Why bother lying?

I can admit that my life is not the most sustainable and when it comes to using public transport or recycling I am also somewhat a criminal. In terms of the question; ‘do we try to act sustainably out of necessity or because we actually care about the worlds future?’ I think the answer certainly in my case and I’m guessing in many others particularly those similarly aged to me would be that we act this way out of necessity. Mainly I think this can be explained by the person priorities and lifestyle. If someone has a busy lifestyle such as a hardworking business person or a student like me then they have little spare time, and that makes them reluctant to spend that free time doing anything other than relaxing or participating in the leisure activities they like doing.
After a lot, ok very little thought I have realised that I could do a lot more or make some simple easy choices in my life that would make me more sustainable and reduce my dirty carbon footprint, not to mention more than likely save me some money too. However this doesn’t mean to say that I would make these choices, mainly due to a lethal cocktail of the possible disturbance to my enjoyable life and extra effort I would have to make (I’m lazy, I’m a student).
In the future I would not trade my car (my pride and joy) for a smaller engined more economical and environmentally friendly one, purely because cars are a hobby of mine and therefore I wouldn’t want to reduce the speed and looks of it as it is what I like to have, plus I would not want to look ‘uncool’. In fact as selfish as it may seems as soon as I can and as much as I can I think I may upgrade the engine and looks of my car most likely making it less environmentally friendly yes!
When it comes to a House it is slightly different, as mentioned above I think that lifestyle is the main factor in determining someone’s level of sustainability. And as my lifestyle is very active, I am always out of the house doing things, therefore I don’t think that I would be overly bothered by living in a smaller flat rather than a big manor house with a pool, even though that does sound rather attractive… As long as the house had sufficient room and mod-cons to sustain human life (not like those horrible halls some students choose to live in) I think I would definitely be able to live in a more sustainable residence.Holidays wouldn’t be a large issue for me either; I’m not a massive holiday goer. I do see the attraction a nice sunny holiday aboard offers but I don’t see the need to do it a hundred times a year, once every few years is sufficient for me! I could also say I would be even more sustainable when we look at the controversial subject of air miles. I would be quite happy with going on holiday in this country and only going abroad every other time for instance. This then shows I’m not completely selfish when it comes to providing for the future generations!
Another subject with a lot of focus on it at the moment Is shopping and technology, many means of productions of clothes and technologies are unsustainable due to the profit driven minds of TNC’s who will make products as cheaply as possible to maximise their revenue even if it means reducing their sustainability (they can always plant a tree to make everyone happy). I would gladly give up clothes shopping for a  year (after some sort of shopping trip before hand to update the wardrobe a little bit). Because I think you can wear the same set of clothes differently for a while before you need to update it, the clothes aren’t exactly going to rot after a few months are they! However in terms of trading technology I think I would have to say no to that one. Purely because the technology I have currently suchas an expensive phone, big television and PS£ in my room, 8 inch television in my car etc are too important to me, in terms of looking good but also a necessity; once you’ve had a good piece of technology it is hard to go back to a cheaper version as life becomes easier with the more expensive phone for example.
In conclusion there are several things I could do, not all of them easily but definitely doable to increase my sustainability and do my bit to ensure the future generations come into a world which is as good as it has been for us. However I believe it comes to the argument I strongly believe in; no one is going to put that extra bit of effort in to increase their sustainability because of the lain fact that they do not think that doing those few bits will make the difference. The highly developed human mind which is responsible for our races success is here the downfall. People are so engrossed in themselves that they don’t realise if they just did there bit and had that attitude that them and the others that did would together make the difference. I think this could be fixed by some sort of programme by the government that physically showed people that doing little bits together could make a difference and reassuring them that other are doing it too. No one can honestly believe that just by constructing a few wind farms, tidal power stations and solar panels that global warming will be combatted and our fuel needs catered for, well I personally don’t! It has to be a mixture of these new renewable energy sources and a reduction in our current fuel use to meet the reducing dirty fuels capacity to provide and eventually the limited capacity of whatever new fuel production methods we use.

(below, my car)
Is there any hope or are we all too selfish, ignorant and lazy to change? 

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

I 

How Sustainable is my Community?

I have lived in New Duston for 18 years – my whole life. Living in the area for this amount of time has enabled me to judge how sustainable the area really is, as I am fully accustomed to the local economy and workings of the area.

I am going to split up sustainability into the pros and cons of the area, processes that make the area sustainable and things which could be done to improve local sustainability, looking at data for the local area acquired from the Office for National Statistics.

As the name suggests, New Duston is an area that was created prior to the original village. Therefore the houses are more modern which brings improved housing regulations and energy efficient building methods and materials. The majority of the houses have doubled glazed windows and doors which helps to lock warmth into the house therefore reducing the duration that the heating systems are used for, saving electricity. However with more modern settlements comes more technology and electricity consuming items. When looking at data for the consumption of electricity and Gas in New Duston (Figure 1) compared to the average for Northampton, East midlands and England, it is evident that the area uses substantial amounts.

 Figure 1

This may be due to the mainly younger population occupying the areas (Figure 2) who are more inclined to buy new ‘dirty’ energy inefficient products and be more wasteful than older residents due to their lifestyles; the need to keep up with trends i.e. buying the latest gadgets. The need to buy products to make life easier and a generally less thoughtful mind-set on being wasteful.

