Why bother lying?

So why do we lie?  That’s a good question. There are many reasons to why we lie to ourselves and to others, mainly to save someone from the truth, to make ourselves feel that little bit better or just to be plain mean.

In the question to why we lie about our futures sustainability, it must be to make ourselves feel better! We put the idea into our heads that by doing something good we are saving the planet but then go out and do something just as bad that will ruin the planet. However why do we carry on doing it?

Our culture has become a consumer one, where we have to have the latest technology and we want to have the luxuries of going on holiday etc. By doing this, it’s making everything worse and ruining our planets future sustainability.

Would you rather drive (or drive in the future) a Ford/Renault car or an Audi/Mercedes/BMW?

If I had the choice of cars to drive between a Ford/Renault or an Audi/Mercedes/BMW, I’m afraid to say, it’ll be the Audi/Mercedes and BMW choice. I think of the reasons to why I would choose these types of cars, is due to the brand name and just in general a much more nicer and better associated car brand. So these aren’t really the right reasons to why I want to drive these types of cars. I know my choice should be the more environmental and economically friendly car.

 I have recently just passed my driving test and been insured on my step mums car. As you may not be able to see from the picture, it’s actually a very small car. My dad was saying the other day, that when they first brought the car 4 years ago, they could put £20 in to fill up the whole tank! Now it’s nearly £40!!!! When speaking to a woman at work, she has a BMW, and to fill up her tank, it costs her £80 about every two weeks!!! This is not very sustainable or even environmental friendly, as bigger more expensive cars costs more to run but what is the actual difference of a car these days? The name and brand and how fast it goes? But why it is that people want a fast car when the average speeds on roads are 30mph and even on motorways its 70mph. What’s the point of having a car that can go up to 200mph? (You would just either get a lot of speeding tickets or never even drive the car that fast!)

But it’s the consumer culture we have all look for and want and the thought to compete with your friends and neighbours to have the best looking car out on the driveway. We WANT things, not nesaccarily NEED them. It’s a WANT to look the best and be the best, but by doing this, it’s making our planet worse and I don’t think many people think about it when they do end up buying a car.

Would you honestly rather live in a small flat in a city centre or a bigger house, with more space, perhaps in the country?

I think if I had the choice and of course the money, I would choose both in order to have the best of both worlds. This is the new culture of many people are now getting a “holiday home” either abroad or in the country as an escape from city life. However I know that this isn’t sustainable as it uses up even more resources and land space. If you have a “holiday home”, you use up much more water, gas and electricity to keep it up and running and half the time you either rent it out, or it’s left sitting there, waiting for you to come and visit!

I know the real reason to why I want the best of both and this is because of the fact that you get the status of having two properties and having the luxury of having a “holiday home.” Its again having the status and the consumer culture we have all learnt to have and want.

Would you go as far as swap your new smart phone for the cheapest handset in Tescos?

I would never swap my smart phone for a Nokia 3310 (which was my very first phone!!) as on my smart phone, I can get the internet on it, applications, take pictures and videos, where only the nokia would be able to send and receive phone calls and texts. In this more modern technology a nokia wouldn’t be “cool” to have. People want a phone with all the gadgets on it, at the touch of a button to be in touch all the time. My blackberry for example, send me notifications when someone comments on my face book or twitter, can send blackberry messages, as well as receiving texts and phone calls. So as people like to say, I’m always connected now with everything due to my phone doing it all for me! Even when my blackberry broke I felt so lost and out of the loop and the phone i did have wasn’t exactly a rubbish one at that, it’s just because i wanted my blackberry back for the face book, twitter and blackberry messenger that my replacement phone didn’t have! Therefore I’m a pure example of lying about how sustainable i am, when all i have with me at all times is my blackberry phone!!!

