Give us a Chance!

Fuel Poverty is a big issue that's increasing all the time. Depending on where you get your statistics as many as 1 in 4 households could be considered fuel poor. The definition of Fuel Poverty covers those who spend more than 10% of their income on fuel, yes try working that out! Without accurate financial information that a lot of people quite rightly don't want to divulge its almost impossible. So we are left to guess and try to identify those people who really need help. The Department of Health have just offered up a few million to local authorities in their Warmer Homes Healthy Lives scheme aimed at trying to solve the problem. On first glance that would seem a good thing to do particularly in the current financial crisis. The only problem is the money needs to be spent by March! That has left LA's racing around over Christmas trying to find some way of spending their money. Understandably under those circumstances any scheme is going to be hit and miss and I fear in my area it will be more miss than hit. Surely the way to approach this is to look at long term solutions. Insulation, ensuring the correct tariffs apply trying to stop energy companies profiteering on pre payment meters etc not applying a quick band aid this year which will be nowhere to be seen in 12 months time. As the saying goes "give a man a fish and you'll feed him for a day give him a fishing rod teach him how to fish and you could feed him for life." Here's hoping one day our politicians and civil servants will wake up and take note.

Here's To The Future

So that was 2011 a strange year in many ways but the one that decided my immediate future. If you'd told me 12 months ago I'd be facing a cut in hours to 3 days a week in 2012 and then a new career in 2013 I'd have told you you'd had too much Christmas spirit. But that's exactly what the future holds.

After over 30 years in Environmental Health its time to finally spread my wings. To be fair the profession I entered in 1978 is certainly not the one I will leave in 2013. The world has changed a great deal and so has Local Government. Always ticking away in the background though has been an environmental time bomb. The excesses of the 1980's led us to believe there would be a plentiful supply of everything for as long as we wanted. The 90's hardly did anything to disillusion us. It's only really been in the last few years that the fact that we have been taking our ecosystem for granted has finally landed in our thoughts. Climate Change was the headline getter but really its only another symptom of the whole disease. I suppose sustainability although to be honest I find it an ugly word is the best we have to describe where we should be heading. Even then what does it really mean? Well we could get technical or we could take the straight forward approach which says sustainability is "not screwing up the planet for our kids." Yes its a little blunt but I'm a firm believer if we are going to achieve anything then there's a place for a variety of approaches. We should be happy to talk climate science with climatologists but we should be equally adept at communicating with the man and woman in the pub. That's really what this blog is all about and what I want to do with the rest of my career. cards on the table I need some employment in the next few years but I also want to make sure the skills I've acquired and my passion for the subject don't go to waste. I believe we can make a difference even at this late stage.

As an example how many of us dutifully sorted our rubbish and filled the appropriate recycling boxes this Christmas? How many did the same thing only 5 years ago? Its all about approach and communication which is the whole purpose of 400ppm. Over time I hope you'll stick with the Blog, the Twitter feed and the Facebook page, you'll tell me when you think we're talking rubbish and you'll contribute to the debate. We got ourselves into this mess so we are equally capable of getting ourselves out of it. Here's to the future!