Climate Change

Cripes, I haven’t half opened up a can of radioactive worms here…ok, deep breath: basically, whilst living in Cambridge, it’s fairly easy to limit your ‘carbon footprint’ (reduce the amount of waste you produce and energy you use up) by cycling and walking wherever possible.

Under current regulations, flying is not included as a contributor to countries’ CO2 output, but aviation is increasingly being recognized as a potentially huge contributor to global warming. It is so easy to be lulled into buying flights to random Euro destinations for under £15 but this price does not take into account the severe environmental costs, in the same way that an economy bag of carrots at the supermarket does not reflect the true energy cost of producing and distributing them. I suggest that we limit ourselves to flying once a year at most. This summer I traveled to Paris using National Express and found it to be just as cheap and, though still harmful, buses and trains use less energy and produce less waste.

I worry that our generation has grown up very aware of the potential problems of climate change but that even we are complacent to change the way we live, perhaps indignant that we have to limit our gallivanting without really knowing whether it will help. But I believe that we WILL have to deal with it - fossil fuels are running out, plastic bags are piling up in India, Africa and elsewhere, floods and droughts ARE on the increase and all this combined with a devouring consumer ethic in many countries including our own.

We come full circle - issues of global warming are linked to the little choices we make in whether to re-use plastic bags when visiting the veg market; chucking a can in a bin or a recycling box; buying loose or bagged apples, from New Zealand or Kent. It all adds up.

Don't panic though; it may seem like a pretty big problem but we can make easy and worthwhile changes. By making choices such as investing with ethical banks, buying food from decent sources and travelling in as 'Green' a way as possible, you businesses and government the message that these things are important to you as limiting any damage.

A very basic way to calculate how much carbon you are using up can be found here, plus info on how to try and reduce it!

Still want to find out more?