Columns & Opinion
Mulling on evidence that we're happier to talk the talk on the environment than walk the walk, Gareth Kane asks "are we serious?"
A recent study of consumer attitudes in the US has concluded that:
1. That green consumerism is still in a niche,
2. That attitudes are 'mushy' - ie that actions don't always follow attitudes.
I thought that the first conclusion was a bit harsh - the study found that only 29% of US consumers didn't care at all about the environmental impacts of their behaviour. Not bad, in my opinion.
But the mushiness is a real issue. The sales of A-rated energy efficient white goods may be booming, but the Energy Savings Trust estimates that sales of patio heaters are likely to double in the next year.
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Columns & Opinion
This morning I woke to an urgent text from my mother warning me that there were problems with the water supply in my area. Worried, I went to the website for our water supply company to read their ‘special situation report’.
It turned out that the torrential rain we've been having had overwhelmed their system and some rainwater had flooded a chlorine treatment tank and the resultant mixture had got into the supply before the system could be shut down. There was no need to panic, the water company advised, just to boil water for drinking and washing until further notice. They also advised anyone who felt ill to ring NHS Direct!
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Columns & Opinion
As the hard rain continues to fall, Gareth Kane, keeping a nervous eye on the river that runs past his house, thinks we should get realistic?
"If it keeps on raining, the levee's gonna break, When the levee breaks, I ain't got no place to go" sang Memphis Minnie on 'When the Levee Breaks' back in 1929, referring to the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. You might be more familiar with Led Zeppelin's thunderous 1971 version of the song, propelled along by the apocalyptic beats of legendary Black Country tub thumper, John Bonham. And this morning I can bring this blues/weather riff in a rather tenuous full circle as vast tracts of the West Midlands lie up to their armpits in brown sludgy water.
On Radio 4's Today programme this morning the stories of people fighting over bottled water and panic buying in shops was followed by a piece on housing. Some anonymous Government Spokesperson said it was "unrealistic" to stop building on flood plains. "Unrealistic?!!!", I spat at the radio, "Go and tell the good people of Tewkesbury that their current predicament is 'unrealistic'". Sometimes I get very angry at stupidity and this was one of those times. "Why do you think no one has built on these flood plains before? The clue is in the name."
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Columns & Opinion
Following the quiet introduction of the Smoking Ban, Gareth Kane wonders why we're so reluctant to use the full force of The Law to save the planet?
So last week England went smoke-free just like the rest of the UK, and, apart from a slight hiccup in Stoke-on-Trent, there doesn't seem to have been much of a fuss. This made me wonder why we are so afraid to use legal measures to make us more eco-friendly?
Industrialists will howl at what I've just said as they struggle with the latest legislation to come in - the Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) directive and the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (delightfully known as WEEE) directive. So let me be more specific - why don't we use the law to make the lives of us citizens more eco-friendly? Other countries have banned (or taxed) plastic bags, introduced compulsory recycling of beverage cartons and require 'pay as you throw' waste charges to encourage recycling, yet our Government is reluctant to consider any of the above.
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Columns & Opinion
Was anyone else appalled by a report last week by the Optimum Population Trust, which argued that families should restrict themselves to two children because it is no longer responsible, or environmentally friendly, to bring three, four or more into the world? The thinktank, dedicated to reducing population growth and its effects on the world, would seem to most to be a little off the planet rather than saving it. The fact is, as the Guardian who publicised the report pointed out, immigration is now the main reason for population growth in the UK, and according to the National Statistics Online births are no longer the main cause of population increase. With such an overwhelming fact, it seems outrageous for the Optimum Population Trust to suggest that we should have less children for the sake of the environment. Their report seems baseless on that fact alone.
But there is another, perhaps stronger and more humane, reason for not curtailing bringing children into the world…
Related stories: Too many children is bad for the environment | The Green Parent Magazine
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Columns & Opinion
Catching the end of the Live Earth concert in London, Gareth Kane asks what was that all about?
The weirdest moment of the BBC's coverage of Al Gore's Live Earth concerts was Jonathan Ross asking the Pussy Cat Dolls of their opinion of green politics in California. The PCDs, bless their little cotton hotpants, seemed convinced that Arnie "The Governator" Schwarzenegger" was the "mayor" and didn't seem to know much about anything else. I was left wondering cynically whether the Dolls had just been told by their management "Lots of rich treehuggers will be watching - get out there, shake your asses, and shift some units".
But the whole thing was pretty weird and I'm not just talking about the popularity of James Blunt. Beforehand, it was widely sneered at for burning loads of energy flying performers in and amplifying and lighting them as you do in a large concert. The "poverty" concerts (Live Aid, Live 8 et al), didn't get so much grief for spending huge amounts of money putting on big shows featuring extraordinarily rich people lecturing us about extremely poor people. So why pick on climate change?
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Columns & Opinion
As a survey shows that nine out of ten consumers don't trust business on climate change, Gareth Kane asks are we right to be so cynical?
A survey by Consumers International last week made grim reading for those companies trying to prove their green credentials - only 10% of consumers believe industrialists when it comes to climate change, compared to 50% who trust green campaign groups and 60% who trust scientists.
Certainly big business can be ridiculously naive when it comes to trying to build trust. Shell recently organised a environmental summit, and invited along Greenpeace, WWF and Friends of the Earth. Unfortunately these guests didn't act with much decorum, publicly lambasting their hosts for boasting about their relatively modest green projects while quietly "expanding their carbon-intensive tar sands operations in Canada" and "failing to put out its illegal flares in Nigeria". The whole thing was a very expensive way of generating bad publicity.
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Mulling on evidence that we're happier to talk the talk on the environment than walk the walk, Gareth Kane asks "are we serious?"
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