Fight Climate Change

Last night (5th March) Panorama showed a documentary entitled ‘Go Green or Else’. Newsnight journalist Justin Rowlatt was challenged to go green for a year – this involved cutting his family’s carbon footprint and essentially living more ethically. The programme reported on his efforts and how changes he and his family made could help reduce CO2 emission.

The programme was interesting, but there was little to explain why anyone should (or would) want to reduce their carbon footprint. Rowlatt installed energy saving bulbs, started composting, improved insulation and even did away with the family car. His trip to Jamaica to demonstrate carbon offsetting was perhaps a little extreme.

The most interesting parts of the programme though was sadly swept over. Firstly when his house was assessed for energy loss, Rowlatt was told that loft insulation and window insulation would not be economical (window costs would not pay for themselves for up to 80 years).

The second item regarded the use of small wind turbine (the type you can buy from B&Q). Rowlatt was offered the opportunity to trial the turbine pending planning permission. After getting permission, the firm offering the free trial backed out 3 days before installation with little explanation – other than the turbine is only good for some houses and Rowlatt’s wasn’t one of them!

Over the 12 month period, Rowlatt did reduce his carbon footprint by almost a third and to help you has provided his Top Tips online. There’s nothing particularly earth shattering in the list but includes composting, eating less meat, eating more veg, taking less holidays and be energy efficient. One way Rowlatt did this was by using the Electrisave Electricity Monitor.

This is a wireless electricity usage monitor which shows you how much electricity you use at home, how much it costs you, and how much harmful C02 emissions you are contributing (compare prices)! It costs around £70, but it could help reduce your energy bills by finding wasteful appliances (alternatively you could just switch everything off, including the PC and TV on standby and switch all your bulbs to energy efficient ones).