The Climate Change Champions blog: 6

By Rose Stephens

Hi everyone! For this blog I’d like to tell you about what I have been doing as a Climate Change Champion for Wales recently and discussing the importance of tropical rainforests. I’ll explain why we need rainforests, why chopping them down has such a huge effect on global warming and how you as a consumer can make smart choices to avoid buying anything that has involved deforestation in its production.

Last month I attended the Climate Change Commission meeting with my fellow Champion, Jenni. The Commission is a collection of Welsh decision makers and is chaired by Jane Davidson, the Environment Minister for the Welsh Assembly Government. They meet several times throughout the year to discuss and plan how we should tackle climate change and to debate the effects of environmental changes in Wales. It was an interesting meeting overall where some very important issues were raised and it was really great to be able to put forward our own concerns to the country’s experts. Have a look on our Facebook group page ‘Our Future, Our Voice/Ein Dyfodol, Ein Llais’ to have your say on the “hot topic” raised: "Is it easier to lower our carbon footprint radically or adapt to living with more extreme weather conditions?".

Now for some important info on rainforests! Rainforests are a crucial part of the world’s eco-system. They contribute to lots of our weather systems, are a huge source of biodiversity and most importantly for climate change, they act as carbon sinks. As plants and trees in the rainforests take in large amounts of carbon dioxide and store it, the greenhouse effect is lessened as there is less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It’s pretty clever really!

However, these natural carbon sinks are being destroyed at an astonishing rate. Every year a part of the Amazon rainforest the size of Wales is cut down and often burnt which puts the CO2 straight back into the atmosphere. This is often done by logging companies, to make grazing land available for cattle or to grow crops on. The situation is so bad now that campaign groups including Greenpeace and Planet Action have estimated that deforestation accounts for approximately 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

But do not fear - there is something we can do about it!

Be more aware about what you are buying. For example, some beauty products use palm oil which is often produced by cutting down and burning massive areas of rainforest to grow palm trees for their valuable palm nuts. Since each palm nut only gives a few drops of oil, this is a hugely inefficient system and also very, very bad news for reducing the effects of climate change!  If you are going shopping, before you buy something, have a look to see if it has the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) certification on it. This means that there have not been any methods used in its production that may in any way harm the rainforest. Things like soya milk and sustainably produced timber often have this certification.

So as you can see, we can all help to save the environment in lots of small ways, even by making smart choices as consumers.

Top Tip of the month: As well as making smart decisions on what you buy to lower your carbon footprint, you can help to cut CO2 emissions by driving in an eco-friendly way. Make sure tyres are inflated, try not to over-rev your engine and turn off the engine when idle for more than three minutes to stop the unnecessary waste of fuel and increased carbon emissions. This can help to lower your carbon footprint without having to make any significant lifestyle changes.