Blog Number Ten

I live in Milton Keynes in Eaton Manor ward in the South East region. My neighbourhood (Milton Keynes 032D) has 1,685 residents and the whole of Milton Keynes local authority has 228,400 residents (2007 estimates). This shows that our neighbourhood can be said to be a sustainable community which means that we are not a congested community.

(Neighbourhood Statistics, Office for National Statistics, ONS).

In education 78% of pupils achieving level 2 are from our neighbourhood compared to the whole of Milton Keynes to be 85% and the Whole of England to be 84%. Key stage 2 achieving level are also above in percentage English being 81% just as equal as the whole of Milton Keynes and England. Maths being 62% and Science being 100%. This means our community in regarding education we live sustainably. (Neighourhood Statistics, Office for National Statistics, ONS)

The occupancy of domestic buildings is 9.1% compared to the entire local authority which is 2.0. Green space 37.3 compared to the whole Milton Keynes 81.2%. As a whole, compared to the whole local authority the percentage of availability of green space is quite large thus our neighbourhood living sustainably.(Neighbourhood statistics, Office for National Statistics, ONS)

Blog Number eight

I live in Milton Keynes in Bletchley, Milton Keynes South East constituency. My local MP's name is Phyllis Starkey and been MP for Milton Keynes since 1997. She belongs to the Labour Party. My local council is Milton Keynes and the party dominating my local council is Liberal Democrat.

My attitude concerning people who are not planning to vote in the general election is that maybe they do not know the benefit of the elections in choosing respective leaders and more education to be given to citizens especially the young adults on the importance of elections. Another point to consider is that the people who are not planning to vote have been let down in the past so, they have lost trust in their leaders thus becoming passive. Some people however are too laid back; they do not bother about anything in the society, they take things as they come.

Recently there have been news about our General hospital in Milton Keynes in the maternity ward. There was shortage of staff and few babies have died in the hopital's care; if they do not do something about it, I might be reluctant to choose the same leader. Pot holes in roads have massively increased. Just a few days ago I saw workers covering them so, I guess it is an improvement from the council. With other general matters I believe it is okay even the police all the time are seen on roads keeping the town safe; from my knowledge.

Blogprompt Numbers Six and Seven: Sustainable travel

As stated earlier, transport with no doubt has had a major influence on economic and social development facilitating the movement of goods, people and ideas. Greater accessibility, mobility and communication has shaped the type of global society we live in today. But is there a cost? Clearly without any objections there is a cost. In any development money is needed to make more money.

I do not see this as a negative thing at all. The population has undoubtedly risen globally. Technology is advancing so; with more technology at hand obviously demand of goods and services is high. How can people be mobile to reach these demands? The answer is unlimited transport provided. Environmentalists focus so much on problems facing the environment; what about the benefits the environment gets. People need to move from one point to the other to supply goods or services.

The only thing that can reduce congestion is that more public transport is provided for example, I live in a neighbouring city to Northampton. To get to university first I used the train upto Northampton train station. From the station to Northampton University was my major problem because the bus always delayed thus reaching university late. The solution I tookwas to look for people who came from my home city so that we could share transport luckily I was successful. Now we are five of us doing car sharing. Car sharing is a good example to reduce congestion on roads, it is cost effective and reliable. Another solution is reliability of public transport so that people are not reluctant to use. This will reduce congestion as well as emission of destructive gases.

Blogprompt number five: Christmas

To be fair, cultural festivals such as christmas come once in a year. In such occasions families come together and have a prosperous day. Obviously during this festive season people rejoice. To express their happiness, they exchange gifts, cook best dishes and light fireworks to celebrate.

It would be harsh or unrealistic to say these festivals are not sustainable because it would be too much exaggaration when we say we would not do a thing to interfere with the climate. One day's event would not make the climate deteriorate. We would be far from reality when we say we will leave out all festivals in the name of sustainable living. I believe living happily and rejoicing once in a while is also sustainable living.

