Specialist (Environment) 

​

All interviews will start with the interviewer asking the following:

 

Your Name

Your Position

Your Credentials with respect to the questions category

 

Can you compare the environmental problems created by the natural world to our own impact?

Suggestion: Naturally occurring disasters include wild fires, landslides, floods, earthquakes, droughts, tornadoes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. 

 

All of them can pump pollutants into the oceans and the atmosphere and have a very negative impact on a stable environment.

 

The volcanic eruption in Iceland in 2010 was, in comparison, a small eruption but the impact of the 250 million cubic meter ash cloud led to the closure of most of the European airspace, the highest level of air travel disruption since the Second World War. 

 

Would you say the sharp rise in CO2 and other emissions and problems coincided with the industrial revolution?

Suggestion: Since the industrial revolution human activities have added significant quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. CO2 levels are rising mainly because of the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. The global mean CO2 level in 2013 was 395 parts per million. This concentration represents a 43 per cent increase from pre-industrial level. It is likely to be at the highest concentration in at least 2 million years.  

​

Suggestion: Since the industrial revolution, humans have expelled enormous amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. CO2 has increased by 35 percent since the dawn of the industrial age, according to the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 

 

This has triggered an unnatural warming that has seen the Earth’s temperature rise dramatically over a short period of time. The average global temperature was 12˚C during the Last Glacial Maximum, when the ice sheets were at their greatest extent. During the following Interglacial period, the average global temperature slowly rose to 13.8˚C as ice slowly melted. 

 

But since 1880, it has increased another 0.6˚ degrees to 14.4˚C (as of 2015). This rate of warming is 50 times faster than the rate of warming during the previous 21,000 years.

 

So, what sort of pollution results from that?

Suggestion: In 2019, total U.S. electricity generation by the electric power industry of 4.13 trillion kilowatthours (kWh) from all energy sources resulted in the emission of 1.72 billion metric tons—1.90 billion short tons—of carbon dioxide (CO2). This equaled about 0.92 pounds of CO2 emissions per kWh

 

Energy and environmental problems are closely related, since it is nearly impossible to produce, transport, or consume energy without significant environmental impact. The environmental problems directly related to energy production and consumption include air pollution, water pollution, thermal pollution, and solid waste disposal. The emission of air pollutants from fossil fuel combustion is the major cause of urban air pollution. Diverse water pollution problems are associated with energy usage. One major problem is oil spills. In all petroleum-handling operations, there is a finite probability of spilling oil either on the earth or in a body of water. Coal mining can also pollute water. Changes in groundwater flow produced by mining operations often bring otherwise unpolluted waters into contact with certain mineral materials which are leached from the soil and produce an acid mine drainage. Solid waste is also a by-product of some forms of energy usage. Coal mining requires the removal of large quantities of earth as well as coal. In general, environmental problems increase with energy use and this combined with the limited energy resource base is the crux of the energy crisis

 

So are the governments not spending considerable sums on green initiatives to grow that number

Suggestion: They have done but is it just politics? Remember that word, incentives. It’s a great word but in the hands of politicians, it becomes worthless and yet another way to suck money out of people. In the UK, the government set up a scheme whereby if you invest in renewable energy sources like solar, you can sell any excess power back to the grid. Great idea, everyone said - win win - then just as the sales of photo-voltaic products reached a peak, the govt said, were not doing that anymore. And the shame of it is, and what you guys are talking about on your programme, is that it got very few column inches and very little follow up to expose a clear scam on the people who actually gave a damn. 

 

Currently, around 1.3 billion people are living without access to modern energy. Why?

Suggestion: When they say its because of unstable governments, they’re dressing it up. They’re perfectly happy to drill and install plants in areas full of war. The denial of service is more in tune with their profitability. And arguably they get the added bonus that a population not able to pay them is cut back. 

 

How much have energy costs risen over the years?

Suggestion: In the early 1980s the cost of energy provision shot up to almost $3000 per person, most notably due to the costs of fuel in transportation. Then, for the next 20 years, it levelled off to about $2000 per person until it shot upwards again in 2000 to a level of about $3300 per person before dipping temporarily around 2010 as we toyed with renewables. Since then, it’s back up to about $3000 per person. 

