Electricity and Climate Change

I read last week that carbon emissions are up again and we are well on the way to a two degree rise in global temperatures, which is not good news for our grandchildren, although I'm sure I will be well gone before it happens.

It started me thinking on how much more we use electricity these days - either mains or batteries. To start with, we used to just have a telephone which was plugged into the landline, and didn't need a mains cable. Now we have a cordless handset so we don't have to jump up to answer it - it's there by our side - but, of course, we CAN walk around the house whilst speaking on it! Also we need to regularly charge up our mobile phones.

Then there are simple things that used to be mechanical, but now have to be electronic for some reason; like bathroom scales and kitchen scales that worked quite well with a spring. And do you recall when we used to wind up our watches and clocks?

My old 35 mm camera didn't need a battery to work - I adjusted it myself, but now one can't even zoom on digital cameras manually (yes, I know on the expensive DSLR ones you can, but they're not the most popular models!).

Do you remember the old days when you switched off things like TV's? Now you switch to standby and a little red light reassures you it's still using up power.

And of course, what's the latest gadget? An electronic book! Those old paper things you could borrow free from a library - now they really are old fashioned!