Qatar's Carbon Footprint

I found an interesting article today on the Guardian's website regarding Qatar's carbon footprint.  For the American's following this blog the Guardian is the left-wing, liberal paper that likes to publish the most articles on the environment.  It is not the only paper I read.  I like to read all sides of the argument so I typically try to read three different UK papers during the week.

The article talks about the announcement by Qatar Airways, the national airline, that they will start investigating the potential use of biofuels in their fleet, for use sometime in the future, if viable.  The author of the article argues that what is the point as it isn't going to reduce the country's carbon emissons because the airline is going to increase capicity.  It also states that;

Qataris have the highest carbon footprint on the planet. The country's per-capita emissions from burning fossil fuels are way ahead of any other nation, and almost three times those of everybody's poster bad boy, the US. This is all the more extraordinary since Qatar's electricity is mostly generated from burning natural gas, which has half the emissions of coal.

For a country of just over 2 million people this is pretty damming. The thing is being energy efficient in Qatar has no financial benefit so people aren't interested.  Qatar is the only thing that matters. 

For example the urban run-about of choice by Qatari nationals is a V8 petrol (unleaded) land cruiser which struggles to do 8 miles per gallon.  Fuel is subsidised by the government so we pay .12p a litre or $0.71 a gallon, there is no impact on your wallet to choose a fuel efficient car.  Our water costs are included in the monthly rent and we pay £10.00 or  $16.00 a month for the electricity we use (we have enough electrical appliances to fill a four bedroom house in a 2 bed flat, plus central a/c which is on for 10 months of the year, though we do turn it off when we leave the flat and at night,).

The article certainly makes for pretty damming reading, but the thing is the majority of people here just don't care. If you are environmentally minded it is difficult to make an impact.   I don't really know what we are doing to make a difference, however small,  though I did recently install energy saving light bulbs into all the lamps.  Oh and we don't leave the hot water on all day.  OK, that needs some further explanation.  In our flat we have three separate water heaters.  One for each bathroom and one for the kitchen.  They each have their own switch to activate and in order to have enough hot water for a shower, bath or to wash the dishes you need to switch on the hot water about 20 minutes before you want the hot water.  They do not have timers, and as most people can't be bothered to remember to switch on the heater the 20-30 minutes before you need it they leave it switched on all day.  This is the same as leaving an electrical kettle (with a never ending supply of water) on and the water just bubbling away, all day, every day.

As I said interesting reading about the very different place we are living.