DRIVING north up the A90 towards Aberdeen it is impossible to avoid the sight of posters urging against the building of large pylons across the area.
This is the pristine farmland immortalised in Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s classic book Sunset Song and many locals are up in arms about the threat from the pylons on the area’s beauty.
The pylons of course are necessary to transport the growing amount of electricity being produced by windfarms in the north of Scotland down to the much more populated central belt.
In a way it encapsulates the conundrum which exists with wind turbines and highlights, perhaps, the biggest hurdle in the proliferation of green electricity production.
Everyone will say they fully support green energy but not when it lands in their own backyard.
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Nimbyism comes in many shapes and sizes but windfarms are one which can sometimes trigger some fairly extreme reactions.
But perhaps the biggest obstacle of all to the drive towards Net Zero is the one that is put up by us, the consumer.
We all love green energy too, but we are less than keen to pay more for it. That’s someone else’s job.
A survey out today perhaps illustrates the problem best of all.
According to the Consumer Scotland research, three-quarters (76%) of people in Scotland are concerned about climate change.
However, these concerns are not translating into action with only 10% of consumers very likely to change purchasing behaviour in the next year because of environmental concerns and 38% saying this was unlikely.
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A majority believe responsibility for tackling climate change primarily rests with governments, industry and businesses, with far fewer saying responsibility rests with consumers.
Chief executive of Consumer Scotland Sam Ghibaldan said: “Although many consumers in Scotland express concern about climate change, this is not translating into action at the pace and scale of change required.”
Of course, tackling climate change does involve governments, industry and businesses but ultimately they can only do so much.
The rest is down to us, the consumers, to make the greatest difference.
If three-quarters of Scots are indeed worried about the effects of climate change, then they should be willing to change behaviour or pay more to help combat it.
But many of us are not, sadly, as we live in a lazy consumer society where everything is available at the click of a mouse whenever you want it.
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You can even get cigarettes and booze delivered by a guy on a bike if you happen to run out and can’t be bothered walking ten minutes to the local shop.
Most of us religiously troop to the local supermarket at the weekend and some will get annoyed if there are no fresh strawberries in December or avocados and mangos on tap.
Some are also happy to buy lamb from New Zealand when Scots lamb is not in season.
In short, when it comes to our own lifestyles, many of us fall way short of what is required to really make a difference as we just want everything when we want it as that is what we are used to.
But it wasn’t always like this and simply turning back to a few decades when all food was local, seasonal and was carried in paper bags.
We should forget about avocados and mangos and return to those days instead.
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