On the face of it, things won’t be so different a little over 15 years from now. According to Zero Carbon Britain – Rethinking the future, a report just published by the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) we will still be driving to work, eating meat for dinner and taking long haul flights round the globe.
But go just a little way beneath the surface and things are very different indeed. For this will be a Zero Carbon society where we will not be emitting any greenhouse gases and climate change will be under control.
Airlines, for example, will fly long haul only: short haul flights just won’t exist. And while we will still enjoy a Sunday roast, it won’t be beef or lamb – both take up too much land and emit too much greenhouse gas – but poultry or pork.
The landscape will change, too, with land given over to growing food – grain and vegetables – rather than left for grazing.
And cars? Well that’s the really significant thing for the Alliance, as the report reckons we will all be driving electric vehicles… and they will either be leased or borrowed from car clubs. Actually owning a car will be so 2013!
The Zero Carbon blueprint is divided into a number of key areas: mass insulation of homes and offices with smaller, easier to heat rooms; electric and biofuel vehicles, greater use of public transport, especially trains, with less flying and driving. And we will walk more, too.
We will generate more renewable energy from wind, water and the sun… and we will witness a revolution in our diets by replacing meat with crops which sequester the remaining emissions from industry and soil degradation. A brave new world is just around the corner.
Read more about this new world here: http://www.zerocarbonbritain.com/
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