It is interesting, if somewhat depressing to notice that mention of the requirement of personal sacrifice, in this case the reduction in the use of personal transport, is met by a deathly hush!! John posted this message on 24th January and the item on which he writes has been studiously ignored!!
I wonder whether environmental lobbyists should be pressing the government to tax 'gas guzzling' cars, not just at consumer level, but hit motor manufacturers where it hurts by imposing heavy fines on makers which continually produce vehicles which are uneconomical to run and produce unacceptable levels of CO2?
Yes, we do need to reduce our dependance on the car, and the last period of fuel price rises has caused me to act accordingly! Although I live in rural North Cornwall, 5 miles from the nearest shop, we actually managed to make a full tank of diesel last a whole month (vehicle: Nissan Tino dci 2.0) - a record for us, whose normal annual mileage is around 15 - 20K miles. We have all been accustomed to the 'freedom' of car travel for a long time. However I believe it's essential us Brits show the world by example that we CAN reduce our thirst for oil by changing our lifestyles. The alternative, as John states, with increased global warming, food shortages and catastrophic environmental damage, is painful to contemplate.
The deathly hush might be due to the fact that not enough people have read it yet. I also see no future for biofuels "en masse", but there are alternative technologies already available for powering vehicles.......we've seen compressed air, hydrogen fuel cells and electric all offered, but the trouble is, not enough money has been invested in them to bring them within reach of most consumers. Simply cutting down on one's present driving-around is all very well, but certainly in my case I can't cut it much further.....as a non-working housewife I already spend 23 hours out of 24 at home!
We are all at the mercy of governments, unfortunately, and unless their thinking can be overturned, or turned around, we seem doomed to be driven down a road to nowhere.
Well said Cynthia. Unfortunatley, today's consumerist society is geared up to make life easier, which in-turn makes us lazier. Small changes (or indeed some bigger ones) in our lifestyles are, however, easy to make. All it just takes a little fore-thought and a small amount of effort. I try to cycle to work whenever possible and I have really grown to enjoy it. I feel fitter and less stressed than if I have to sit in traffic on the way home from work and it takes about the same length of time as driving. As a result I only cover about 5000 miles a year in my car.
I realise cycling may only be an option for those who live relatively close to their place of work (I live 4 miles from my job), but a lot of those who commute miles every day should really re-assess their lives and either move house or job. This may not be possible for everybody, but, for a lot of people, it can be!
"Live Locally" is the motto I try to live by, whether it be living close to work, shopping near to home, buying locally produced products or even growing your own vegetables, there are lots of changes people can make to help to reduce environmental damage.
Incidentally, the last time I visited the the RSPB reserve at their headquarters in Sandy, I was amazed at the number of cars that staff used to get to work. I am aware that the Society are trying to address the issue of staff travel, but at 5pm there was a constant stream of cars exiting the site for nearly half an hour. One would think that working for one of Britain's largest conservation organisations would be enough to raise the conscience enough to use sustainable modes of travel.
With several hundred staff travelling in from largely rural locations with little or no public transport, this is undoubtedly a challenge. We do operate free coach and minibus services for staff on the busiest routes, have an active lift sharing system and provide interest free loans for buying bicycles and rail season tickets. We also run a shuttle service to and from Sandy station, provide several bike sheds and have put a ceiling on car parking space.
When it comes to business travel, wherever possible staff are expected to use trains and to make conference calls where travelling isn't essential. We aim to operate our car pool in the greenest possible way and any air travel has to be approved by a Director. There's no perfect solution to this issue, but we are doing our best to deal with it.