joyce H

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Even though we are all well aware that global warming is very current concern, it seems that we are still not taking it seriously.  Listening to a well known radio 2 presenter, he joked that he had replaced a light bulb with a 100 watt, rather than an energy saving bulb.  He then went on to comment, that he supposed that meant that another |Polar Bear would be stranded on a small piece of ice.  The fact that I personally did not find it funny, is not my concern.  What does concern me, is the influence that he has over the general public opinion.  Whilst the schools are working hard to educate the next generations, that they need to look after their planet, some of the older generations, see little point in changing their ways at this stage of their life. 

Whilst I find that the ideas that have been introduced, to encourage us to "Go Green", are good ones, I think it is unfortunate that the cost of these items are often higher than the alternative.  We all have bills to pay, and the cost of living has been high, as we all know.  Lead free petrol and Diesel compared to leaded petrol, was the first thing that was noted to be less harmful to the enviroment.  The price of both fuels have escalated over the years, and the goverment are now trying to encourage us to use public transport.  However the cost of the tickets can be high, and the lack of buses and trains for the amount of people who wish to use said transport, are often inadequate. My own 20 minute journey to work in my car, would take one hour and 50 minutes on the bus.  I can not honestly say that it encourages me to change my mode of transport, when it would mean an additional 4 hours away from my family, more so if I was unfortunate enought to miss the bus, as they only run once an hour.

Recycling has been embraced by the british public, but in our area, paper, cardboard, tin and plastic are the only items that the council will collect.  Glass has been recently added and of course garden rubbish.  This is great, and all of our villiage willingly participate in this venture.  However, drink cartons, envelopes and wrapping paper is not accepted, unless you can travel to your nearest supermarket, (ours is 5 miles away) and they have the vessels designed to take the above 3 items. 

Everything seems to boil down to cost.  The price of changing things is always a high figure.  Why is that?  Lets stop plastic bags and go to recycled sacks.  Why are all new homes not built with solar panels?  Hybrid cars are a brilliant idea, but why so expensive. amd why are there not enough stations across the county to provide the correct fuel for them? There a lot of us on this planet, and a large majority would be more open to enviromental change, if the cost was more practical for us to do so.  No one should be forced to do something that they do not agree with, but those that do wish to participate, should be able to, without wondering if they can afford to do so.