How big is your footprint?
It seems you can’t move these days without fear of leaving a great big ‘carbon footprint’. Suddenly the term has taken root in mainstream mediaspeak and according to research, a lot of it is down to the over 50s.
A report published in 2009 by the Stockholm Environmental Institute at the University of York showed that the over 50s have the highest carbon footprint in the UK. On the plus side we also fear climate change and want to see action taken to combat it.
The fact that 50 – 64 year olds have a footprint which is 10-20% higher than any other age group is obviously a worry. Most of us do fear for the world our children and grandchildren will inhabit, but as the report also reveals we can also be frustrated by the failure of government and business to provide stronger leadership to combat global warming.
A little bit of thought and careSo with evidence that we are contributing more to the problem, we must surely also contribute more to rectifying matters. And this surely must mean each of us taking responsibility to do more things differently, and more consistently.
• No doubt most of us, whether willingly or at the direction of our local Council, now recycle certain items. But this isn’t enough. We also need to make the effort to boycott unnecessary packaging and to use less packaged and processed foods.
• Similarly we need to avoid foodstuffs which aren’t in season and/or have been flown thousands of miles to our supermarket shelves. Supporting local suppliers and buying seasonal produce makes a lot of sense.
• Transport is another key area. Although much of the emphasis has been on environmentally unfriendly overseas flights, there is still much that we can all do in terms of cutting down on car travel and just walking more.
• Consuming less all round would also help. Many of the items we buy are produced many thousands of miles away. Do we really need so many new clothes, pieces of equipment, and luxury goods?
Today we hear much about climate change scepticism, and may be tempted to think that there’s not much point in making small individual changes. However there’s no escaping the fact that as we older people have all contributed in one way or another to creating the current situation, we have a greater responsibility than younger generations for helping to rectify it.
It brings to mind this homily which is usually thought to apply to the workplace but is just as pertinent for saving the planet:
Is Anybody going to do anything? Or the Story of ‘They’ Once upon a time there were four people called Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.
There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.
Anybody could have done it but Nobody did.
Somebody got angry about that because it was really Everybody’s job.
Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realised that Everybody wouldn’t do it.
Everybody blamed Somebody and Nobody accused Anybody,
Everybody got very upset when Somebody accused him of shirking.
Nobody wanted a fight, but Somebody started one.
Everybody got hurt.
Nobody apologised and it was Anybody’s guess what would have happened if Somebody hadn’t made them all see reason.
Click here for more information about being over 50
