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Save cash, go green
• THE most optimistic of climate change pundits reckon we have until 2014 to cut carbon emissions to a level that would stabilise global temperatures. Even PM Gordon Brown has pencilled in 2050 as the date when the UK must slash its carbon emissions by a staggering 80 per cent.
Listening to the debate about numbers is a real turn-off to doing anything. But the sooner our neighbourhoods find ways to be less fossil-fuel dependent the better chance Islington people will have of tackling climate change.
How about disused land reclaimed for orchards, more allotments, streets people can safely cross or even cycle along, more shops selling food grown within the M25, opportunities to work from home – and cheaper utility bills?
I know that this year’s hiked electricity and gas bills, plus petrol at more than £1 a litre, help me find the most inventive ways to cut my use of fossil fuels. I hope to learn more from the speakers coming to the Climate Change and Me free festival being organised by Highbury Fields and Drayton Park schools and the Green Living Centre on Saturday, October 11.
I can’t wait to hear Penney Poyzer, from BBC2’s No Waste Like Home, share her green DIY ideas. For fashionistas there’s a clothes swap (you need to bring something to join this) and sophisticated ideas on budget chic from Dilys Williams, sustainable fashion expert at the London College of Fashion.
There are also films and talks about how to save money, and make Islington a greener place to live in from Monday, October 13, to Thursday, October 16. Details at climatechangeandme.blogspot.com
NICOLA BAIRD
Prah Road, N4
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