IF there's one thing to be said about the credit crunch, it is that worrying about money might have taken our minds off worrying about the environment. On the other hand, the two can combine to form a double whammy.
That's just what happened to us when we set off on a holiday cruise recently (yes, I know that doesn't sound as if we are consumed with money worries, but read on). Cruising, as we all know, requires heavy-duty packing. There's rain-proof gear for th
e days ashore; walking shoes; casual wear for around the ship and high heels and formal wear for night time; not to mention the essential kilograms of stuff such as heated rollers, cosmetics, jewellery and so on.
Suffice to say, we knew we were possibly going to be over Flybe's modest 20 kilo limit on the flight to Southampton to connect with the ship. Turned out we were both about 8 kilos over, bringing our excess baggage charge to – wait for it – £144. Unfortunately, by the time we were told the extent of the excess charge, our cases were disappearing along the rubber mat, through the flap and out of sight.
The point was, we obviously had minimal hand baggage and could, had we been given the opportunity, have redistributed our stuff so that we paid less.
Hence we started off the holiday with Himself in major Grumpy Old Man mode. Things were only going to get worse. We boarded the plane to discover there were empty seats, lots of them. In fact we gave up counting at 25.
Considering that reduced flight baggage limits have been sold to the public on environmental grounds, to reduce the fuel consumption of over-burdened planes, we were getting the feeling that we'd been done.
We spent a good part of the holiday figuring out how we might avoid the same charges on the way back, but gave up. Beyond refusing to buy any mementoes, we simply settled for maximum hand baggage and hoped to reduce the whacking surcharge.
The result? We paid nothing extra. Had we been allowed to redistribute at check-in on the way to Southampton, we would have saved the whole £144.
The alleged environmental tax did nothing to reduce the load of the plane and nothing to reduce fuel, but handed airlines like Flybe the opportunity to squeeze more money from passengers.
It goes from our small, financial tragedy to the greater injustice that is being perpetrated by Western governments on the world's poorest people in the name of the environment.
The campaign against serial offenders, spearheaded by ActionAid, points out how Western world governments' obsession with bio-fuels as an alternative to oil is potentially murdering millions.
ActionAid's food rights policy associate Ilana Solomon said: "The amount of corn used in biofuels to fill one SUV tank with ethanol gas is enough to feed one person for a whole year. The G8 must take urgent action to stop biofuel production and to use food to feed people, not cars.
"Biofuels have been blamed for as much as 30 per cent of the recent increases in food prices, forcing up to 30 million into chronic hunger and making 260 million more food insecure."
No-one would argue about the need to preserve resources and protect the planet. The problem is that the world is full of businessmen, airlines, farmers and industries who simply use the environmental imperative as a cloak to make money.
They hijack the cause, exploit our concerns and to hell with the consequences or, come to that, any real environmental benefits.
The road to hell is certainly paved with green intentions – that's green as in the dollar.
The height of greedSO MPs have voted for internal rather than external scrutiny of their expenses. They (mostly Labour MPs) have also voted to keep their John Lewis List – the scam that allows them to make home improvements, such as installing new kitchens or creating garden pergolas, or even buying plasma screen TVs and groceries, at our expense.
In fact, they've voted to keep just about everything, with the addition of bigger and better constituency offices at an additional cost to the taxpayer of up to £3.2 million every year, yet have resisted awarding themselves an inflation-busting pay rise.
That tells me one thing – that the varied and lavish expenses perks they enjoy are worth even more to them than a 4.4 per cent increase, which normal people could only dream of.
It beggars belief that they think they can get away with such obvious, arrogant greed.
I can only assume those Labour MPs and ministers who voted almost as one for their own pockets, have given up all hope of returning to Westminster after the next election and are feathering their nests while they still can.
The full article contains 814 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
