Pay the price for freedom to choose?

WHY are we still (at best) discussing, and (at worst) ignoring altogether the most simple of simples when it comes to doing the right thing to meet environmental challenges?

The driving culprit here is our general dislike of being told what to do.

The “common good” is unfashionable, and even more so when being asked to contribute towards it when no law is being transgressed if we don’t.

Therein lies the snag. Yes, much of it is an education thing. Primary school children are fairly switched on about these matters while we grown-ups scratch around the edges for excuses.

Much of is apathy. The mixture of ignorance and apathy tramples a thorny path.

The science is strong but the flesh is weak, so to speak.

Twenty four million households in this country are fortunate to have a garden for example.

Yet more than one in ten of those gardens has a plastic lawn. Future generations will laugh at this if they survive.

Artificial grass remains a rightful choice within our free, “do-as-iwant-within-the-law” mindset, as three million or so households demonstrate.

This equates to over two trillion single-use plastic straws (that are banned) being carefully landscaped in our gardens, or three hundred billion items of singleuse plastic cutlery (also banned).

The use of single-use plastic bags (not yet banned) dropped substantially when they were subject to a small charge. It suggests that the penny drops when the penny is demanded.

If we insist on our personal choice to damage the environment, then that freedom should come with a price tag at the very least. Most freedoms do.

We could start by gently encouraging the plastic lawn community (and the ten million houses in England alone that have nothing growing in the front garden) to wise up or cough up.

David Briggs Kingston on Soar