2023 was the hottest year:

• “Month after month global temperatures didn’t just break records, they surpassed them by far. This year could be even warmer.
• “Global temperatures started blowing past records midyear and didn’t stop. First, June was the planet’s warmest June on record. Then, July was the warmest July. And so on, all the way through December.
• “When scientists combine their satellite readings with geological evidence on the climate’s more distant past, 2023 also appears to be among the warmest years in at least 100,000 years, said Carlo Buontempo, director of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.“

• “The vast majority (99%) of the 281,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide estimated to have been generated in the first 60 days after the 7 October Hamas attack can be attributed to Israel’s aerial bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis by researchers in the UK and US.
• “According to the study, which is based on only a handful of carbon-intensive activities and is therefore probably a significant underestimate, the climate cost of the first 60 days of Israel’s military response was equivalent to burning at least 150,000 tonnes of coal.
• “The analysis, which is yet to be peer reviewed, includes CO2 from aircraft missions, tanks and fuel from other vehicles, as well as emissions generated by making and exploding the bombs, artillery and rockets… Almost half the total CO2 emissions were due to US cargo planes flying military supplies to Israel.”

So what? All this is caused by government or big buiness actions. This is all of a magnitude well beyond our possible daily actions. We are all affectd – but just give up?

It is surpising that at a time, when there is a fairly wide consens that the earth faces deadly problems, the present ecological crisis is not brought under control. There were high level United Nations sponsored consulttions with this goal – reduce or phase out to use of coal and crude oil related fuels – but in spite of all these global efforts, there is also a widespread feeling: Maybe we cannot make it in time!

Such feeling is often based on the assumption that “the powers above” are to be blamed for what they do or not do, and, after all, “we small individuals” cannot do anyhing of the magnitude required to work on the future of the earth.

Both these assumptions are at least partly wrong. To see what is actually going on can produce additional motivation to act.

France started to implement compulsory composting on 1 January 2024

Organic waste – surely not the most serious problem – is now recycled under new ‘compost obligatoire’ rules:

• “With support from the government’s Green Fund, municipalities must provide residents with ways to sort bio-waste, which includes food scraps, vegetable peels, expired food and garden waste.
• “Households and businesses are required to dispose of organic matter either in a dedicated small bin for home collection, or at a municipal collection point.
• “The waste will then be turned into biogas or compost, to replace chemical fertilisers. Alternatively, it can be composted at home.”

Interesting is the fact that while these rules are started, there is no punishment foreseen for those who do not follow them. Obviously there is the hope that a majority of institutions and persons will agree with these measures – and comply.

Only such a common sense for environment conservation can lead to the required common results. Personal motivation can relate to an easy to recall slogan:

Reduce, Reuse, Refuse

Relevant numbers are generally kown – though not calculated by everyone in the same way. About 10 milliion tons of plastic are ending up in the oceans per year, killing millions of marine animals. A lot of it relates to food producion and eating – in the form of big or small units of plastic:

• “Large macroplastics are a problem worldwide because we dump them on the shores of other nations, where things like plastic bottles block access to food for coastal nations and kill about a million people a year due to flooding, landslides, and other environmental disasters. Much smaller plastics, like micro and nanoplastics, which are tinier than a grain of rice, pose a whole other level of medical problem. which can lead to obesity and reproductive health disorders.”
• “Plastic pollution is one of the most visible signs of the environmental crisis we’re facing with microplastics discovered on the highest mountains as well as in the depths of the oceans. They’ve also been found in our bodies.”
• “Solving our plastics problem will require massive regulatory action and coordination by federal and world governments, but that there are also important ways consumers can make a difference. Consumers can take responsibility probably in the most effective way by trying to affect government change while shopping.”

Why did it become normal to use to many plastic appliance at home – plastic mixing bowls, blenders, kettles and pans, where formerly many of these appliances were made of metal, glass, or wood?

Convenience and a lack of awareness is probably a major reason for the continuing probem.

Plastic packaging and wraping is among the serious dangers with a great impacts on the environment: Would we really use so much plastic packaging, if we would regularly remember that they will remain for 1,000 years to decompose in landfills? Some other examples:

• Food scraps: Weeks to months
• Paper: Weeks to months
• Garden waste: Weeks to months
• Wood: Months to years
• Cotton: Months to years
• Rubber: Years to decades
• Plastic: Decades to centuries (or even millennia, depending on the type of plastic)
• Glass: Indefinitely (does not decompose but can be recycled)
• Metal: Indefinitely (does not decompose but can be recycled)

The situation is clear. Why did other governments, including the Camboian one, not yet start to create some rules like in France? It is not clear why it is so difficult to start to take decisive actions – while the problems are known, and known are also some possible solutions.

Humaity has developed by hope. We should not give up – by = starting to act where we can.

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