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Senator Walton Brown has been making much sense with his contributions on the Motion to Adjourn in the Senate.

The latest of these, on climate change and global warming, demonstrates qualities I value in a leader: global perspective combined with local focus, a substantive agenda (as opposed to a superficial one), and a public-spirited motivation (as opposed to one driven by self-interest).

Senator Brown noted that due to Bermuda's size our ability to influence climate change was small, but nevertheless existed and should be exercised.

I'm thinking, for example, of the heat put out by the increasing amount of waste we generate. Already, Bermuda leads the developed world in per capita waste generation. Our waste product per day has overtaxed the dual waste incineration streams at Tyne's Bay, causing breakdowns of machinery, including the electrostatic precipitators that are supposed to prevent solid particles (ash) from being ejected up the smokestack and onto the countryside. (I don't know how many of you noticed the smoke issuing from the stack over the past few weeks.) Growth in the waste stream is requiring early construction of a third waste stream.

Few people may be aware that one of the reasons we don't recycle paper and plastics in Bermuda is that the incinerator needs them to keep its fires going. As long as we continue "mass-burn" incineration, we won't be recycling paper or plastics. Beside the cost, and this type of no-paper-recycling penalty, the process of incineration produces heat and combustion gases that enter and affect the atmosphere. Of course, in a strained effort to justify incineration, we soothe ourselves with the intellectual palliative that we use the heat, or some of it at least, to generate electricity- even though it's barely 4% of our total electricity budget. However, both consuming and generating electricity release heat into the atmosphere.

Why is that important?

Historically (and I'm talking 3 billion years or so) a portion of the heat produced on or aimed at the Earth radiated out into space, and some was trapped by our atmosphere. The energy of that heat drives our climate, weather and ocean currents. How much heat the Earth 'lost' and how much it retained was determined by the heat-trapping components of the Earth's atmosphere. The blanket of gases surrounding the planet has, for the past 150 thousand years, kept our average temperature within a range quite suitable for human life.

But now, as a direct result of human activity, the composition of that heat-trapping blanket is changing. More methane and carbon dioxide (CO2) are accumulating, both of which are efficient heat-trappers. Vehicles, vessels and aeroplanes pump CO2 into the atmosphere. Transportation generates over 70 percent of the CO2. Coal- and oil-burning power plants account for about half of the rest, With an additional five thousand people added to the globe every day, each of whom will be using more of electrical devices, travelling more miles on bikes, it all adds up to more heat being produced and better trapping of that heat.

The actual mechanism of trapping the heat is like what happens in a greenhouse (too complex for me to explain here). Methane and CO2 are actually called "greenhouse gases", and their increase in the atmosphere is measurable. And the result of that increased heat in our atmosphere and oceans causes sea level rise, and alters the existing dynamics of our climate, resulting in altered patterns and intensity of the planet's weather such as heat waves, violent storms, floods and droughts.

Senator Brown's suggestions are right on target: Monitor and reduce your carbon footprint (look it up if you have to), reduce energy consumption at home, at work and especially for transportation. Every little effort helps.

And the island we save may be our own.[[In-content Ad]]

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