However, I do agree on the avoidance of embarassing self indulgence due to intoxicants for example alcohol not only in festivals, even in our day to day living as it brings 100% harm and 0% good. Festivals and our day to day lives are meant to make us happy and boost our spirits and to be safe as well and not to embarass us.

Blog number four: The newspapers and TV programmes

I would say the best selling UK newspapers cover stories to serious issues but sometimes they exaggerate. It is their role to cover issues because many people rely on them as we can see from the table given many people buy these papers so, it is their duty to put reliable information and not to exaggerate on matters of put double standards on issues. With The Sun, many times as I read the paper it talks in favour of the New Right ideas and when I read the Guardian most times it talks in favour of the Labour party atleast this is how I feel.

So, many papers have so much power and influence in this country because most people believe in whatever it is written in these papers and also they write what the society want to hear. The most watched television programmes in the United Kingdom mostly they act on daily social issues and some unrealistic matters things that we would fantasise for example happy endings in love stories or maybe too much violence and viewers really get influenced and imitate for example in soaps where there is a beautiful heroine or handsome hero everyone would want to be like them. Coming back to climate change; I think when they start mentioning it in programmes like Coronation street or Eastenders maybe people would be more interested and aware in the Go Green Plan for example if the best character does recycling or any other positive aspect in the name of preventing global warming such as walking or cycling instead of using cars it might be a great influence to the fans. Having said that a celebrity like Simon Cowel on of the judges in X-factor and Britain's got Talent starts cycling wouldn't it be a great impact on the society of the United Kingdom?!

Blogpromt Number Three

One of the central themes underpinning sustainable development is equality and fairness. This is reflected in the concept of 'empowered citizenship- in that we can all make contribution to making our community a better place now and in the future.

As a citizen it is my duty to informed. I am informed but I do not think it is effective enough. The primary sources of these information obout climate change mainly is the TV or newspaper. It is not always that a person reads the paper or instead of watching documentaries and the news you can watch other channels which are no where near talking about sustainable development.

The distribution of leaflets in my opinion is an effective way to inform people about climate change or advertisements in all channels not only particular channels. The internet has information for sustainable development but one has to have interest to search for the information. The complicated issues issues such as scientific should be let to the expert to tackle them but for the common man we could always contribute by maybe walk instead of using cars in short distances to avoid emission of gases. Another way to contribute to sustainable development is be recycling. In politics and economy major issues are best let to the experts but as I said earlier I the common man can always contribute example when I walk instead of using my car I will avoid the emission of gas which pollutes the environment as well as save money on petrol.

"An inconvenient truth"

In my opinion Mr Al Gore deserved the Nobel prize for his dedication for the campaign of the awareness of climate change. Many would argue that al Gore is just a man of high profile who has done nothing new or something not effective to deserve the Nobel prize. Surely it is not about low or high of a profile a man is but is the dedication and sensitivity he possesses that counts.

Many people are not aware of the climate change or at least they know but they are less concerned about it. Some think they are far more important to think of or to spend to than to waste funds on the campaigning of global warming. One of the people who think climate change is not a project to be given priority is Danish Political scientist Bjorn Lomborg he claims that malnutrition and disease is to be given priority instead on focusing on climate change. However, Al Gore argues that; if global warming increases mainly out of pollution and emission of harmful gases such as carbon dioxide the land would be warm and too dry thus causing draught. Draught leads to malnutrition and can also lead to diseases through poor sanitation because of lack of water. In the tropical areas if the temperature rises, mosquitoes spread causing the disease malaria.

Al Gore claims out of his sensitivity that we should take things for granted that they remain the same but changes can occur and it can be damaging just like the example he gave us when his son had an accident.

To me, his documentary was very effective. It made me change my perspective on the climate change change and it would be very useful to educate people to reduce pollution and to preserve the nature of this beautiful planet.