Would you prefer your next holiday to be in Norfolk or Wales or do you fancy a trip to Thailand/South Africa/California/Greece?
My dream holiday would be America, just because I have seen it in films and that I have never been there before. (So I shall be very excited when/if going to Las Vegas next year!) So of course I would like to travel around the world and see all of the different countries, (not because I’m a geographer and that it would interest me!) it’s just that it’s nice to have the choice of going and seeing different places. However, I know getting to these places does mean we pollute the atmosphere even further, which does contribute to climate change, which does mean making our sustainability for future generations questionable. Obviously many people do tend to go on holiday to get away and this means that people also tend to spend, spend and spend! They also waste a lot of resources such as water, electricity and gas, as many people when going away, tend to have to drink bottle water, drink TONS of fizzy, have the air conditioning on full blast ALL THE TIME even if they aren’t in the room and just waste everything when going away. As people believe that if they are paying/paid for it, they should be able to use it freely.

I mean I’m not one to judge, as when I have gone on holiday, my family has the air con on all the time, drinks more bottle water and fizzy due to it being warmer and because its available and just in general seem to use and waste more resources when going away.

This is due to the fact that “package inclusive holidays” are now far much cheaper and popular as people only need to pay one sum and then that’s it! So people go away and just drink and eat because they have more than likely already have paid for it!

Would you give up shopping for clothes for a year?

Well unlike some people who go out and shop every weekend, I generally don’t shop a lot, clothes wise anyway. This is due to lack of wanting to go clothes shopping however I then do think about how much clothes I do have compared to others and it’s not a lot. My flat mate has the bog standard university wardrobes and then on the first day, her parents went and brought her a free standing, pop up wardrobes. (and it’s not exactly a small one to say the least!) I do tend to go shopping when I generally do need clothes because of one reason or another! Many people do go WAY overboard with their clothes (e.g. shopping every weekend, you know who you are!!!) and I have noticed it more being at university, however to give it up for a year, is probably a no go! I’d know if it’s something I can’t have, I’d want to do it more and I personally don’t think that my shopping habits are that bad! I mean ask my flat mates and anyone else I go shopping with, I don’t tend to buy clothes when I do and when I do buy them, it’s because I have generally got the need for them, e.g. I needed some new tights as I have made holes in the pair I have, as I have worn them too many times, they have completely worn out! To answer the question to give it up completely for a year, I wouldn’t be able to.

http://www.simplesteps.org/how-tos/how-green-your-wardrobe these simple steps are a good way to become more sustainable in how to shop. Most of these are simple and cost effective for us to use and practice! This is much better for the environment and our pockets! The article mentions swapping clothes, repairing them, wash them out to dry rather than tumble drying them, shop in vintage stores and donate or recycle clothes. So maybe I think instead of throwing away worn out clothes was to repair them or to be creative and make them into something else!

Would you stop eating bananas, oranges and out of season fruit?

To begin with I don’t like oranges, so I don’t eat them anyway and bananas are probably one of the only fruits I do eat and like!! I’m not a very big fruit fan as I only do eat grapes, apples, bananas and strawberries, the rest I’m not a massive fan of at all! If I really wanted too and at long period of times I don’t actually eat fruit, I could probably stop for good. But due to the goodness of fruit, I feel that I have to eat it because you are supposed to have 5 a day portions of fruit and vegetables, so obviously they would count towards it!

http://dancinggecko.wordpress.com/2009/08/22/out-of-season/

http://www.blurtit.com/q330819.html

However these articles both mention that it’s not sustainable to buy out of season fruit, due to the amount of effort and energy it has been made/travelled in is higher and at a more severe cost than actually buying it from the local supermarkets. However, because of our culture and shops laying out the marvellous displays of fruit and vegetables, we have grown to buying it and wanting it there every time we go shopping! This would mean that we would have to change the way we think completely and this would and will be the biggest thing to tackle with the public’s way of thinking and trying to change it.

Are you so naive and innocent that you think wind farms, tidal power and solar energy can possibly supply our needs in the future?

On my first thought, I think I probably am naïve and innocent to think that wind farms etc. will possibly supply our needs in the future, however if I think about it more logically, there isn’t enough solar power to really supply our needs, as the recent solar powers isn’t enough to help be the main contributor to our power today, even though we have a very modern and state of the art equipment and technology. 

