Seeking out green advice (From Gazette & Herald)

Seeking out green advice

Recycling is helping to minimise the amount of waste generated, but it's not helped by the fact that everything is so heavily packaged these days, with materials that can take years to decompose.

Packaging should be made more biodegradable. Litter is also a constant problem in our towns and countryside that needs to be addressed.

The main threat to the environment is pollution. This is damaging the Earth and creating global warming, which is resulting in freak weather conditions.

It is not easy to maintain a green lifestyle, but we owe it to future generations to preserve this living planet. We must live in harmony with wildlife and nature.

GM crops appears at the moment to be a leap into the unknown, with more debate and research needed. We should start eating and growing more organic foods, make natural compost, cut down on energy, leave the car at home more and take the train, bus or bike. Even our DIY can be environmentally-friendly and household goods recycled.

It's not all doom and gloom, Ryedale is a beautiful place. We don't have the smog of cities or pollution that blights other parts of the country, but our waste tips won't last forever and will just keep getting bigger if we don't address these problems.

Climatic change and global warming is here and it's very real and we must not sweep these issues under the carpet. People power can make a difference to issues and change the minds of governments.

I have found the Friends of the Earth website very good. You can download documents and get booklets that tell you how we can become greener and do our bit for the environment.

Visit www.foe.co.uk or write to Friends of the Earth at 26-28 Underwood Street, London N1 7JQ.

Nick Fletcher,

Norton

Updated: 12:31 Wednesday, November 05, 2003