It's Crunch Time

Britain is in its 1st ressesion since 1991, the economic growth of the UK is 1% lower in 2008 and 2009. Many banks are struggling to stay afloat resulting in us seeing the closure of many including Northan Rock. Shops are also struggling and at the beginning of this year we say the closure of the final woolworths stores that went into administration after 99years of service. These factors result in a increase of unemployment thus producing poorer people potentially resulting in a greener environment e.g. with the reduction in C02 emmissions from partially from people using their cars less and taking fewer holidays by plane.

There are a few environmental benifits to the economic recession including; reduced oil buring, less shipping, less non-renewable sources used and less C02 emmissions. As well as this there should be a reduction in landfill as less consumption = less packaging = less dumped on landfill. At the moment per year we produce billions of tons of waste globally, with 1/4 of this coming from USA. Less consumption also means less lorries on the roads transporting food.

However the effects are not all good as greener products tend to be more expensive so less people are going to buy them. Even recycling takes energy so therefore to benifit the environment companies should aim to reduce the amount of packaging on their products. The Government also needs to be careful not to over do the pressure on people tp reduce their emmissions as this could easily lead to mass rebellion.

In conclusion in times of struggle like this we globally need to pull together and help each other out. This will hopefully keep all the effects of the ressesion whether economic or environmental will be limited. However environmental issues are possibly the least of peoples worries when unemployment is rising so high that people are struggling to support their families.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/02/always_look_on.php