Global Warming & Climate Change
On reading Mrinal Roy’s “Climate Change, Greed and Lobbies” (Mauritius Times, Friday 21 September 2018) I asked myself how much can be attributed to global warming by:
- The armament industry by (a) production and later explosion of bombs, and by the movement of bombers and fighter aircraft, navy vessels, etc.
- The entertainment industry by (a) production of films which obviously needs a lot of electricity, and (b) their distribution and projection and viewing thereof in cinema halls and many homes, hotels, etc. How many TV sets are left on unwatched for hours may be?
- The comfort industry. Air-conditioners, they simply remove hot air from a room or automobile and throw it out in the open air which is itself heated and which later seeps back, not forgetting the fossil fuel burned for producing the electricity.
I was told by a friend on home visit from the USA that in some workplaces there some workers wear pullovers to go to work! By the way I have had to attend to patients with high backache attributable to exposure to the office air-conditioning.
- Road-traffic standstill. The average car at a standstill with its engine “ticking” (“en veilleuse”) has its engine revving at 750 rev per second (rpm) whereas a car moving at 45 kilometres per hour (kph) runs at 2000 rpm. How much heat CO2, Nitrous Oxide, etc., being poured out by idling automobile?
- The meat industry. I have read that to produce 1Kg of beef the ox must be fed 10 Kg of feed grains (which could have been used by humans). Not to mention the water needed. How much methane do farm animals worldwide produce (greenhouse gas)?
Vegetarians & vegans console yourselves, the future is yours.
- I am sure other readers can think of some more.
* Published in print edition on 28 September 2018
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