Saturday, September 29, 2012

Is Climate Change a Fallacy?

Note about the non-scientific content of this publicationclick here 



A broader view over the Earth's Environment
Back in 2010, when we launch our volunteer program of consumption downshifting – dfE - we did have some deep certainties based on our previous experiences. We stated in the first dfE post that “... the economical grow itself is a paradigm...”, “... such over accelerated economic boom, in latest centuries, had caused to Earth indubitable losses - such as global warming and its consequences -, planetary wide disequilibrium and Nature mass destruction.”



Even with these certainty in our backpacks, at that time we had a tiny little feeling that we could be possibly wrong. As “everything is possible”, Planet could be just copping with all human activities and to downshift would be a silly decision. But, in any case, the journey seemed to fit perfectly to either confirm of refrain our thoughts. And after all, what is better than check out on the spot and dedicate time for information gathering to defeat eventual doubts?

Well, after 20 months in the journey, about 15 countries visited, lots of observations, many books read, information gathering and reflection, we were exposed to many outstanding facts, which we previously ignored by ourselves. After all, our conclusion is that the Planet is indeed suffering with human activity.



Some of the most relevant facts leading to... 


3rd Footprint Downshifting Report


The graphic report.

3rd Footprint Downshifting Report

Well, at this stage, the dfE's Footprint Downshifting Report doesn't look like we expected when our project begun. During the first three half we had indeed a great reduction on our carbon emissions towards the target of 2 tons/year/person. However, we couldn't actually reach and maintain such level mainly due to non-sailing displacements, which happens when we travelled in land, by air or sail without wind. Sincerely, we are not pleased with our current emissions but this is the true we have to face.

That reality incited our conscience that, even trying hard to avoid flights and unnecessary movements, whenever we travel using transportation based on fossil fuel systems, our emissions will be a way higher than accepted.

Since we have decided that traveling should be an important aspect of our quest towards simple and sustainable life, we now have to face and coop with this reality. One alternative we truly consider is to compensate our emissions when we would eventually settle, somewhere.


Another way to cooperate with our societies is actively participate in education.
For seven weeks we've been sharing knowledge on Ecology, Cultural and
 Natural World Heritage with over 250 young students in China,
in cooperation with UNESCO World Heritage and
CSETC (Chinese Society of Education Training Center)

The compensation shall ensure carbon sequestration in quantities at least equivalent to our overrun emissions. Thus, we are indeed committed to plan and achieve all the necessary counterbalance in our next settlement and, on the top of that, perhaps to offset all our emissions caused by ourselves since our birth. Why not?

Before we settle somewhere, we are volunteering in many different places with the aim of helping sustainable communities to flourish. Here we work in the construction of a green house, for winter food growing and nursery,  in the area of Lasio, Italy



The green house ready! Built with 100% recycled material,

found within the farm premisses.


Some people might now have the question “why so much concern regarding carbon emissions?”


Well, having that question or not, this debate leads to the very next post: “Is climate-change a fallacy”.

Thanks for reading!

Comments, criticism and feedback are always welcome!

DfE team

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Return on line

Volunteering at the Temple of Confucius, in the
Three Confucius World Heritage site, Qufu China.
Here, dressed as Confucius' students, we worked bringing awareness
for tourists about the importance of preserving and continuing his teachings, indeed
the moral basis of Chinese culture.


Dear friends, distinct readers,

We've been without access to our blog while we were in China, which does not allow the use of blogspot. Nevertheless, we've been working really hard in three UNESCO World Heritage projects in : Great Wall, Mountains Sanqing and in Three Confucios, in Qufu. The work was in Chinese pace: 47 days almost without days ! Even if we had access to the blogspot, we wouldn't have time to write.

Well, we are now in Europe, still in different fronts. Raquel is another project of UNESCO, project in Sardegna, Italy, very focused on archeology, which has proved a great passion for her! I'm seeking knowledge on Permaculture, which I'll describe in a next post.

Hence, we will try, in the coming weeks, publish our best experiences and learnings of the last 5 months.

Warm regards to everyone!

Francis