BIT LATE ....BUT WELCOME TO 2008

Its always best to approach the New Year in a positive way. The world is not such a bad place
and if we all do the right thing ...? I began the New Year by watching the You Tube film made by a US schoolteacher explaining why we need to take global warming very seriously and do our best to stop it getting worse, even if that means making some tough choices instead of taking the easy way out. The hard thing is that we have been so encouraged be consumers - and now they want us to give away our toys. We expect comfort, warmth and more than enough to eat and hot water from the tap. So now that we finally have installed a power shower can it be true that its wrong to use it? Tell the guy with the gadgets on stand-by that sea levels are rising and he must remember to switch off at the plug. The truth is that the only way to stop everything being left on standby is to build new stuff that can't do stand-by (with all the environmental problems that goes with manufacturing new appliances and disposing of the bad ones they replace.) You can now buy plugs with remotes that switch off all you media at the touch of a button but they are not cheap and their effect is invisible so hard to sell to anyone who isn't already a green thinker.
Here's a good idea for any environmental philanthropist out there looking for a way to do their bit: Supply "no-more-standby plugs" free to all the households in the country. If it was something everyone had like a gas meter then nobody would mind using them. Let's have huge mainstream support for initiatives like the installation of rainwater tanks to flush all the loos in the land. In 2008 let's ask for more help to do the right thing.
In December we were being urged not to overspend on our credit cards because there was going to be a crisis of debt - then in January we are told to expect a recession because we didn't buy enough and now the shops are in trouble. Jees Louise ! Does that mean I should have maxed out the card or not?
Perhaps if each of us turns off the news and tries our best to persuade a few more people to give the planet some thought then it could be a Happy New Year. Except for the people who bring us the news who need us to watch them or they lose their jobs! Nothing is that simple.