Andrew Marr, questioned Ed Miliband, Minister for Global Warning, about the future on television, this Sunday morning, and asked about all the effects which would contribute to global warming in the future, and what was being done about them. In the question Marr included both transportation and the flying in of food from abroad. The minister answered all but the last two items.
There are tables which indicate the carbon footprint of all forms of transport under all conditions, and speaking generally, if we reverted to the days when we had a viable railway, and a full public transport system, the carbon footprint of the public transport vehicles, even half full, would equate to a lot less than if each person or two people sharing, were using private transport. This is obvious and yet the Minister avoided answering that particular question, in spite of the fact that at the same time, we had forked out billions to save the banks.
It is an accepted fact that aircraft contribute considerably to the carbon in the upper atmosphere. It would therefore seem, as I have previously stated, that the government of the time should be totally revising their agricultural policies. We should be given the relative costs, and footprint, of the relationship between importing the more exotic food from abroad, out of season in this country, and tunnel agriculture. Even if there is either no carbon advantage or a small disadvantage, by firms in the UK, in producing fruit and vegetables out of season, which seems to be the demand of the country, help will be given to the unemployed and be worthy of more than a glancing examination.