Carbon counter 08 January 07

Published on 4 January 2007 by Collins Gem low-price books.

You’ve heard of counting carbs. This book is about counting carbon. It’s not the health of your body that is the object of our interest this time, but the health of the planet. Carbon dioxide is the main gas responsible for global warming, and humans are producing 25 billion tonnes of the stuff every year, raising the temperature of the planet to dangerous levels. This book will help you bring down your personal contribution to this rather daunting problem.

According to the government’s chief scientist Sir David King, global warming is the greatest problem facing humanity. It’s therefore a bit of a tall order to solve it all on your own. But if enough people begin to count their carbon, then the rate of climate change can be slowed down dramatically. This could save countless species from extinction, as animals like the polar bear and Bengal tiger will have nowhere to go as the world warms. In low-lying areas, millions of people are at risk from rising seas, whilst vast swathes of the globe could be rendered uninhabitable because of flood, drought and searing heatwaves.

So by ceasing to be part of the problem and instead becoming part of the solution, you can become part of a growing movement to cut back humanity’s carbon emissions before it is too late – and many scientists suggest that the atmosphere’s ‘tipping point’ will come within the next decade, giving us no time to dither before making dramatic cutbacks. The lifestyle changes this implies don’t necessarily mean misery and sacrifice – low-carbon living means that we should all end up fitter and healthier too. So maybe – the planet aside – counting carbs and counting carbon aren’t so different after all.

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