House, and for his part the President spent time explaining the massively complex web of competing forces that have stopped real action being taken to reduce global emissions.

This of course is a hot topic at the moment, excuse the pun, as we have recently seen the conclusion of the United Nation’s Climate Change Conference, COP21. The aim of this global meeting was to hash out an agreement to keep global mean surface temperature no more than 2°C above that of pre-industrial levels. 

Whether it is the use of solar panels, low-emission vehicles, low-VOC inks, recyclable media, or smart electricity monitors—whatever the solution, it is important we do our part”

The consequences if we do not are thought to be a mixture of extreme weather events, droughts, floods, and sharply rising sea levels depending on your global position—many of which we are already experiencing. But this arbitrary figure is troubling in itself, as it was no more than the hesitant theory of William Nordhaus in the 1970s who came up with 2°C based of the highest temperature changes measured in ice-cores over the last 100,000 years.

The man himself has dubbed this measure “deeply unsatisfactory” as it cannot account for a huge range of important variables. There are however a range of more complex measures that are now being used as part of the study of global warming. But in order to concentrate minds the 2°C limit will continue to be used as the simplest way to communicate the dire need to keep a break on our global emissions. So, whether it is the use of solar panels, low-emission vehicles, low-VOC inks, recyclable media, or smart electricity monitors—whatever the solution, it is important we do our part.