Is there any hope or are we all too selfish, ignorant and lazy to change?
I suppose all we can do is hope that people will begin to get the message that we need to change our ways, however we have become lazy in some places and ignorant to change our habits. I mean we buy the latest thing because of the Media’s input into our lives. There are messages EVERYWHERE about everything, on the radio, billboards, adverts are everywhere telling us to buy things, plus celebrities that put their name with a product make us want it even more (for some strange reason!) because we want to be the best of the best, with all of the latest things in life!

How are we going to change behaviour or should we admit defeat now?  

“This is a story about a world obsessed with stuff. It’s about a story about a system in crisis. We’re trashing the planet. We’re trashing each other and we’re not even having fun!” (Story of stuff) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se12y9hSOM0  This is the first sentence in each story of stuff videos that you can find on you tube. Each clip focuses on one thing for example, bottle water, cosmetics and many more. These short stories show us a good insight into what we are doing with ourselves and to the environment. Bottle water is highly expensive however we drink it like there’s no tomorrow, because of companies and the media saying that tap water isn’t healthy! This is because we are bombarded with this information, we tend to go ahead and still buy bottle water as we think it’s the right thing to do. The clip then goes on to mention things we can do to change our ways of living and this is simply to drink tap water and if everyone was able to do this, the water bottle factories would stop selling, which means over time they would either have to stop selling or cut down on how much they produce because there is lack of demand for it. This would then stop the emissions of cutting down trees; making the plastic for the bottles and saving space in our land fill sites.

Just these simple changes in our lifestyles would help save our planet, however how would we change our behaviour?

I think if we would show people their own future, on how we’re acting now is going to affect them in later years, people would change their behaviour, but as we haven’t got the ability to do that, it’s going to be hard to change their look, behaviour and attitudes in later life. We shouldn’t admit defeat yet, as I believe there are people that are currently looking for the answer to all of our questions about our futures sustainability.

An inconivent truth

An inconvenient truth was a message from Al Gore that global warming was the most pressing subject of today’s problems. Global warming and climate change is happening due to many factors he suggested and that if we don’t do anything, it will harm our earth’s climate for many years to come.

He makes the message very clear, that if we carry on our way of life, with the pollution from fossil fuel extractions that global warming will happen even more quickly, therefore our human impacts are creating the planet to warm up even more. This is then has more long term problems such as an increase in melting of ice, which then leads to an increase in sea levels, which then has problems such as flooding. These changes in climate also has increased in the amount of natural hazards that have occurred, due to warmer weather producing more cyclones, hurricanes and other natural hazards.

Al Gore makes this message very clear by using photos from past and present, the way he uses short animation films to also make the point that its human impacts that have causes all these hazards to happen. He also uses graphs to show how that carbon emissions have increased a lot over the years, by using ice core readings and tree lines to show how much carbon dioxide was in the atmosphere in the past and present. He uses this particular graph in the film that shows the Keeling curve, which as you can see shows an increase in the carbon emissions.

http://scrippsco2.ucsd.edu/ [accessed 23/02/2011]

So I feel the message of global warming and climate change comes off very clear and strong in the film.

I feel that this is the right approach to show the public of what their actions could cause in the near future and also a good way to let people see how we need to change the way we live and how becoming more sustainable will be a good thing. It felt that to change the way we live was a necessary course in order to help save the planet. I didn’t feel that it was too boring or technical, as I felt it was the right amount of balance and that Al Gore did explain it well and backed up his arguments with other research other than his own. The correct information was put into the film by making carbon emissions and climate change becoming the more recurring theme, as he made it clear by using other types of information in the film. Al Gore used his own personal experiences of schooling, trips and his political career of what he has seen throughout the years of the landscapes changing. By using his own experiences, it makes it seem more personal to Al Gore, therefore makes it interesting to the public. He manages to draw people in by doing this, to show that he is just an average man and that he has also seen the changes first hand.

