What are other Civic Societies doing locally to combat climate change?

I am not convinced that many Civic Societies (SC) are fully engaged with climate change issues and the the fact that 90% are concerning themselves with planning issues may be proof of this. My feeling is that the majority of older members are more concerned with shop fronts and making it easier to park closer to the shops than the getting to grips with the implications of climate change.

I disagree that not many Civic Societies are fully engaged with climate change issues. We attended a Civic Trust event called Every Action Counts http://www.everyactioncounts.org.uk/ and met many other Civic Societies who where keen on are looking to reduce their impact on the environment

I personally feel as though we all need to do our bit to make a difference.

My pet hate is that each plastic bag should be subject to a 10p per bag “environmental tax” which should go towards recycling initiatives. Furthermore, every store in the UK should be forced to offer paper bag or cardboard box alternatives to plastic bags so that shoppers have a viable environmental alternative should they want one. I for one would not be so keen for the supermarket to pile me up with so many bags!!!

Finally, all large stores and shopping centres should be forced to set up collection points for carrier bags for reuse by customers and recycling and do not get me started on packaging!!!!

I think the phrase ‘ fully engaged’ needs to be defined. There’s a huge difference between awareness and action and between attending seminars and walking the talk.

The eco thing is important - but the civic society movement should stick to its last and express concern about the sheer ugliness of many eco measures: retro fitting solar panels disfigures roofs, bio fuels -10 ft elephant grass - would remove the English countryside from view, wind turbines have an appalling impact on landscape and many eco homes have all the visual appeal of some badly modelled Meccano contrivance. The measures are all expensive: their costs exceed the value of what they deliver.
The intractable big question concerning climate change is rarely discussed: is the world’s year on year population increase sustainable? What is the climate change and environmental impact of this? For some views on this visit: http://www.optimumpopulation.org/opt.sustainable.numbers.html