Monday, 22 March 2010

10

Area: Boston 005F (Lower Layer Super Output Area)

From my memories of my home area, i believe that it is quite sustainable. There are a lot of trees lining the roads and a lot of wildlife who live within these trees. As the road on which live is a dead end, there are not that many cars travelling down it, only those belonging to home owners down the road and the two coming of (which are also dead ends, and only small crescents. this would mean not a lot of car fumes released from within my ward.

However, at the bottom of the road there is a large sports centre which attracts a lot of cars at the weekend for local team football matches. during these days the cars fumes released are multiplied from the rest of the week. The increased numbers of vehicles entering at the weekend may have a great effect on the carbon emissions let of in my ward.

The ward directly next to mine includes a main road, this releases much greater amounts of fumes. The only thing that is contributing to global warming from within my ward is the vehicle emissions and emissions released from houses, there is nothing else that contributed great amounts of carbon emissions.

The large majority of my ward is made up of the playing fields of the sports centre and then farmland beyond that, this means that there is a lot of vegetation contributing to converting the carbon back into oxygen. Along with this there are no further large development plans in the ward meaning that the area is very sustainable as it is not spending anything on development and existing wildlife is maintained well.

Waste management could be improved, the ward has the standard green bin (for landfill waste) and Blue bin (for recycling). improvements could be more options for recycling, perhaps glass, plastic and paper options made separate making it easier and quicker to be recycled. Another thing that is done in my ward is garden waste clearing. this happens once every two weeks, where a truck visits the car park of the sports centre and home owners take their garden waste to either be composted or deposed of appropriately.

Although there are improvements that could be made to the sustainability of my ward, it is doing well at the moment and is not having much of a negative effect on the environment.

8

Boston and Skegness is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliment of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliment (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
The MP of Boston is Mark Simmonds and he stands in the Conservative party
The name of my Local Council is the Boston Borough Council.
Conservatives dominate the local council with 46.2% of the votes.

I feel that if you dont vote, then it is only your fault if you dont like something that happens in parliment. If you dont speak out, then nobody will hear you. Thats what the voting system is in place for, so that everyone can have their say. I feel if you dont vote, then you dont care. Everyone should vote for what they want, their extra vote could change the decision of who gets the seat in parliment, so everyone should vote as it is very importent. at the end of the day, it is your country and is you dont have your say then something may happen that you don't like and you will not be able to do anything about it. having said this, once someone is voted into power, they will only do what they want anyway.
The thing that will top my vote this year will most likey be due to student fees and grants. this is the most important thing in my life at the moment, so which ever party offers the best incentives which will effect me personaly will get my vote. Also i believe a change is needed in parliment as labour, to be honest, aren't doing that well are they. saying that, they have also not left much for someone else to build on, so it will be a very tough time for anyone who gets into power,,, and good luck to them.

6-7

So...what are your views? Is there really a transport problem? Do the benefits of motorized transport outweigh the costs? Are there any minor (or perhaps major) changes you personally feel could make our present transport system more sustainable?

I feel there is a huge travel issue at present, more young people are learnig to drive and getting their licences, whilst more old people are continuing to drive, when maybe they should be stopping due to their reactions not being up to scratch, as perhaps they were in previous years. Along with the laziness of the rest of the age groups, the number of cars on the roads is massive. this intoll causing huge pile up on motorways and big conjestions in cities, towns and even villages. During a personal trip on a national express coach it took well over half an hour just to get through a village between Northampton and Luton. Congestion in towns is even worse! It took 20 minutes on the campus bus just to reach asda in kingsthorpe, making me and many other pupils very late for lectures over at Avenue campus.
Although motorized transport has many benefits to drives, most of the time making their journeys quicker and meaning they dont have to consume energy as they are just sitting there really. But the environment is being effected greatly due to this motorized transportation, the buring of fossil fuels for petrol and diesil along with vehicle fumes being let off into the atmosphere is making a great hole in the ozone layer, intoll causing global warming. This is meaning the the polar ice caps are melting causing the sea level to rise. In time this will have a massive effect on a large percentage of land, as it will be under this water, not only ruining many houses and other building but also causing many species of plants and animals to become endanger and even exticnt... All because the man down the road can't be bothered to walk down the road to the corner shop to get a bread loaf.... Well not just him.
If only 1 in 10 people decided to give the car up for some journeys and take to the cycle, or the foot, there would be a massive drop in vehicle emissions. Although it is not much, this could be a start to the future of sustainable transport. Also if the government gave incentives, such as half price bicyle offers, some people may want to opt for this rather than spending thousands on not only a car but the upkeep of a car.

What do you think? Is Christmas sustainable? How would it all work in a changed world?

No, I do not think christmas is sustainable. It wastes huge amounts of paper through wrapping presents, gift cards and envelopes. Also, the decorations which are used for the festive period are mainly plastic and glass, which all use masses of electricity through lights and moving decorations. this can only lead to more carbon emissions through energy productions to power the demand for electricity during this period. However, I think that there should be allowances for this period as it should be celebrated by everyone, not only the christians but all people who enjoy the festival. Most of the wrapping paper used during the festival are produced from recycled products anyway, and all of which are able to be recycled once again after the festival is over. Some kind of extra facility could but put in place during this time to make sure that the majority of the waste paper is recycled once more, this would then lead to a reduction in landfill pile ups, as less amounts of wrapping paper will be entering them. As with the decorations, only a few people go "over the top" with these. The majority of people usually only have a tree with a few lights wrapped around it in the front window, this is not going to make much of a difference to energy consumption as they arent on during the day and are only operated for a small period of time during the evening.
For me i feel that people should leave christmas alone as it is a time that makes alot of people happy and should carry on doing so for ever!