Greener Scotland can be envy of the world

Published on Tuesday 8 January 2008 19:13

SLOWLY but surely, the climate-change clock is ticking.

Eleven of the last 12 years rank among the dozen warmest years since 1850. Average temperatures in the northern hemisphere during the second half of the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years. Global sea-levels have risen since 1961 at an average rate of 1.8mm per year, climbing to 3.1mm after 1993. Arctic sea-ice is shrinking by 2.7 per cent every decade.

The cause of these events is beyond reasonable scientific dispute – a greenhouse-gas effect caused by man-made emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases. Annual emissions of grew by 80 per cent between 1970 and 2004. The atmospheric concentration of now exceeds the natural range over the past 650,000 years. Despite every effort, it is still rising.

If no action is taken to reduce emissions, the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will reach double its pre-industrial level as early as 2035, causing the global average temperature to rise by more than 2C. In the longer term, it could rise by 5C.

The result would be catastrophic weather patterns, widespread crop failure, mass migration northwards and westwards, water shortages and the collapse of bio- diversity. In human terms, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse would be unleashed – war, famine, conquest and death.

The good news is that most studies, including the UK government's Stern Report, come to the conclusion that successful action can be taken to curb emissions, in time and at reasonable cost – Stern thinks no more than 1 per cent of global GDP. But we must act collectively and immediately.

The UN summit in Bali last month registered some momentum towards achieving global action on climate change, but the crucial need for the world's two biggest polluters, the United States and China, to accept mandatory curbs on emissions remains a distant goal. Yet that should not lead to pessimism, or to individuals in Scotland thinking their personal actions are peripheral to global events.

Through the 18th-century Enlightenment, Scotland changed the way the whole world thought and behaved – in economics, in science and in medicine. We did so with the power and clarity of our ideas, and with moral persuasion. It is possible for Scotland to play a similar leading role in the global climate-change debate.

Today, the Scottish Government and The Scotsman launch a Greener Scotland campaign, with ten personal pledges designed to help people get involved in beating climate change. Most of these pledges are simple to adopt – recycling more household waste, walking rather than using the car for short trips, or avoiding plastic bags when shopping. It may seem a modest contribution. And some cynics will dismiss it as a gimmick. But we cannot lecture others unless we are willing to make an effort ourselves. Let us go green together.

Hollywood strike has silver lining

THE Golden Globes ceremony in Hollywood, the precursor to the Oscars, has been cancelled because of the ongoing strike by America screenwriters, who had threatened to picket the event. The Oscars themselves, scheduled for 24 February, could go the same way.

There is a bright side to any cancellation of the Oscars – we will be spared the gushing speeches and the predictable tears. British actress Greer Garson holds the record for the longest acceptance speech – over five minutes – when she received the statue for her role in Mrs Miniver in 1942. Fortunately, since then, the need to squeeze in as many TV ads as possible has limited the responses to 45 seconds.

Yet the speeches can still feel endless, embarrassing or incoherent. Or all three. Jonathan Demme, accepting for The Silence of the Lambs in 1992, used the word "uh" 40 times. A modest James Cameron declared himself "king of the world" after scooping 11 Oscars for Titanic in 1998. When Sally Field won best actress for Places in the Heart in 1984, she blurted: "You like me." Maureen Stapleton, best supporting actress in 1982, covered all the bases, saying, "I want to thank everybody I ever met in my entire life."

All of which suggests those striking scriptwriters deserve their raise. But the real Oscar star was Alfred Hitchcock who simply said "thank you" and walked off.