The issue of “ sustainability ” is one in the forefront of the world greatest minds and constantly being thrust into the public domain. Wether this is to raise awareness and force us into a state of change or simply a means of control by some higher powers, remains to be seen.

When we talk about sustainability everyone jumps to carbon footprints, cutting down trees, leaving lights on, not recycling etc etc. But what does all this actually mean? HOW are our lives unsustainable? what do we need to do in order to save the world and prevent a barren future for younger generations? and more importantly, the conservation of energy law states that “ Energy cannot be created or destroyed but simple converted from one form to another ”. So how are we running out?!

Let’s make a quick comparison:

our phone chargers use 1 watt of power. By using this for 24 hours, we use 86400J of energy. A car has a power rating of 90 kilowatts. So in theory, if we left our charger OFF for 24 hours, this energy is used by a car which travels 20 metres. Therefore when we think that by not charging our phones all day and turn it off when not needed, what’s the point? Some wee ned in his Corsa has just driven away from the lights at 70 Mph and wrecked all your effort? To make matters worse, this compares to having 90 gas cooker burners on at once, and furthermore, a flight to Bangkok return will use 20,000,000,000 J of energy.
So when we take all of these figures on board, does it really seem like turning off your charger or your lights will make any difference in the scale of things?

I think, if enough people can change, it will make a difference. But we are simply fighting a losing battle. When a power station (coal/oil) is running, only 35% of the energy it produces actually makes it onto the grid power, with the other 65% expelled into the surrounding air as heat, hence the change in energy form and hence why we are running out of energy since so much is wasted. This means that in order to successfully change our ways in order to preserve our planet temperature, we must compensate through other means, be it wind, solar, wave or nuclear energy, but they all come with their own opposition. Not only that, but in order to produce enough energy to provide the UK alone, we would require a wind turbine 3.6 km in every direction over the entire land mass of the UK. Is this a viable option? what about solar power in the desert you ask, well if the land is covered by big mirrors, the heat that would once have heated the land we call desert, is now being transferred elsewhere, so what of the effects this would have on the ‘desert‘ land?

The problem seems to be, we simply don’t have the answer … yet.

Our entire existence could be threatened if we don’t drastically change our ways, not only as individuals but as a collective working towards the same goals, but unfortunately at this moment, no one is politically prepared to face these harsh truths.

Then again, the Earth heated up by the same amount as Mars and the Moon last year, so we could just be in a warm part of the universe for the time being …….