Publié jeudi 8 mai 2008 à 12h07
par
asa.westlund 
dans Sauvons notre planète (vu 499 fois et 3 commentaires)
Almost daily we hear alarming news about one of the biggest challenges of our time – the one about the global warming. As citizens and consumers we have a responsibility to act. A responsibility not always easy to handle. Scientific reports from governments, companies and others are sometimes contradictory, and it’s easy to lose hope and feel powerless. This is where the EU, as a big actor on the world wide market has an important role to play. It is here we see the necessity of political action rather than just letting the free market decide.
But it is not enough- It must also be easier for all European citizens to make environment friendly decisions and thereby taking their own responsibility! The environmental crisis is to enormous and complex to be solved on just one political level. Its first when we act both individually, locally, in larger regions and globally that we can make a change. It does not mean that we can wait for someone else to take responsibility, rather that we all must take action now. We have to act as a united front. Many citizens are trying to take action. With everyday actions, like leaving the car at home and travel by bus, or buying locally produced and bio grown products, everyone can make a difference.
At the same time it has to be easy to make the right choice, and for that it takes more than just a personal responsibility. The consumers need accurate information, easy understandable and trustworthy labelling, and support by laws to put pressure on the local and the global market.
What do you think the PES should do in order to make it easier for people to take responsibility by making environmental-friendly choices?
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Commentaires
1. Healthier world, healthier democracy, healthier people - going green! par noelhatch
le jeudi 8 mai 2008 à 21h53
We cannot approach the environment separately from our other values. We need to move towards sustainable development that is also based on equity, health and democracy.
We need to renew and revitalise Agenda 21, which aims to involve local communities to create change towards sustainable development.
It seems there are four areas of our lives that generate most of our overall impact on our environment - the food we at, our holidays, our transport and our homes.
We can start by switching to eating foods that are in season, turning off lights, or walking rather than driving.
The elephant in the room, is how do we influence behaviour of our fellow citizens and create the political spaces. We need to rethink our understanding of self-interest. Many of the important pleasures in life are being lost because of the negative aspects of our high speed, work dominated, materialistic life-style. Our affluent consumption has been compromised by its unpleasurable by-products – noise, pollution, danger, stress, health risks, excessive waste, and the aesthetic impact on the environment.
There are social movements that are influencing a change in this understanding, such as the Slow Food movement. It tries to preserve local food cultures, promote good living and the pleasure of eating, and challenge the power and influence of multinational food
producers.
I would like the PES to promote the introduction of healthy meals and sustainable, and where possible organic, foods into schools and hospitals, this would link in environmentally-friendly choices to public health.
Inspired by the Slow Food principles,the PES could be inspired to draft policies that mean the planning system can be used to ensure equitable access to fresh fruit and vegetables. To promote investment in organic agriculture and in developing sustainable rural economies. To promote food cooperatives which can provide good quality food at lower prices for people on low incomes.
Let's also tackle the debate on cutting carbon emissions on air travel. Many people say that if we tax carbon emissions on air travel, it will deprive the poorest of opportunity for a holiday abroad. In fact, at least in the UK, the poorest quarter of society took only 10 per cent of the flights in 2005. Maybe we could incentivise air companies to introduce good quality carbon offsetting on an opt-out basis. How does this compare to the rest of Europe?
2. Making the consequences visible... par green_beans
le vendredi 9 mai 2008 à 11h44
I think it's very important to make people more aware of how their consumer choices affect the environment! Let's take food as an example - I'm sure better labelling and more information on how industrial food is produced would really make people think twice before buying the cheapest thing they can grab from the shelf in the supermarket.3. stoppa inte rätt producerade biobränslen par hallhag
le mercredi 14 mai 2008 à 10h37
Just nu är det mycket negativa skriverier om biobränslen, men gå inte på allt!
Höga matpriser beror bara lite på biobränsleodling och bristen som det handlar om löses genom att öka produktionen, framför allt genom att bönder i Tredje världen äntligen få bättre betalt för sitt slit! Det finns en stor jordbrukspotential i delar av Afrika och Sydamerika.
Problemet är ju fortfarande att Europa drivit en politik för att slå ut och utarma jordbruk i Tredje världen, som i allmänhet är mycket mer klimatvänligt förutom att det är första fronten i kampen mot fattigdomen.
Däremot viktigt att inte subventionera eller på annat sätt skydda produktion av biobränslen som inte är klimatsmarta. Det ansvaret måste USA och Europa ta!
Och inga jordbruksprodukter ska produceras under vidriga arbetsförhållanden, men det gäller väl inte bara energigrödor utan också mat?
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