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Gerrards Cross people among country's worst polluters
PEOPLE living in Gerrards Cross are among the worst polluters in the whole of the UK, a new survey has revealed.
A study by the Stockholm Environment Institute and Experian, an information services company, shows that the average household in the affluent village produces 35 tonnes of carbon emissions every year, which comes to more than 20 tonnes more than the greenest areas in the country.
The survey show that the worst area in the country is Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, but Gerrards Cross follows closely behind.
The average household in Great Britain produces around 28 tonnes of carbon per year, meaning that people in Gerrards Cross are producing seven tonnes more than most other places in the UK.
Affluent areas dominate the top of the list, thought to be due to excessive car use, holidays to distant locations and high consumption of consumer goods.
Lindsay Kirby of Experian, said: "More affluent areas are the ones with the higher carbon footprint in posh areas of London or the commuter belt.
"It is Middle England through a combination of factors but mostly travelling a lot and high levels of consumption."
She said that people in areas such as Gerrards Cross need to give up gas guzzling cars such as 4 x 4s if they are to lower their carbon footprint.
She said: "There is definitely a shift among the chattering classes to be more aware of the environmental situation but it is still not enough.
"To get down to the recommended two tonnes per person we need to radically change our lifestyles as well as seeing a change in the technologies we use such as renewables to produce energy, low carbon cars and more efficient appliances."
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Gerrards Cross is not the worst therefore. Rickmansworth is. I bet the people in these towns donate or contribute more to good causes than the millions of people living in smaller carbon foot print areas.These b***** researchers need to get a life.
Whilst I believe that the residence of GX and Rickmansworth probably aren’t the greenest, I think we should recognise two facts that are missing from the account of the report. 1) the data is based on emissions per household not per capita. I would suggest that there are more people per household in the green belt as London works tend to bring up the families out side of London also larger houses tend to require more power to heat in the winter. 2) the assertion is that people who live in Rickmansworth and GX are bad because they pollute. This is clearly incorrect. The issue is nothing to do with location; it is connected with lifestyle and attitude to social responsibility which has nothing to do with where you happen to live.
So whilst I couldn’t give a fig about what people think about people who just happen to live in certain towns or districts, I do care about sloping reporting which muddies important issues and principles. And we need to honest and clear on these if we want to drive change and ITN style reporting doesn’t help.
Time to get off my soap box and fly in another prawn for lunch, or polish my 4x4 (actually “I” shouldn’t do that, I’ll get my man servant to attend to it).