Ericathephantom’s Weblog

1: Thirteen billion plastic liquid containers were used in the UK alone last year, and just three billion were recycled.  What became of the remaining ten billion empty bottles?  The answer is they were added to Britains ever packed landfills. A significant number of others undoubtedly found their way to the Pacific Ocean. 

2: “Fewer people may die of cold in the winter, but very many more could die of heatstroke in the summer. In the summer of 2003, some 20,000 people died during a heat wave in France; the same could soon happen in Britain” According to The Environment Agency.

3: There has been a huge decline in certain species of animals and insects in the UK causing them to be endangered such as the European otter, peregrine falcon and the swallowtail butterfly. This is due to housing development, deforestation, DDT (now banned), Pesticides and other chemicals.

4:Who said global warming is a sham? In Britain the plant-growing season is now three weeks longer than it was in 1980. Exotic insect species are turning up in surprising places. Vine weevils and the lily beetle from southern Europe have been found as far north as Scotland.

5: The weather is already showing some strange results. Experts expect our summers to become drier, but when it does rain it will probably rain harder. At the same time UK winter rainfall may increase by between 5 and 20 per cent, leading to worse and more frequent flooding. Sea levels will rise as the polar ice caps melt, perhaps by as much as 86 centimetres in South East England by 2080. And you thought last year’s flooding was bad.

6: The government is deciding whether to build the first new coal-fired generating units in the UK in over 30 years, potentially heralding a new coal rush. This would mean yet more pollution, plus the demolishing of land and housing to make room for these giant coal plants.

 7: Climate change is leading some British botanists to conclude that winter is disappearing as a distinct season in the United Kingdom. 8: Britain is forced to face facts. Fossil fuels are drying up. Soon we will have to find alternatives the recent evidence of the rise of fuel prices are just one thing to show for it. Remember the days when the amount shown on the litre gauge on a petrol pump increased faster than the price? 

9: A new event has emerged in the UK and is becoming ever more popular. ‘Downshifting Week’ is about slowing down your pace, finding a better work life balance, consequently embracing living with less and leading a simpler, greener and happier life!

 10: The government has said it wants to build ten carbon-neutral towns of 5,000 to 20,000 houses across England. However, in some places, woodland and other land is  to be ripped out to make way for these new developments. This is the case in South Derbyshire where protests are taking place: “Say No to Grovewood – don’t rip the heart out of the National Forest”. Not so carbon neutral after all.