Every man for himself (From Malvern Gazette)

Every man for himself

4:23pm Friday 10th August 2007 in Letters

Before we all slip back into our everyday routine, maybe we should reflect on the weekend of The Floods'.

Malvern was cut off for, at the most, two days. During that time the town ran out of milk, the supermarkets were stripped bare and motorists were queueing up at petrol stations to make sure they didn't run out of fuel (This puzzles me as I'm not quite sure where they were hoping to travel to).

There were those motorists too impatient to wait, who would queue jump at flooded roads because they thought other drivers weren't going fast enough. It's scary how quickly Malvern life turned into a doctrine of every man for themselves. Is this how it is going to be in the future?

Never before have I heard climate change mentioned in the media so much. It is happening, so maybe it is time Malvern did its bit in a positive way instead of such negative reactions as of that weekend.

We can no longer stop climate change but we can reduce its effects by cutting our CO2 emissions. Everyone has the power to use low energy bulbs (If everyone in the country changed to these light bulbs we could shut two power stations), we could support our local food producers and not use the car as much.

These are just a few ways in which everyone can help. The next step is to lobby local authorities to take a stronger stance instead of offering token gestures, then central government itself, which talks about ways of cutting carbon emissions, then wants to add another runway to Heathrow airport. Aviation is already the fastest growing cause of CO2 emissions.

Lets not bury our heads in the sand anymore and expect it to go away or for someone else to fix it. It is our responsibility.

Ginny Lee (Malvern Greenpeace coordinator), Quest Hills Road, Malvern.