This film interested me as a member of the public and as a student who does geography. It reminded me one of the reasons to why I took geography, as I want to learn more about the world around us and to try and make a difference. By making a difference, we need to become and have a more sustainable way of life; therefore we can remake our own energy by not harming the environment. We can do this in many ways and one of the ways is to reuse what we have got at the moment which is the Earth. The Earths energy has caused things to grow and happen by natural processes such as photosynthesis and without this process we would not be here today, but the film clearly shows us, that as we have changed our way of life and by using much more power for higher demands, we are polluting even more. This causes the earth to warm up; this causes our landforms to change and our earth’s atmosphere to change completely. This then will cause problems for generations to come, as they will have to sort out the mess. The film also makes us think that our non-renewable energy MUST become more sustainable as we will run out; therefore we have to look for alternative ways.

By finding more sustainable ways of living, such as renewable sources and simple things such as recycling, our way of life will change for the better, causing more sustainable communities and a more sustainable future for the generations to come, and I do believe that this film does get the message across by showing us an inconvenient truth.

How sustainable is my community?

Colchester is located 60 miles north east from London and has many transport links to London and other parts of the UK and is also known to be the oldest recorded town in Britain.

Colchester 002E is the area in which I live in and is a fairly new development and only has data back to 2001. So is my area a sustainable community? It may have some of the features of a being a sustainable community, but it may not actually function as one.

Table one

From April 2001, we can see that there are a total of 633 households’ spaces, but as it’s a fairly new development, it may now be much more than this, as even I can remember the area being shrub land!

From the table of the super output area, that there are many different types of housing around the area, such as houses, bungalows and flats and they can be detached, semi-detached and terraced. The majority of people live in a house or bungalow however it shows that flats are only as an in purpose built block of flats.

Within this area, i show the small percentage that live in a flat and there are many different types of flats. Many blocks of flats tend to have four flats within one block however in the block we live in, there is only two.  

Within the area I live, I can see how features of a sense of community have been place within the building works of the area. The SCP (2003) have defined sustainable communities of having, “A flourishing local economy,  strong leadership able to respond positively to change,  engagement and participation by local people, groups and businesses.”

From living in this area, I can say that there is a strong sense of leadership to try and change things as even my mum was asked to join a residential association.

There is a chance to become engaged with the local people, groups and businesses as we do receive a newsletter through the post. This then lets us know what’s going on within the community and what’s on offer to join or participate in. (However I do have to admit, we do tend to glance through it and put it straight in the bin!)

http://www.mylandparishcouncil.gov.uk/index.php

This is the official website for my local council and this gives us news on whom, what and where. It also gives us the chance to go to meetings where we have our say. So if we want to let the councillors know how to make a positive change in the area, there are many ways to contact them. This then ties in with making a change and interact with others within the same community.

However I can say that when me and brother were younger, we did participate more within the community by going to our school fairs and other things we did more when we were younger, but now we don’t really participate within the community, as I think there is more emphasis for when children are younger in order to socialise.

The local services around my area are at least a 15 minute walk away from my house. There is a small square that provides services such as a Tesco extra, hairdressers, doctors, post office and a community centre. Here is the local sense of community, however it being a walk away we tend only go when we need the services and not use the community centres facilities.

This community centre also acts as the local church, the halls are available to hire to the public, (even I have been to a few parties in the hall!!) and many other activities for different age group of children. I also when I was younger spent a lot of time here as this was where my dancing classes were held.  I am afraid to say I haven’t been in the centre for about 8 years, so as you can tell I’m not very community spirited. 

The square also has bus stops and there are three different bus services that go different routes, but all three end up in town. This means there is good transport links around my area for me to get to places and the routes can also mean I can also go to my friends’ houses too!!!

Now when I got my bite plus card, it became my new best friend. It entitles me to half price bus fares all across Colchester and runs out when I turn 20. This enables me to get a full day ticket for £1.60 and a one way ticket for just £1!!!! There is also another category that allows 14-16 year olds to have half price child fares. This has encouraged me to use public transport more and helps to have a more sustainable future.

