This is a dump of all important facts & stats I find regarding the climate, environment, ethical living, sustainability and spirituality I find. Feel free to let me know if there’s something you feel should be listed here. I’ll try to add the original reference where I can.

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Some news that busts a few Green Myths:

• Traditional nappies (diapers) are as bad as disposables, a study by the Environment Agency (UK) found. While throwaway nappies make up 0.1 per cent of landfill waste, the cloth variety are a waste of energy, clean water and detergent.
• Paper bags cause more global warming than plastic. They need much more space to store so require extra energy to transport them from manufacturers to shops.
• Organic dairy cows are worse for the climate. They produce less milk so their methane emissions per litre are higher.
• Someone who installs a “green” light bulb undoes a year’s worth of energy saving by buying two bags of imported vegetables, as so much carbon is wasted flying the food to Britain.

~ info courtesy The Climate Challenge.org

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Sorry to be negative, but as a planet, I think we’re screwed:

• The average Carbon Footprint for people in Australia is 16.30 tonnes/yr
• The average for the industrial nations is about 11 tonnes
• The average worldwide carbon footprint is about 4 tonnes
• The worldwide target to combat climate change is 2 tonnes (um, yeah, I don’t think this will happen!)

~ info courtesy CarbonFootprint.com

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Air Travel:

• contribution of air travel to global warming, in “Sustainable Emission Years” (which is the total fossil fuel a person can use in a year without contributing to global warming if everyone on the planet used fuel equally. Anything over 1 is thus unsustainable): London to Sydney ~ 2.58 years; Vancouver to Miami ~ 0.85 years; New York to Mumbai ~ 1.70 years. Business travelers and companies that send people regularly on international business trips need to seriously consider video-conferencing as an alternative to “face-to-face” meetings and conferences.
• as recent as 1992, global air traffic was half of what it was in 2010
• the carbon reduction amounts we are now trying to achieve is actually roughly where the planet was in 1980.

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