Getting People Excited

You can really feel the public momentum behind a greater sense of individual engagement with environmental issues after hearing recent reports about London's one-hour Lights Out switch-off later this month, and the build-up to a plastic bag-free Christmas 2007 taking rapid shape.

Both of these ideas are about making green issues more accessible to individuals in a direct, real and positive way. Taking part in things like these help to achieve a sense of empowerment which on its own doesn't count for much but forms part of a sequence of involvement and greater action. (Could I have made that last sentence any more dull?) Put differently, these ideas inspire and catalyse change. That's why they're important and significant.

Now, the relevant question is: how we can replicate a lights-out and plastic bag-free Aber? Far too often there is a student-local disconnect in Aber but these issues (which regrettably I won't be here to see happen) are great examples of the potential to come together on issues of common concern.