If there was one thing you could change...

[Paul mabbott]

Why can't they stay at home and live purely on renewable energy?

Travel, much of it for trivial reasons, is a major cause of pollution and habitat destruction.

However, even if those problems were mitigated there will still be others. The core problem is ever-increasing growth of numbers of humans (and their farm animals). The best thing that anyone can do is to have no more than two children per pair of current humans. Otherwise all energy/land savings in one generation wil be wiped out in the next ....

Originally Posted by geordie graham

My future son in law who works for N Power is on his way to the Antarctic with Sir Robert Swan and a lot of other people from around the world on an expedition called 2041 in which they will be living purely on renewable energy for approx 4 weeks.They would like to think that by 2041 we would all be relying on this type of energy.Loving wildlife and stunning places as I do I would hope this could happen.If you were to ask 1000 people if we needed renewable energy they would all agree.The only problem is that 999 of them would tell you they wouldn`t want it on their doorstep.Peoples attitudes are going to have to change as well as technology if we are to have planet left.Do people want a nuclear power station on their doorstep or a windfarm?, and I don`t mean just near industrial towns and cities as it is now but spread throughout the mainland.Is enough research being done to harness the energy through wave power which as an Island were surrounded by?.

Graham

[hobble]

People owning more than one house and then leaving their spare houses empty, to use for just a couple of times a year.
This would free up masses of houses and reduce the demand for more buildings, especially here in Cornwall.

[tufftie]

Originally Posted by hobble

People owning more than one house and then leaving their spare houses empty, to use for just a couple of times a year.
This would free up masses of houses and reduce the demand for more buildings, especially here in Cornwall.

Agree with you 100% there. I've a few friends in cornwall can't afford to buy cuase of the way the holiday home market has pushed up house prices and I'd love to move back one day but.... Hopefully the mortgage slump will force some of them to sell these homes they don't really need. What's more just being there, a few weekends a year as you say, they contribute nothing to the community.

[hobble]

It's true a lot of Cornwall's villages have lost their soul/community due to second home owners. Mousehole, Porthleven and many others.
I believe this is a disaster for the future generations of Cornish children. I know many people who have been born here and now in their thirties have no hope in getting on the property ladder.
The governments answer is to build affordable housing around the edges of these villages, these are not that affordable and I believe widen the gap between those who have too much property and those who can't afford them.

[tufftie]

Originally Posted by hobble

It's true a lot of Cornwall's villages have lost their soul/community due to second home owners. Mousehole, Porthleven and many others.
I believe this is a disaster for the future generations of Cornish children. I know many people who have been born here and now in their thirties have no hope in getting on the property ladder.
The governments answer is to build affordable housing around the edges of these villages, these are not that affordable and I believe widen the gap between those who have too much property and those who can't afford them.

Certainly round Penzance way 'not that affordable' is an understatement!!! souls and community spirit go together..but you lose past soul as well if it becomes transient like in the South East corner .

[geordie graham]

Surely it must have been locals! who sold these houses for ridiculous prices in the first place.Paul! the reason they have gone to the antarctic is to show the damage that is being done by global warming and to prove if you can live in such an isolated place purely on renewable energy then it should be a lot easier elsewhere.Most of the volunteers there work for energy companies so hopefully they can report back to their superiors with some positive input.

Graham

[aestarte]

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

I would stop all the new housebuilding on farm/greenbelt land, and build on old factory sites and town centres where there are boarded up properties. Maybe even put more stories on to create more living space. Put more resources into creating habitats for wildlife instead of destroying them all the time..Create wild areas where people can go to be at one with nature..

I have to agree, where we live just out of the town there were two houses that looked out on to the Somerset levels and now there is a huge 'village' being built. All those poor people can see now is concrete and mud and builders. All I see is habitats destroyed for the sake of progress BAH!! The other downside of it is that these houses have been built on a major floodplane so they are going to be a bit of a white elephant, what a waste of time, energy and money. Fi. X X X X

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by aestarte

I have to agree, where we live just out of the town there were two houses that looked out on to the Somerset levels and now there is a huge 'village' being built. All those poor people can see now is concrete and mud and builders. All I see is habitats destroyed for the sake of progress BAH!! The other downside of it is that these houses have been built on a major floodplane so they are going to be a bit of a white elephant, what a waste of time, energy and money. Fi. X X X X

This is too close for comfort. They are building 4000 houses on prime farm land where buzzards fly and live. Hares run across the fields and are regularly seen by me. My hubby saw a snake possible smooth could have been anything..But that's another thread..It peavs me in what we are about to loose, you can't bring it back when its gone.

[aestarte]

Me and my partner were discussing the other night how the planet would look if all cars, buses, trains etc were banned for a decade. It made us feel quite good because we came to the conclusion that nature would take over quite quickly. But then we got melancholy again because it was just a 'what if' Fi. X X X X