IT HAS never been more important to conserve energy. It is something that many people have paid lip service to with the overwhelming environmental concerns frequently raised in the media, but the need to conserve energy now has become acute as tumultuous 2022 plays out.
We are living in an energy crisis unprecedented in modern times, and a fuel poverty situation, almost unrivalled from the time electric light first transformed our black and white streets into vivid technicolour.
Environmentalists have been saying for decades that we must change our pattern of energy consumption and burn fewer fossil fuels that release CO2 into the atmosphere.
By necessity we are having to do that just now.
But sustainability is not a mere buzzword, it makes sense – use energy more efficiently and look to use renewable energy more efficiently. Call upon the power of the wind, sun, oceans and rivers.
Being sustainable will mean you:
Save money on energy bills;
Your home will be more comfortable and warmer; and
You will help to reduce climate change.
None of us are inured to the effects of climate change, nor now to the impact of rocketing energy costs.
Both issues will, however, affect some more than others.
To many people, it almost makes perfect sense – the more fuel we needlessly burn the greater damage we are doing to our planet and ultimately ourselves.
There has been some Government intervention with the announcement by the new Prime Minister of the average Price Cap of £2,500 frozen for two years, and further announcements are expected.
The reality is that more people than ever in the UK face making stark choices and cutbacks to avoid, or get out of, fuel poverty, but where do they start?
In 2022 we have witnessed a sea change in the way we have to think about energy, and saving energy has shifted from an altruistic aim to one borne of necessity.
It may go down yet as the year our perspectives were forced to change, with an eye on future generations perhaps, but for the immediate benefit of - those facing a clear and present danger - the present one.