WE are all litter louts.

It’s convenient to blame the rubbish strewn parts of Bradford on the feckless young, but in so doing we ignore the thoughtless old, including me.

While the accumulation of unnecessary waste paper, wrappings, food and drink containers on the streets is partly due to poor, casual and illegal disposal habits, it’s not helped by the government cut backs reducing council street cleaning. There are plenty of other countries where this problem is insignificant as the policy is for returnable deposits on plastic bottles and drinks cans, but the UK is still resisting implementation.

All this litter looks untidy, scruffy, and dirty but it’s unlikely to hurt anyone, or cause illness, but this can’t be said for the littering that the rest of us are quite content with, and often pursue to extreme lengths – it’s a real pity that we can’t see carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen oxide in the air. It’s all there, invisible, with the certainty of a turbulent, destructive climate in the longer term, while the particulates and nitrogen oxides from diesels are responsible for thousands of current early deaths.

While dropping litter is a criminal offence, with fixed penalties, the drivers of over powerful cars and 4x4s, those who fly abroad too often, and those whose consumption of personal goods and electricity is just greedy escape without challenge. There’s a simple answer, already widespread in Canada.

There solid and liquid fossil fuels have to pay a carbon tax, which puts up the price and cuts down the use. It’s accepted, as those who abuse the most pay the most, and all the income to the government is used to reduce income tax, and so is revenue neutral.

So next time you moan about littered streets just remember that the littering of the atmosphere is far more dangerous and significant.