Alison shares more views on the Environment

11.03.03pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 28th Sep 2006

Lib Dem campaigner Alison Graham from Shillington writes the second part of her thoughts on our need to tackle environmental issues now.....

Our Environment: Niggles - Part Two. What we CAN do…

So: now we've all been told (over and over) what to do to save the planet - if WE save energy; WE don't take cheap air flights; WE drive our cars less, and so on and so on, WE CAN make a difference. If we all do it together, a difference of around an annual 30% saving on the UK's energy emissions.

But what about the remaining 70%? It's huge - and who takes responsibility for it? Is it good enough, for us as individuals to act, when other, larger organisations do not? Here's what we can, and need, to do to get them moving: COMPLAIN. And ASK. We all go in and out of commercial premises every day - doctors, dentists, supermarkets, petrol stations, libraries. Do they, as organisations, care as much as we do about the future of all our children? So - ask: 'Do you have an environmental policy?' (if yes) 'What is it? When are you going to improve it?' (If no) 'Why? Don't you think it's important for your children? When will you be organising one…?'

What will make commercial organisations change their habits? If you, as a customer, were faced with two identical products, and for the same price, but one was carbon-free in operation, which would you choose? Yes. And the more the supermarkets, chainstores , restaurants, realize this, the quicker they will start to compete (as they are already beginning to do) - so the right time is NOW: ASK! Ask Somerfields, Tesco's - how much natural daylight do they use? Are all their lights low-energy? How many airmiles do their products fly? Why don't they use local produce? How environmentally friendly are their distribution networks? 'Yes, all very well, but I don't have the time…' you may say. True, but the planet doesn't have the time either. And the crisis is on our conscience, now. When women boycotted South African goods in the shops, and told the shopkeepers why, South African apartheid policy changed. Women got the vote only by being loud, shameless, and disruptive. (Have we ever changed??). WE CAN DO IT. IT WORKS.

The next step is to be equally noisy about our fear of global warming, to our government. There is a real push to get a key bill included in this year's autumn Queen's Speech: it is the Climate Change Bill, which will reduce our carbon emissions, year on year. Recent surveys show that we are willing, and ready, to install energy saving and creating devices in our homes - ready to buy lower carbon emission vehicles, but the costs are still too high: give us the carrot of good grants and discounts, and we'll go with it. Beds Borough Council gives grants for the installation of solar panels - Mid Beds District Council doesn't - why the post code lottery?

Lastly- we've been rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The crisis is upon us - NOW. And it won't just be nice grapes growing in English gardens, it will be the desertification of Africa, with massive, unstoppable, northward immigration: it will be sea levels drowning huge cities - even London: it will be wars over drinking water: it can be the failure of the UK-warming Gulf Stream, and, paradoxically, as a result, nearer to Ice Age conditions for us and the Continent.

The planet, give or take a few million years, will recover, having rid itself of a nasty parasite. However, we, the said parasites, have so much love and care in our hearts - as our compassion for today's victims of disaster shows, as well as for our future generations' happiness. We have so much creative intelligence - look what we can invent - (bio fuelled planes in the future, courtesy of Richard Branson?) - that we can still stop this from happening. But we must act NOW, to push the levers of world government and global corporations. They're starting to shift already, so now is the time to add our voices to the call for action: the more we do, the sooner we shall see the dawn of a cleaner, healthier planet - the one that we call home.

PS: and Shillington Lower School is now a beacon for the rest of us, with its new green initiatives in water and energy saving devices. Let's listen to our children, too. It's their future we're trying to save, after all.

Alison Graham, Shillington Green Group.