To coincide with the online publication of “Managing Your Money” – a book offering great money managing advice – HowTo.co.uk has prepared a short guide on managing your money.
Only the comatose will have missed the undeniable fact that the cost of living is going up and up. Average British families are having to spend £27 more a week on basic foodstuffs. Energy bills are set to increase by 40% this winter.
Over the last 2 years, council tax has risen at twice the inflation rate. There are a whole panoply of reasons both local and global for these new expenses, but I don’t propose to explore them here. Rather I want to examine ways of managing money while also saving the world.
Running out and dying out
Our society is over-reliant on oil, not just for petrol but for farming, power and manufacturing. Oil of course is a non-renewable resource which could well run out in 10-30 years. The more we drive, fly and buy, the quicker the drought will arrive. More importantly, the burning of oil products also of course contributes to global warming which in turn threatens the existence of the major food-growing areas close to sea-level.
What is to be done?
Along with investing in alternative energy sources it is clear that we in the developed world who pollute the most have to make material sacrifices. A 3 hour flight typically produces as much carbon emissions as driving a car for days and days.
The environmentalist George Monbiot says we must stop taking cheap flights even if they are deemed ‘essential’ to see our loved ones. After all, the great majority of the world’s population have never boarded a plane in their lives. We need to eschew our cars for bicycles – vehicles which neither pollute nor drain our resources, and will get you fit as a side-benefit. Parents need to conquer their irrational fears about letting their children walk to school. This too would almost certainly help solve the infant obesity epidemic. We can alleviate the pollutive transportation of food around the world, not to say avoid paying high prices, by growing our own in our gardens and allotments.
The revolution starts inside our heads
Although business and government are waking up to these issues, we can’t rely on them to deliver us safely to the other side. We must whatever we can on a micro, personal level by dramatically changing our lifestyles. While an optimist will say that such an effort will work, a pessimist will say that only some eco-catastrophe will galvanise us into action. But when will it be too late?
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-Ends-
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