Last week we were asked to look at 'How
to Make Your Home More Environmentally Friendly' on the Stanmore
Contractors website. We were promised:
“plenty of valuable information such as:
- How increasing populations, strained natural resources, carbon emissions, and deforestation are all contributing towards global warming.
- The many health and economical benefits of reducing our carbon footprint, and having an energy efficient home.
- Tips and advice on how to assess energy efficiency
- Making the most of government schemes and incentives”
Frankly I was expecting puffery and special
pleading. I was pleasantly surprised.
The site gives a simple and accurate account of climate
change. It mentions sea level rise, Arctic ice, droughts and heatwaves and
notes that “hundreds of coastal towns, cities and islands around the
world [are] at risk of being underwater within the next century.” And it’s uncompromising about human responsibility
for this, referring to both fossil fuels and population increases. That last
point is better than some environmentalists I could mention!
So what are we to do? There are lots of
suggestions, all sensible though some rather minor, and home insulation, part opf Stanmore’s
business, is not given excessive space. It does mention the need to eat less meat
but not the need to fly much less.
Let me repeat – I’m glad to see an ordinary
business addressing climate change.
But there’s a problem – really three problems.
First the site does not say that climate change is a crisis that threatens many
lives. The death toll from the Paradise fire is still rising as I write and 993
people are missing. That’s in a rich country but most of the death and
damage will be in poor countries with much worse services.
Second it does not say that we are on track for catastrophe:
- The world is on course for 3-4 degrees of warming.
- The UK’s policies are too weak to deliver the fifth carbon budget.
- No (or almost no) country has policies consistent with keeping within 1.5 degrees – the Paris target.
Third the
advice implies, by omission, that we can address climate change by relatively
minor lifestyle changes and some green shopping. And that’s nonsense. Of course
it doesn’t say that and the author probably knows better but there it is.
Avoiding a
climate breakdown requires immediate, vigorous action by every government. It
requires major investments by businesses in every sector. And it requires all
of us to accept change we really won’t like.
Perhaps I'm asking
too much. Stanmore is a business, not a political party or a Green lobby. And the
advice from environmental NGOs often falls into the same trap.
Yet it adds
to the sense that avoiding catastrophic climate change will be easy. It won’t.
