Later in the news programme, there is a report focussed on initiatives for making a difference to climate change. Carbon offsetting is a reasonably new idea, designed to help the planet, although it is also quite big business in certain areas. It is the practice of paying to compensate for the amount of CO2 you were responsible for, so if annually you produces 10 tonnes of CO2 (which is the average in Britain), you would pay a subsequent sum to make sure 10 tonnes aren’t released elsewhere. This can be done by partially funding a wind farm, or paying a poorer country not to deforest. The latter option is particularly good as it allows for the redistribution of wealth to these poorer countries for minimal effort. This can be done from as little as £75 but if you’re doing all of the above you would be responsible for offsetting much less as you would have a much smaller carbon footprint. This is about being fair. By doing this, it averts the harm that we could have caused for someone else. In no other circumstance would it be considered acceptable to harm someone and walk away without compensating them. This is the same story but on a global scale. Melissa decides that she probably can’t afford it at the moment but when she’s in a position to, she’s definitely going to consider it. In the meantime she decides to encourage her family to offset the carbon their household produces n
e, have a look To find out mor: te on this websi nt.
footpri www.carbon fset.html of on b com/car
Many sections of this guide relate to how we can change our lifestyles to cut down on the negative impact we have on the environment – see the sections on Food miles, Consumerism, Transport and Sustainable Energy. 2 http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/ 3 Make sure any protests that you attend are safe, organised and legal! 1
06.
susta ener Melissa loves living independently – just having the freedom to choose what she does without her parents’ constant nagging. But it has some serious disadvantages too, like having to do all her own washing, cleaning, ironing… and having to pay bills! Recently Melissa has noticed her energy bill creeping up in price. So why is it that people increasingly have to pay more for their energy? Melissa digs a bit deeper and finds some interesting information on the government body Ofgem’s website4 where she soon realises that only half the cost of her bill is for the actual gas and electricity itself. This is otherwise known as the wholesale energy price which tends to change frequently, sometime by large amounts, depending upon factors related to obtaining the energy. To her surprise, Melissa finds that the UK pumps large quantities of gas through pipelines under the North Sea from countries such as Norway and Belgium which is then burned to produce electricity. Since 2004, Britain has imported more
The COSY guide to ethical living