1. CLIMATE CHANGE

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Since the Industrial Revolution we've been using our fossil fuel energy resources at an ever-increasing rate. These fuels are described as 'non-renewable' since we know they can be exhausted and that they cannot be replaced or used again within a period of time we can manage. The alternatives are 'renewable' fuels which are essentially inexhaustible as long as we manage them properly - such as the sun, wind, water under gravity, tides, wood, plants and food-waste (more about these later). By over-exploiting non-renewable fuels (gas, oil and coal) we have broken the cycle where the energy sources we use are replenished within our lifetimes (fossil fuels take millions of years to replenish).

A direct consequence of using these non-renewable fuels is not just that once they're gone, they're gone, but also that the huge quantities of gases pumped into the air from their burning (most notably carbon dioxide) are additional to those which our world is used to managing - re-absorbing, recycling and reusing.

This additional amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is believed by some to be the main cause for the current and forecast changes in weather, rise of temperature, melting of polar ice caps, rise in sea level including severe weather conditions - all under the heading of Climate Change.

Some think Climate Change is a natural phenomenon or that we might only contribute to it very slightly and that whatever we do we will be unable to change the course of action.

The truth is that we do not know what is going to happen. What we do know is what we are doing: we are using our resources (not just energy but also - and often as a consequence of the availability of cheap energy - water, minerals, soils, fish etc.) unsparingly. As well as polluting our atmosphere, water, and living organisms with various chemicals, we are straining and breaking many natural cycles and depleting our natural resources. These cycles are part of the world's intricate environmental balance that links everything together. All these issues mean that we are increasingly living unsustainable lifestyles (i.e. we cannot go on in this way indefinitely). They are all worrying and need resolving with the most potentially damaging being climate change. One way or another they are all tied to energy generated from carbon-based fossil fuels. If we can use less energy, use it more efficiently and generate it by other means we will be taking huge strides toward a sustainable world and a more secure future for the next generation.

At South Cambridgeshire District Council, we believe that there is a way to live in a more sustainable fashion, in harmony with our environment: a low-carbon lifestyle. A lifestyle where we are not as dependent on fossil fuels to energise our activities; a lifestyle where we make the most of our resources, where we use them efficiently and a lifestyle where we use new technologies that are kinder to the environment.

A low-carbon lifestyle will start closing the loop that the Industrial Revolution and the steam engine first started to break open - not rolling back all the benefits and improvements to the quality of life that they brought but rather not wasting energy, using it more efficiently and generating it with dramatically less dependence upon fossil fuels.
We believe that together we can learn how to live a low-carbon lifestyle. This makes strategic and economical sense whether or not there is a link to climate change.

There are others who think that Climate Change is a natural phenomenon or that we might only contribute to it very slightly and that whatever we do we will be unable to change the course our environment is on.

This section of the low-carbon living web pages is going over some of the key evidence behind this phenomenon (which many believe to be the biggest threat that humanity will experience) to help you make up your own mind and understand why the District Council is committed to trying to reduce carbon emissions.


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