Bad Crunch, Good Crunch?

Alistair Darling was accused of overreacting back in August last year when he claimed that Britain was facing the worst economic downturn in 60 years. Now it seems this may have been and understatement as bank after bank continues to fall. So it is clear to see that 2009 is going to be a tough year for many.




Official government figures have now confirmed that Britain is in its first recession since 1991 and already unemployment has risen to a staggering 1.92 million people. The housing market continues to be severely depressed and retail sales are weak. Travel agents battle it out as many people tighten their belts on such luxuries and car companies are looking at a difficult period as people choose to stick with their current cars and save their money for more important essential items.




But some people take the attitude that the more people that get laid off and the poorer people become, the greener this country will get. Co2 levels that were set to rise may see a decline as manmade greenhouse gas emissions start falling due to the declining western economies.

"This is an opportunity to think strategically about development," says environmental adviser Chris Baines. "Sites where biodiversity is being lost may have a reprieve, and this breathing space is the opportunity to think about establishing a green infrastructure ahead of a restart in building and to analyse the social implications to families of such high-density housing without significant green space. There are opportunities for tree-planting, wetlands for flood management, energy crops, adventure playgrounds."

Thanks to the recession there is likely to be a reduction in landfills. At present the world produces billions of tons of domestic waste each year. But during this time when people are spending less on food there is going to be less consumption, which means there will be less packaging and material to be dumped in landfills. Even when things are recycled this still uses energy which means more fossil fuels are burned. So all in all a reduction in the amount of food we consume can only be a good thing for the environment.




However I for one am not sure if I want millions of families to suffer and risk losing their homes or not having enough money to feed their children just because the environment might benefit. Many people who have lost their jobs or are finding it hard to pay their heating bills are likely to be very angry with the government for spending billions on such things as electric cars and investing in solar power and bio-fuels. These people will end up resenting the government’s missions to save the environment and may simply no longer care about trying to reduce their co2 emissions.




We need to remember that the recession isn’t all good for the environment. For starters many companies that are struggling will reduce their investments into research and development and green programmes. Secondly most average people will start buying cheaper products to save money, meaning that greener products will lose out. Also there were lots of small firms out there who were just starting up work on breakthroughs in greener technologies, but without bank loans and support many of these firms will find it difficult to get funding and will ultimately go bankrupt.




Of course I don’t want to see the environment suffer through this rocky economic period, but is it really humane to want to see the people around us suffering either? In desperate times we all need to pull together and try to make the best out of a very bad situation and ultimately keep the effects of this economic downturn on the environment to a minimum level.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7846266.stm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/23/conservation.greenbuilding