 On the square it also has many recycling facilities, such as old clothes, shoe, plastic, cardboard and glass collections and other different collection points. This could be seen as a sustainable feature, as the local community and councils are trying to encourage people by recycling their old things, by having the necessary facilities available.

When looking around my area, many people rely on their cars to travel to work and to other facilities as many of the properties have their own drive ways, garages and allocated car parking spaces. My mum for example has the facility of having her own garage and car parking space. There are many traffic calming measures around the area, as there are many speed bumps and the road has been made very windey therefore drivers do have to slow down more.

So to conclude, my community does have some aspects of becoming a sustainable community with all the community activities that are available to the public and there are also aspects of becoming more sustainable. This is with the recycling systems that are around the local communities, good public transport links and especially with the new bite plus scheme to encourage more young people to use public transport. However there are serious flaws to my area being a sustainable community, as there are many opportunities to do things but now the public do not tend to get involved within the community. As a member of the community, I do when I am at home volunteer at a local brownie pack and I must say I love it! So maybe my local community need to try and reach out to older teenagers and give them a more insight to where these things can lead to in later life. Then there are more people involved in their local community and then will be able to help it to become more sustainable for future generations.

Link to table one

http://nile.northampton.ac.uk/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tabGroup=courses&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fcontent%2FcontentWrapper.jsp%3Fcontent_id%3D_303755_1%26displayName%3DLinked%2BFile%26course_id%3D_4755_1%26navItem%3Dcontent%26attachment%3Dtrue%26href%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.envnorthampton.blogspot.com%252F

My bite+ card

How sustainable is my lifestyle?

How sustainable is my lifestyle?

“Sustainable” is a broad term, as many people have different opinions of the word. When I see the word I immediately think of the many problems we face today, such as climate change, global warming and running out of fossil fuels.

Due to these problems, the government and even individuals like me and you are beginning to change our lifestyles to help, “meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (Brundtland commissions definition)

I have now begun to think differently of the energy I use, and since coming to university and seeing how my flat mates are, I believe I’m beginning to become more sustainable.

When I go food shopping I always remember to take my bags for life, as they are much bigger and sturdier than the plastic shopping bags. This has become a big influence from big supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainsbury’s, by advertising the bags for life and now even more recently, charging for plastic bags to discourage them even more to shoppers. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A28808490

I found an article that shows the pros and cons of plastic bags have on the environment and also how a town in Devon has become completely plastic bag free. If everyone used bags for life, this would decrease the energy that is used to make them in the first place, also will decrease the space in landfill sites and the bags wouldn’t harm the environment.

Most of the time I use public transport to get around the town and even when I was at home, I used to rely on public transport.

 http://www.solutions-site.org/artman/publish/article_62.shtml

This web link shows how Curitiba in Brazil changed the whole city design, in order to have a more efficient and cheaper way of public transport. This has now led to 25% less congestion and 30% lower fuel consumption. This shows that if the proper public transport is put in place, more people will use it, therefore reducing the amount of fossil fuels that is extracted, therefore keeping it for the future.

Also being at university I now have the facilities to recycle plastics and cardboards, as at home I didn’t have the facilities to recycle, but my Nan does recycle, so when I used to go round for tea, she always made sure I put plastics and cardboards on the side for her to recycle!

When at home and at university, I always made sure that when leaving a room I turn off the lights and turn appliances of at the walls. Otherwise electricity is wasted on something that isn’t being used. My flat mates aren’t very good at this, as when they leave the kitchen, they hardly turn off the light when they are the last ones out! And even at home, I always made sure my television wasn’t left on standby.

These little and simple things that I do reduces my carbon foot print; therefore I don’t waste and use as much energy. This then reduces the amount of greenhouse gases that is released into the atmosphere, therefore decreases global warming.

So how sustainable is my lifestyle? I think, from an individual level its good, however sometimes it’s very low, but it will be hard to change everyone’s morals and perceptions of sustainability, as that means everyone will have to change their lifestyles.