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Stop coming to work and save the planet
Telegraph (UK) ^ | April 22, 2007 | Richard Gray, Science Correspondent

Posted on 04/21/2007 10:49:33 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

For most of us facing gridlocked roads and packed trains, the Monday morning commute is a more pressing concern than climate change.

Staggering rush hours could tackle climate change

But there may be a single solution to both, according to business leaders.

The Institute of Directors is calling for flexible hours and more home working to help tackle global warming.

Miles Templeman, the institute's director-general, said offering employees greater flexibility would ease pressure on transport networks and cut rush-hour power demand - thereby reducing emissions. Mr Templeman urged ministers not to rush into policies that risked harming the economy, such as caps on emissions and carbon taxes.

Speaking ahead of the institute's annual convention later this week, he criticised the Government over its "ideological" approach to climate change.

"The politicians are still hooked up on this global leadership on climate change, which has become a political bandwagon," he said. "You can see all the politicians trying to out-green each other. There is a danger they will damage competitiveness and companies will move jobs to other countries."

His comments come weeks after Chris Gibson Smith, the chairman of the London Stock Exchange, said the Government's policies on climate change risked damaging British business.

He said Britain could not tackle climate change on its own and carbon emission penalties put the country's competitive edge at risk.

A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: "The UK environmental industry is already a success story and worth some £25 billion annually.

"Boosting energy efficiency makes good financial sense for business and also helps cut carbon emissions."


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; Politics/Elections; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: carbonfootprint; commuters; commuting; environment; environmentalism; globalwarming; gorebullwarming; greenhousegases; scam
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To: ReignOfError

You never saw pollution if you were never in a steel town back in the 40s-60s.

The simple fact is, the planet doesn’t tolerate clean air; trees emit isoprenes and raw hydrocarbons.

Should we cut down trees?


41 posted on 04/22/2007 4:55:41 PM PDT by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: familyop
I do all my work from my office on the 2nd floor and my lab in the basement. The DSL line provides the necessary connectivity to my office and contractors. VPNs link my lab site to two other sites in Illinois. A VerizonWireless 1xEV-DO capable cell phone is my backup network connectivity. UPS and FedEx roll by my house M-F like clock work. My neighbors operate the same way, so UPS and FedEx are happy campers. My neighbor constructed a $1 million office building on the lot behind our houses. He hosts his own business and 3 others. His "commute" is 10 times longer than my 30 foot commute.
42 posted on 04/22/2007 5:43:04 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: familyop
...and American wives gone wild

Can you please elaborate on this? I am curious about exactly what this means in this context.

43 posted on 04/22/2007 6:03:57 PM PDT by nwrep
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To: nwrep

It meant that some of us were pestered for sex by many of the married women in each office that we worked in.


44 posted on 04/22/2007 6:25:27 PM PDT by familyop
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To: familyop

Wow, that is bizarre. What kind of product or service was this business you worked in selling?


45 posted on 04/22/2007 6:32:21 PM PDT by nwrep
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To: Old Professer
You never saw pollution if you were never in a steel town back in the 40s-60s.

No, and I was never in London when coal smoke brought a killing fog. Your point?

I know the smog alert days in Atlanta burn my eyes and make me get winded faster. Even though Mexico City and Bangkok -- and I've been in both on high-smog days -- are worse, that doesn't strike me as especially relevant.

I don't understand your hostility to common-sense measures that would not hurt our productivity or competitiveness, and would probably enhance both. You might want to ask your doctor if there's a way to stop that knee from jerking.

46 posted on 04/22/2007 7:40:28 PM PDT by ReignOfError (`)
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To: nwrep

...sensitive hauls trucking company office, an office of a large phone company, a large software company with a popular religious philosophy...others. It’s very common.


47 posted on 04/22/2007 8:59:56 PM PDT by familyop
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It’s very hard for people that have jobs as waitresses, cashiers, mechanics, tradesmen, almost all blu-collar jobs, etc, to work from home.


48 posted on 04/23/2007 4:51:39 AM PDT by stuartcr (Everything happens as God wants it to.....otherwise, things would be different.)
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To: ReignOfError

That’s very good for you. Yes it would be nicer, but I think it depends a lot on where one lives, and the type of jobs that are available. I live in the Tidewater VA area, and not many people in the military, or that have jobs that require security clearances, can work from home, to say nothing of those folk, that support the communities.


49 posted on 04/23/2007 4:55:42 AM PDT by stuartcr (Everything happens as God wants it to.....otherwise, things would be different.)
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To: ReignOfError

You don’t seem to understand the law of diminishing returns.


50 posted on 04/23/2007 8:53:15 AM PDT by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: Old Professer
You don’t seem to understand the law of diminishing returns.

I do, but I don't see its relevance to the discussion.

51 posted on 04/23/2007 10:07:04 AM PDT by ReignOfError (`)
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To: ReignOfError

There are only so many jobs that don’t require worksite presence; after that, the demand for more reductions will remain and a new course will need be charted.

At some point, all the easy fixes will be exhausted and louder cries for more drastic measures will once again increase in pitch and volume.

As long as we buy into the idea that a couple of degrees difference in average global temperatures bodes nothing but evil, we will be continually beset with demands for sacrifice.

The air cannot not be pure, ever.

Particulate matter is essential for clouds, diurnal and seasonal changes in the air chemistry will always fluctuate, people are the only creatures or fixtures who care and the earth is not God.


52 posted on 04/23/2007 10:18:47 AM PDT by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: Old Professer
As long as we buy into the idea that a couple of degrees difference in average global temperatures bodes nothing but evil, we will be continually beset with demands for sacrifice.

You're completely missing my point. I'm not talking about changes in global temperature, as I've repeated -- I'm talking about specific concentrations of pollution in specific places at specific times -- the smog that gathers over sprawling cities in the summertime.

The air cannot not be pure, ever.

It was purer in Atlanta ten years ago, let alone twenty. We have more smog on high-smog days, and more of those days than in years past.

The water can't be 100% pure, either, but that doesn't mean we can just shrug off an oil spill because it's a local anomaly.

53 posted on 04/23/2007 10:32:42 AM PDT by ReignOfError (`)
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To: ReignOfError

It was no purer as far as I know; show me some numbers.


54 posted on 04/23/2007 10:42:43 AM PDT by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: ReignOfError

Try this link for starters:

http://www.epa.gov/otaq/models/mobile6/r02029.pdf


55 posted on 04/23/2007 10:49:41 AM PDT by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: advertising guy
One of these days some” other world news whatever” is gonna report that licking your butt is healthy, in fact it adds 5 and for some, 10 years to your life.

That must be the same day I become double jointed.

56 posted on 04/23/2007 10:51:39 AM PDT by Just another Joe (Warning: FReeping can be addictive and helpful to your mental health)
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To: Just another Joe

well in leu if the one sheet one sh*^ Crow memo


57 posted on 04/23/2007 11:33:54 AM PDT by advertising guy (If computer skills named us, I'd be back-space delete.)
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