Having worked for a national Company too many years ago I wish to remember corporate social responsibility was one of the keywords this company took seriously and funnily enough, companies today are reacting to this idea as if it was something new. The listing of seven items that are included in corporate social responsibility has grown although some are as old as the hills. For arguments sake the reducing of carbon footprints was first introduced in the early 1990’s by a Canadian Ecologist William Rees and Swiss born regional planner Mathis Wackernagel at the University of British Colombia.
There are so many hidden guises that cause emission of unwanted carbon, that today in this modern world of ours as science develops itself to the 21st century and beyond and by its own invention produces this product of destruction. If you think about transportation being the main contender, you would be wrong in thinking that as there are many such as fossil-fuel, electricity and greenhouse gases.
Nobody could foresee the problems that would be the bane of Britain follies until it was too late when the first Textile Industry began which lasted from the mid1700 to mid 19th century and by that time Britain was the worlds leading commercial nation. Just think about all the smoke that used to billow out of all the chimney stacks in that time and also about three quarters of the world’s population smoked, adding more to the atmosphere with poisonous smoke.
The first windmill for electricity production was built by Professor James Blyth of Anderson’s College, Glasgow (now Strathclyde University), Glasgow, Scotland in July 1887. The professor experimented with three different turbine designs, the last of which is said to have powered his Scottish home for 25 years.
According to a senior Scientist, wind energy produces around 11 grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour of electricity generated which is 90 times better than coal, peat and wood, but still produces carbon which will make it impossible to reach the green level of zero rating. Government sources at the time when natural gas was discovered thought this would be a safer product to use until it was found it produced forty times the amount of carbon.
It was found that wind power was close to Nuclear Power, but then that has its drawbacks as being a dangerous commodity to handle. It is estimated that a further 444 more wind power structures are at different levels of construction in the United Kingdom.
Probably when every vehicle runs on electricity on our roads it may reduce our carbon footprint but I do understand that electric vehicles have to go 50,000 miles before they can reduce their carbon footprint better than a petrol car, which doesn’t sound that much better. Perhaps they better have windmills built on top of their car roofs!
The above is just my opinion and anyone who wants to write to me care of the newspaper regarding the content – please do so! Swear words are not accepted.