A lighter note…

Did anyone notice that spot of good news last week? We’re so used to environmental news being relentlessly bad, but last week the UK government has calculated that British greenhouse emissions are down by 0.5%.

That in itself is a tiny amount, and obviously needs to come down by a lot more, but the big news for me in the figures is that the biggest reduction in emissions has been achieved by ordinary householders.

While transport and generating are both still increasing their emissions, and industry sees a 1.6% drop, British households are now generating 4% less greenhouse gas than they were in 2005. Four percent in a year is pretty good going. It’s going to have to come down a lot more, but it’s a sign of a big change happening.

For all the talk of greenwashing big business, so far it’s the ordinary householder who is taking the most radical steps and making the biggest difference by changing their household consumption patterns. And hopefully where consumers lead, business will follow.

Few of us can afford to build eco houses, but we can do what we can to lower our carbon footprints. I like the fact that a lot of affordable new suggestions and solutions are coming to the market. Each may only make a small difference but added up… The Radiator Booster that I’ve just started stocking is a simple cheap design. It contains a small low wattage electric fan that circulates the warm air from your radiator quickly, spreading the heat around the room and allowing you to switch down the thermostat by about two degrees. The manufacturers reckon it’ll knock 10% off your heating bills.

Thanks to David G. Romero for the cool bulb photo

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This entry was written by Nigel and posted on Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 at 1:16 am and filed under Energy saving tips, Saving energy, Nigel's Eco Store, Carbon footprints. Bookmark the permalink. You can follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment, or trackback from your own site.

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