 

In residential markets, over the last 20 years, the average cost of domestic gas has risen by 221%, while the price of electricity has soared by 193%.

 

These price rises outstrip those of all other goods and services across the economy, the collective price of which increased by an average of only 49%.

 

Energy is a cash cow that just keeps giving.

​

What are the repercussions of continuing as we are, with regard to the environment?

Suggestion: By 2030, the air will become so poisonous that it will be necessary to use an oxygen kit to breathe easily. Human exposure to air toxins will rapidly increase and lead to premature ageing.  

 

Between 1% and 11% of all marine life has succumbed to extinction every year between 1975 and 2015. 40 years. It will continue on this trajectory and threaten the entire marine food chain, which in turn will affect humans. 

 

Fracking doesn’t need the food chain. It directly contaminates our drinking water, as has been confirmed in four US states. It doesn’t only affect water supplies, either. A new report suggests that it could cause greater levels of soil pollution as well. The soil is the very foundation upon which we stand and upon which we depend to grow all of our crops. If unchecked, soil pollution could lead to extinction of all types of life on planet Earth… including us. 

 

CO2 and other greenhouse gases continue to increase. The polar and glacial ice continues to melt and sea levels rise as a result. If all the ice covering Antarctica, Greenland, and in mountain glaciers around the world were to melt, sea levels would rise about 70 meters (230 feet). The ocean would cover all the coastal cities and land area would shrink significantly. Florida would be totally underwater.

​

So how can we help things in the meantime

Suggestion: Little changes. Choosing renewable energy, recycling, walking or cycling instead of driving, teaching children to enjoy the outdoors rather than playing games about the outdoors on their tablets and smartphones. 

 

Simple things that ask no sacrifice. Just a change from the norm. Like a diet that doesn’t mean you have to eat less, just eat better food at better times.

 

If we reduce enough profits and they will have to think of ways to make you consume more. They will be forced to adapt to what WE want to do.

 

What are the death statistics from starvation?

Suggestion: 9 million people die every year from starvation, 3 million of them are children.

5 million people die every year from diseases related to polluted water.

1.5 million people die every year from vaccine-preventable diseases.

 

If it were possible, what would happen if humanity suddenly switched off all fossil fuels, all pollution, carbon, chemicals, plastics, everything. Nothing more into the air, the land or the sea?

Answer

 

What would planet Earth look like if sea levels rose by 200 feet? Where would our new coastlines be?

Answer

  

How does methane affect things?

Suggestion: Methane is now 151 percent above pre-industrial levels. Methane emissions from the world’s wetlands could increase by 50-80% by 2100 because of global warming, seeing a further increase of greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere. 

 

Methane release in these wetlands is just one example of a positive feedback mechanism that could cause a ‘climate tipping point’, where if these factors hit a threshold, can lead to large and irreversible changes in the state of our natural systems.

 

So it is imperative for our future we do not exceed these.

 

What is the status of air pollution?

Answer

​

What is the status of sea pollution?

Answer

​

What is the status of land pollution?

Answer

​

Why do climate change agreements like Kyoto and Paris achieve nothing?

Answer

​

So what would the world look like if there was abundant cheap or even free energy? Something that would replace all of what we just switched off?

Answer

​

Do you think that there is a better, cleaner, abundant energy source tucked away somewhere, under wraps?

Answer

​

Which types of energy could that be? Things we already know but underuse like nuclear, or things we don't even know we have?

Answer

​

Could it really be possible that people ignore climate warnings, and the hazards that brings our kids' future, to maintain the wealth and income of monied interests?

Answer

​

Have you ever wondered if that utter disconnect of logic could be for a different reason? Here's a slightly leftfield idea - lets say that aliens are here and are secretly insisting on an agenda to change our climate to suit their own? So they will keep supporting those in power and allow them to continue if they follow this agenda?

Answer

​

Whats the answer?

Answer

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​