Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Victoria's Green Matters - 3rd March 2011

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury:
The crisis in the Middle East really makes us think about our oil dependant society and what will become of it.

Perhaps you are thinking about buying a new car. There are many things to consider when investing such a lot of money. It is worth calculating the running costs over the coming years as much as possible as the cost of fuel will continue to rise. Car manufacturers have developed models for today that perform very well but they still use petrol or diesel and this still has to be paid for. Several new models have carbon emissions so low that they attract the advantage of no vehicle excise duty and sometimes upwards of 60 miles per gallon. These are the obvious models to choose, as they are the most economical and the least polluting.

As our whole lifestyle is affected by the price of oil, not only our own transport but the transport of food and other necessities, surely now is the time for massive investment in alternative forms of energy. Wind power is the obvious option that has encouraged investment in this country but wind power will not drive the lorry transporting your food. There are many options around the world that need serious investment if we are to adopt a low carbon lifestyle for the future. For example, bacteria can be encouraged to produce a diesel that is 80% less polluting that oil-based diesel but the power of the oil companies must be overcome with any scheme to replace oil-based fuels. This is no mean task.

We can produce electricity at home with photo voltaic cells on all south-facing roofs and this should be encouraged by the government for our long-term future.

Saving energy as much as possible not only makes economic sense but is good for the climate too.

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