You may have noticed that I’ve changed the template, again. I really like this one, called Fjords 03. I’m planning to change the header images to something more relevant to me, so watch this space. I may also tweak the colours as well. I’ve tweaked the colours to something a bit more butch, and less pastelly.
Don’t worry, I will settle on a template/design soon enough – until the next time that is.
Those of you who are that bothered about NotSL and my other websites to check it out every few hours, you may have noticed that my server suffered a few teething problems over the last one or two days, the reason being an outage as a result of Dreamhost replacing some cables at their office. For more details (if you’re really *that* interested!) go here.
As a result of this, some of the features on my server and Dreamhost generally aren’t quite working at 100% capacity, so if you experience problems with any of my websites, you know why!
To be honest, this was rather frustrating, as I was looking forward to working on deaflawyers.org yesterday! I also need to work on a few other websites, but the problem is time, or lack of it!
Yes, I’m still experimenting with my blog layout. Just bear with me, I’ll settle on something soon enough. I quite like this current look, called wpjeriko01.
The way in which the posts are laid out accentuates the most recent post. The only problem with this is that it splits longer posts, so that you can only read an excerpt. But then, if you were interested in what you’d read thus far, you’d be happy to just click on the link to read the full post.
We’ll see how it goes.
Update: Ooh, just noticed the “new!” image next to this post. I like!
I can’t work it out. The world seems to be on the precipice of a huge catastrophe with global warming, with glaciers around the world melting, such as here and here. It seems that humans are to blame for this – so what’s new? But exactly how and why are humans getting the blame? What are the exact effects? And more importantly perhaps, what are we doing about it?
What is global warming?
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was set up in 1988 to assess information on climate change and its impact. It’s Fourth Assessment Report is scheduled for release soon, but past assessments have predicted that global temperatures will rise by the end of the 21st century of between 1.4C and 5.8C. This will cause glaciers at the North and South Pole to melt, thereby raising sea levels. After all, the melted water has to go somewhere.
Why are us humans getting the blame?
Global warming is attributed to CO2 emissions, which is mainly caused by pollution from vehicles on the road. The Guardian devised this little chart in 1996 showing examples of countries where the most CO2 emissions come from.
Imagine the millions of cars being used ever day, all sputtering out CO2 emissions, not to mention lorries, vans, motorbikes, and even aircraft. A more detailed chart with all the main culprits can be found here. CO2 emissions are also caused by the burning of fossil fuels, land clearing and agriculture.
All these things are carried out or used by humans. No wonder we’re getting the blame.
What are the likely effects?
If the world does get warmer, then countries throughout the world will suffer from a knock-on effect with precipitation and sea level rises. In effect, some parts of the world will be submerged in water. For example, the small island of Tuvalu in the Pacific is already experiencing severe flooding, damaging homes and affecting drinking water. The rising sea levels could even submerge some of the coastal towns in the UK.
Not only that, rising sea levels are likely to have a devastating effect on many species of life on Earth. Marine life immediately springs to mind, particularly those that survive in colder waters, and the coral reefs.
The world will also see more extreme weather, and this is something that’s already happening. See here and here.
What is the world doing about it?
Not enough. This is probably the latest development, whereby leading world politicians and industrialists have reached a new, non-binding agreement to set up a global market to cap and trade CO2 emissions and that a limit should be set for maximum acceptable CO2 levels in the atmosphere. These talks were informal, and do not represent official government policy.
I think this sums up the current situation – NOT ENOUGH IS BEING DONE. World leaders are either ignorant or choosing to ignore the issue. The reasons that spring to mind for this apparent lack of action are probably:
Or perhaps they’re just too stupid or at a loss to do anything about it?
What can we do about it, as individuals?
It certainly seems to be a sorry state of affairs. What are you going to do about it?
I have to laugh at the latest goings-on on Deaf UK. The moderator (He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named) has basically accused everyone of being ‘lazy’ and ‘not interested in deaf issues’ simply because most members did not vote in two recent polls: a reduction in TV licence fees for Deaf people, and about the possibility of Freedom Passes in London being scrapped for Deaf residents.
This has resulted in a furore among the members, who are accusing the moderator of being autocratic and a troll, and for having unmoderated opinions.
Deaf UK is now arguably a farce. It is not longer a space for Deaf people to discuss like-minded issues. It’s just a forum for the moderator to have a go at everyone for no apparent reason.
I’d like to encourage all the current members of DUK (and those who have been banned in recent times), to talk about the issues close to their heart, on BLOGS. It doesn’t matter if in English or BSL. Just blog/vlog. At least you won’t be attacked for expressing your views, and you won’t be moderated.
If you’re not sure how to go about blogging, go here.
Will provide a BSL translation of this post later on today.