Putting heat on global warming

Studying geography, an emphasis has been put on climate change from the perspective of both physical and human geography. In this post, I will be emphasising on climate change in human geography, and how it’s being exacerbated by society’s ignorance.

Governments can to some extent control businesses, however, it becomes more complex when trying to change the lifestyle of  the populace. It’s all down to politics. The only feasible way to decrease the CO2 footprint of households is through taxation. Is this popular? No. It’s unpopular in the eyes of both the government and the populace. It’s an unpopular decision for a government to make because for there to be substantial change there has to be a fairly substantial tax, putting a green tax out of the stealth tax category. This will inevitably decrease the popularity of whichever government establish such a tax. Because of this, nothing can really be done by a government in a democratic state.

The general consensus for the populace with becoming greener is “if it doesn’t cost extra or involve any physical endurence, i’ll do it”. This doesn’t help the situation; I believe we’re nearing tipping point, and for significant change to occur there must be true support from the populace. A couple of months ago, my geography class carried out a survey within our school. The aim of this was to see how green the teachers are. Questions included “Do you use energy saving light bulbs?”, “Do you turn electrical appliances off as opposed to switching to standby?”, “When given the opportunity, do you pay to carbon offset?” et cetera. Many teachers use energy saving light bulbs, however very few turn appliances off; instead using the convenient standby, and no one had ever paid to carbon offset, and a few hadn’t even heard of the term carbon offsetting. I personally find this disgusting. Why don’t these people carry out the simplest tasks such as turning appliances off at the wall as opposed to standby? It’s definitely not because they’re ill-educated on how to be green – the government has swarmed us with information of how to be green. I believe the underlying problem is, we’re not explicitly being told the consequences. I watch TV programmes, read news articles  and listen to podcasts about global warming – however I believe this information needs to get the circulation which being green has received. with this, people will know why they need to be green. Furthermore, information needs to be given on how it affects local communities. Why should an average person care about receding glaciers and ice melting in the arctic? These people need to know how it will affect them, their family and their future generations. It needs to be brought to these peoples’ attention that for the greater good they may need to physically exert themselves a few more metres to turn off their computer and television, to walk more, for their next car to be fuel efficient et cetera.

Everyone wants to save money, especially now, with greater job insecurity – why not turn off the tap when brushing your teeth and turn off the TV by the wall? Doing this will save you money.

Or, you could invest in green products to save yourself money. Insulate your roof space, buy energy saving light bulbs or buy a more petrol efficient car. Or if you are strapped for cash, British Gas can send you energy efficient light bulbs free of charge! Various areas in my city were sent energy efficient light bulbs without enquiring! All you need to do is be pro-active!

I’m aware that I’m beginning to sound like an infomercial on TV now, so i’m going to conclude this post! Before I go, I urge you to employ a greener way of life, it will help mitigate climate change. Many people think “how much can one person change the problem?” – that is the ignorant attitude which will only exacerbate the problem. We need to unite and become a greener world! It’s up to us to be pro-active, the only other alternative is for taxation to rise to force this upon you.

Before I finish I must mention, Labour are advocates of increasing taxes to fight against climate change – is that what you want? If you want to be treated as an individual, generally, and in terms of mitigating against climate change, back the Conservatives!