06 January 2012
The American call them 'green backs', Scotland still has them, albeit the rest of the UK has gone the way of coinage. The green pound gets an outing in a recent Joseph Rowntree Foundation funded paper 'Sustainable Income Standards: Towards a greener minimum?'. Previous analysis of the Minimum Income Standard for the UK (MIS) has shown that if everyone were to live at this minimum, carbon emissions would be around 37 per cent lower than at present. This is a long way off targets to reduce emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.
The Minimum Income Standard (MIS) for the UK describes the household goods and services required for a minimum acceptable living standard.
If everyone stuck to this minimum, the carbon footprint of household consumption would fall by around 37 per cent. While technical progress will
help to reduce emissions, changes in consumption patterns are also required.
Looking at options for greener living and the acceptability of these options among members of the public, this study explored whether a minimum acceptable standard of living in the UK could be defined by the public in a ‘greener’ way.
Its conclusions are many but in short people are resistant to change and even if we adopted this standard and moderated our behaviour to the most optimistic extent there is a long way to go.
The Colour of Money, 1986, movie starring Tom Cruise and Paul Newman, it was also the title of a hugely unsuccessful game show hosted by Chris Tarrant
From the soundtrack Werewolves of London, 1978 Warren Zevon
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