Eco-friendly lifestyle is the "norm"

Londonstockexchange.com, 2nd November 2007

Feeling guilty about harming the environment is making people live in a more green way, says Defra.

The 2007 Survey of Public Attitudes and Behaviour toward the Environment found that a third of people talk to their friends and family about how they can help the environment.

Nearly nine out of ten people polled said they give unwanted items to charity shops or friends and family and eight out of ten said they try and to reuse paper, jars, envelopes and bottles.

"The most encouraging finding in this survey is the majority of people believing that it's up to individuals to accept responsibility by making lifestyle changes," said Environment Minister Joan Ruddock.

He explained that the choices people make concerning the environment are "vitally important" because 40 per cent of climate change emissions are a result of individual actions.

The Guardian reported that CO2 emissions worldwide rose by over three per cent every year between 2000-04. During the 1990s the average was 1.1 per cent....