Seeing red over green vision
IT sounds like the world view of a militant eco-warrior.
A report has said that by 2030 Scots families should drive electric cars, learn ‘carbon accounting’ at school, use air source heat pumps and eat only vegetables in season or from the local ‘community garden’.
Yet the document was not dreamed up by a group of fringe green activists, but is the work of a think-tank commissioned by the Scottish Government.
Though costing taxpayers more than £3million a year in funding, the ClimateXChange organisation has been attacked for producing ‘nonsense’ about the future.
In its view of a typical day, it says: ‘Your partner puts on the kettle for coffee for you both, only filling it with as much water as is needed, and sits your son down to break- fast. The primary 7 class is learning about personal carbon accounting as part of their numeracy curriculum, and he’s been quizzing you for the last week about what things used to be like in what he insists on calling the “olden days” before people cared about their carbon footprint.’
next the fictional Scot of 2030 goes to work, passing cyclists, electric cars and buses, while their daughter cycles, along with every one of her friends, and the son joins a ‘walking bus’.
The report states: ‘On the short walk to your local remote working hub you glance up the hill at the community turbines and see that the blades are turning smoothly.’ but eben Wilson, of campaign group Taxpayer Scotland, said: ‘This type of report just makes the state look silly.
‘It is crystal ball gazing and that is almost always wrong – in the past people thought we would now be wearing tinfoil suits and driving around in hover cars.
‘Time and money simply should not be wasted on this imagineering nonsense.
‘eco-friendliness will only really come when we make ourselves wealthy enough to afford it. At the moment, for many, it is just a middle- class exercise in salving our consciences.’
The Scottish Government denied the document was a waste of money.
A spokesman said: ‘This report pictures life in 2030 in a way that is meaningful to people at a household level.’