Happy ecological debt day!

As the date comes ever earlier I thought I'd be tie first to wish those of the U.K a very Happy Ecological Debt Day.

www.neweconomics.org

New research reveals that on Sunday 16 April the UK in effect stops relying on its own natural resources to support itself and starts to ‘live off’ the rest of the world. At current UK levels of consumption our ‘ecological debt day’ – the day we begin living beyond our environmental means – falls only a third of the way through the year and has crept ever earlier over the last four decades.

Here's a few interesting words:

Guardian.co.uk

At just 22 weeks old, an average British citizen will be responsible for the equivalent emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide that someone in Tanzania will generate in a lifetime...

The Dutch and the Japanese are the first to hit the buffers in terms of sustainability. By the first few days in March, consumers in Amsterdam and Tokyo are starting to live off others. Italy comes next, on April 13, followed by the UK. The Germans manage for themselves until the end of May, and the abundance of natural resources in the US means that Americans are self-sustainable for almost half the year.

I'm going to celebrate this year with an extra big Happy Ecological Debt Day cake.

Dailymail.co.uk

Britain 'needs more gas power'
The UK will need more gas-fired power stations soon to avert widespread power shortages, a group of MPs has warned.

So to combat an energy crisis we naturally decide to build more gas power stations, to use more gas which will require the UK to import more resources.
Which means folks Ecological Debt day is going to get even earlier each year!

Yes, with the removal of any real Nuclear power within the UK the slack must be taken up by other methods but simply saying lets build more Gas power stations isn't the answer, because lets face it, Gas prices (or rather energy prices) are going up and the supply (in the future) isn't potentially going to be 100% reliable.
What we need to do is focus on the alternatives, Wind, Wave and Solar, true it sounds like something out of the Green Party Manifesto but it is what we should be focusing on.

For all the main and fringe parties talking about a better environment for Britain or whatever the new shiny PR slogan is at the moment no real large scale investment or change is happening, although fair dues change is slowly happening.
We are on a Island surrounded by this strange blue wet stuff some of us like to call water, landlocked countries may not have access to such power supplies but we do, so lets use them in the method of harnessing tidal power!
Then there is wind, true it doesn't blow 100% of the time but its green and free (minus the set up and maintenance costs) and we don't have to import it nor does add to global warming.
And then comes the wonder that is solar power, not practical on a large scale at the moment but in time it will become more efficient but in the mean time it can be used on a smaller scale for businesses and homes (tax cuts making this economically viable for smaller businesses and families).

The Government both National and Local needs to play a greater role in energy and environment, local recycling is nothing difficult but it does make a difference, tax cuts for companies researching energy efficiency and the such like.

Remember people, do you really want Timmy to be learning in his history class that back in the days people could have made a difference but didn't?


[edit on 16-4-2006 by Prometheus James]