by
Les May
I
HAVE NOT read or listened to anything that Greta Thunberg has
said since she burst onto the world stage. So far as I am concerned
talk is cheap. We already know that burning fossil fuels, coal,
natural gas and oil derived products, is the root cause of the
increase in global temperature, and we know what the likely results
will be, a rise in sea level flooding coastal areas and a more active
atmosphere/sea system leading to more extreme weather events in parts
of the world that normally do not experience them.
The
problem we have to solve is how we are going to reduce the amount of
fossil fuel we burn to produce energy to make, move and recycle
things. A switch to so called ‘green’ energy sounds like a great
idea but there is a question about whether we can produce enough
‘green’ energy to completely replace the energy currently derived
from fossil fuels.
One
way of saving materials and the energy needed to process them is to
make the things we buy last longer so that fewer need to be
manufactured.
As
part of the European Union (EU) Ecodesign Directive which aims
to remove the most wasteful products from the market and replace them
with ones that use less energy and fewer resources, from 2021 all
televisions, monitors, fridges, freezers, washing machines, dryers,
dishwashers and lighting will have to meet minimum repairability
requirements. Manufacturers will have to ensure that appliances can
be dismantled with commonly available tools, and repair information
and spare parts will have to be made available to repairers. This
will have the effect of extending the life of appliances so that they
have to be replaced less often.
Making
fewer appliances means fewer workers are needed to make them. The
challenge to our social fabric of attempting to prevent further
global warming may be just as great as letting it happen and not
taking any steps to prevent it.
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