Green Energy? “Not in my backyard”!

 

 

 

 

 

The English are funny people! They go around complaining about the total disrespect for  the environment shown by other countries, offering unrequested moral lessons, telling them how they should live their lives.

The poor countries  spread rubbish all over the place.  The developing countries destroy their forests with pasture for grazing cattle, monocultures of palm trees or soya beans, destroying our planets biodiversity.  The Americans and the Chinese pollute our skies with their energy consuming  SUVs and polluting plants.

The English agree that something must be done to save the planet. After all it is OUR planet. Their forests provide the oxygen that we all breathe.

The English  agree that alternative energies are the way to go.  Governments should invest in more wind power and solar plants. But they forgot the little detail that in order to do so we need land. Land that should be far and away from their own  back yards. Preferably in other people’s backyards, or countries.

Why would they embrace such contradiction?

Because a solar plant damages their views of nicely manicured agricultural land, equally infested by boring monocultures of wheat and rape.

Wind farms make a lot of noise which disturbs the quietness of their summer BBQs  and solar plants reclaim land that otherwise could be used for pesticide laden agriculture.

British democracy requires that local planning decisions that may affect the status quo of a community must be taken by a local authority which comprise the elected representatives of the people. The diversity of representatives implies that more frequently than common sense would require, there are some people whose main goal is just to oppose whatever is being discussed.

If the subject is to put a wind farm nearby their village, they will automatically be against it.  If the aim is to prevent it, they will fiercely take the view that they need a wind farm nearby as it improves their economy and brings more jobs.

They will always find arguments to support any contradictory views.

I ask myself why are these people so stubborn and narrow minded.

I imagine that such characters are unhappy, unloved , annoying members of the community  with not much to do but going around pointing out to their fellow residents that the shape of their garden fence or the colour  of their windows does not comply with planning regulations. Then they are elected to some council of representatives, and from mere ignored and annoying  little nobodies they  become power holders who can tell the others what to. This feeling of having power is hallucinogenic. A drug that activates the reward systems of their brains. Their pleasure is activated by the level of annoyance they can promote on their fellow villagers. They have been ignored and laughed at, now there is time for revenge. You tell them what to do!

Envy and hypocrisy is a characteristic of human nature, and it ubiquitous in the English culture.

Ask any of these councillors what they think about promoting a cleaner environment through the expansion of green energy and they are all for it, but way from their homes. The problem with SOME (too many)  English people is that they pay lip service to green ideas, but abstain from deploy them in their own country.

The “not in my backyard” attitude of the English is no more damaging than ignoring the energy challenges of modern world.

Talk without action is not going to contribute to the promotion of green policies. Agreeing with the promotion of green energy and at the same time opposing the expansion of green energy parks is plain hypocrisy.

This is a battle between the personal interests of half a dozen of people who happen to have a cottage in the country (the value of one’s house, the aesthetical value of a landscape) against the interests of all living beings in the planet.  Got it? On one hand  the personal interests of few, on the other the whole biosphere. This is a no brainer! This is plain hypocritical selfishness.

Someone has to start somewhere, and if England wants to influence other countries to take similar steps towards a better planet, they have to start by cleaning their own house. The English need to lead by example not by hollow rhetoric!

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