Figure 2

Recycling in New Duston is a practiced part of the community. Glass, plastic, paper, garden waste and general waste are all recycled with collections every Thursday. This is sustainable because the damage caused by the creation of the products we buy in Duston is being slightly reduced as the used materials are being recycled and reused.
There are also many bus stops in Duston, with regular public transport. Public transport is a major way that we can reduce our carbon footprint, and reduce emissions from cars by increasing the passenger ratio. Currently out of the 4370 working people in Duston, 248 travel by bus to work. This is a good start as it means potentially 248 individual cars are not being used each day and created emissions. However this is a small number, there are 4751 vans and cars in New Duston – lots of pollution In order for Duston to be more sustainable more people would have to be encouraged to use public transport. But the age of the population comes into play here as many of the population is young; and young people like to drive their cars as they are a large part of their life showing other people how successful they are.
Public services is also tied in with emissions and travel sustainability; new Duston has many services such as; several shops, several schools, hairdressers, florists, doctors, gyms, a dentists, pubs, restaurants, fast food shops, garages, household item shops and much more. This is sustainable because firstly it means that residents of new Duston do not have to travel miles to shopping facilities as they have them on their doorstep, this reduces the amount cars are used for and therefore emissions. Secondly it is also sustainable because the local area’s economy is being boosted when these services are used. The more the local services are used the more the local economy will grow and the more the local area will develop and flourish, and with development and money comes sustainability.

In light of all the pollution from vehicles and products in Duston, its carbon footprint can be said to be slightly reduced by the sizeable amount of green space. Duston contains 6 large parks of open grass space, trees and all of this uninterrupted by pollution. All of the areas release oxygen into the air with combats C02 levels. These spaces also make Duston sustainable because there are areas for children to play, people to socialise, events to take place, and this will always be available.

Sustainability and Me.

Sustainability is a hard word to define, most people could tell you whether something is sustainable, yet they would struggle to give you the definition of why, this is mainly because it is split into social, economic and environmental sustainability and there are many criteria involved.
Today when the term sustainability is used it’s mainly in the environmental context. We are constantly being pressured into making our lifestyles more sustainable, told to recycle to reduce the use of resources, buy locally sourced food to reduce air miles, reduce electricity use to reduce the amount of energy produced through dirty polluting methods and buy cleaner products amongst many other things, all to 'reduce our carbon footprint' and 'save the world'. Individually we may be able to do our part with little effort, simply by turning off the light when we leave the room, washing our clothes on a colder cycle, turn the heating off and put a jumper on and walk to the local shops. However demographics show that this is an issue with so many individually thinking minds; we find it hard to realise how these little things are going to make a difference in such a big world, therefore in the majority people tend not to make the effort. In this ignorance it’s overlooked that if one person thinks this, everyone might, and the approach fails. If we are to become more sustainable, efforts must be made to involve demographic groups instead of individuals.

How sustainable am i? honestly?...... Not very.
I try to be sustainable where I can, but my lifestyle somewhat limits how sustainable I can be.
For example I currently live at home and have to travel 3 miles to and from university in my car, a very polluting  journey when you consider the traffic can mean its churning out CO2 for 45 minutes each way. I drive almost everywhere, my love for cars means I don’t want to walk when I could drive, very unsustainable I know, but at least I’m being honest!
At home we recycle all that can be recycled, cardboard, glass, plastic, clothes, shoes and electrical goods. However this does not make me feel better about myself, and neither does it really make me and my household more sustainable, because the goods were made In the first place, which created emissions and used resources. My mum turns of the heating and points to my hoodie collection, comes in the room and turns the light off leaving me in darkness and has had double glazing installed etc, this is partly to save her some money on the bills though – sustainability is not the main drive. However I must admit I am the thorn in her side. I leave lights on when I’m not in the room, leave the television on when I go out, leave my phone and laptop chargers plugged in whilst they’re not attached and ‘accidently’ sometimes put recyclables in the more convenient general waste bin.
My fairly unsustainable life I blame on my laziness and busy lifestyle. I could be much more sustainable if I tried to, and often vow to myself that I will…. I’ll start tomorrow I promise.

This blog focuses mainly on environmental sustainability as that is the main type concerned with geography and the one that is having the most adverse affects on the universe.

Environmental sustainability is now one of today’s major issues. Many people could be more sustainable but they fail to be, for lack of care and responsibility – the world wont end in their lifetime so it doesn’t effect them, for lack of time in their lives, or many because they purely cannot be very sustainable whilst living the life they live. In order to make a big difference to the world and reduce global warming, a huge effort needs to be made; governments need to create more incentives for being more sustainable. And somehow the message need to be drilled into peoples heads enough to make them change their ways and be more responsible for the world.
DEFRA - the Department for Environment Food and rural affairs has been measuring levels of sustainability worldwide since 1990. It uses 68 indicators to give a final indication of level of sustainability. It concludes that the UK'Compared with the position in 2003, 57 measures show improvement (representing over half of those for which it is possible to make an assessment), and 24 show little or no change.' DEFRA 2010, defra.gov.uk) However, many indicators stil need to be improved.
 Defra states that to increase national sustainability we must Reduce:

• aviation emissions of greenhouse gases
• shipping emissions of greenhouse gases
• carbon dioxide emissions from road freight
• carbon dioxide emissions from the service sector
• energy supply (consumption exceeding UK production)
• farmland bird populations
• community participation
• range of life expectancy between local authorities
• walking and cycling
• households living in fuel poverty

Source: http://www.defra.gov.uk/sustainable/government/progress/policy-monitoring/all.htm

Image below shows conclusion in pie chart form of the indicators (http://www.defra.gov.uk/sustainable/government/progress/policy-monitoring/all.htm) 

The report of sustainability from DEFRA can be found at:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/sustainable/government/progress/documents/SDI2010_001.pdf