1:12pm Tuesday 8th July 2008
By Tim Quantrill
The chickens are certainly coming home to roost across the country as homeowners and businesses come to terms with the rising cost of fuel and the effects that it is having on how we lead our lives.
Like addicts suddenly going cold turkey, users of the 'black gold' are waking up to the cold hard reality that dependancy on relatively cheap fuel, gas and electricity has led us to sleepwalk into what could be a nightmare scenario of shortages, escalating food bills and increasing fuel poverty.
And that is just this country. Think how it will affect developing and poorer countries where rising prices and shortages of basic necessities will exacerbate an already precarious situation.
At last the UK seems to be waking up to what is happening with Gordon Brown this week urging people to only buy as much food as they need instead of throwing away four million tonnes of unused produce each year. There have been reports of motorists driving slower and of quieter town roads as diesel and petrol prices of getting on for £6 a gallon hit the wallet.
And close to home, Bradford Council is holding emergency meetings faced with an energy bill hike of £5 million a year.
Heed is finally been taken of the environmentalists who have been warning for years that increasing demand for oil and a levelling off of the amount being pumped out of the ground will mean one thing - rising prices and a severe jolt to the lifestyles and economies of the west.
Now is the time Britain and its citizens should be thinking of how they can uncouple national, local and personal economies from the fossil fuels that we are hooked on at present.
It's just a pity that Bradford Council did not use much more of the £58 million windfall from the sale of its share of Leeds-Bradford Airport to improve the energy efficiency of its buildings and produce more of the energy it needs itself.
Woodchip boilers are a good start but where are the solar panels to heat water for the district's swimming pools or its schools which account for 57 per cent of the Council's energy needs? And how many energy-saving measures have been incorporated into all the new schools that are being built across the district at the moment? Instead of being able to cut bills, the Council faces a rising outlay on heating and power.
Bus fares are rising and food costs are soaring but where is the help and leadership from the Government? A £100 billion plan announced a few days ago to "green" the country's energy supply was warmly welcomed but this money is dependent on investment from abroad in years to come and what if these foreign investors think their money is better off in the growing markets of Brazil, China and India?
Where was the cash that's needed straight away to insulate people's homes and help them cut their energy bills? Where was the money to support agriculture locally and increase our food security? As well as being at the mercy of the world price of oil, we are also dependent on world markets for our grains and meat and wasting precious resources.
In the good old days, pigs could be fed with scraps and leftovers but now they are given energy-intensive cereals as are our cattle and poultry. Fish are still being hoovered up to make animal feed or being thrown back as by-catch. Soya is being grown on former wild land and third world farmers are growing food for us rather than their own countries which have to import food.
Having squandered our oil wealth instead of investing in Britain's crumbling Victorian infrastructure we are now finally replacing our hospital and school buildings - but at a time when we should be creating a new low-carbon infrastructure of rail, micro-energy production and local energy grids that would reduce our dependence on Russian gas, Middle East oil or American wheat.
Green or Obscene - the mileage counter
Miles by car: -164
Miles being driven: -107
Miles by train: +560
Miles on foot: +90
Miles by bike: +0
Miles by bus: +0
Miles by ferry: +0
Total: +379 (running total: -1446)
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