Greens Pollute the Most?

[jenkinsdakota]

According to NowPublic (http://www.nowpublic.com/consuming_australia_high_price_our_spending_0), wealthy inner-city suburbs pollute more:

People living in Australia's wealthiest inner-city suburbs are responsible for more than double the amount of greenhouse pollution than households in less affluent areas, because of their high levels of consumption....

The Consumption Atlas shows households in areas straddling the harbour in inner Sydney and the banks of the Brisbane River in Queensland are the country's biggest greenhouse polluters. These areas are closely followed by the inner suburbs of Canberra; Woollahra and Mosman in Sydney; Southbank and Docklands in Melbourne; and Fortitude Valley and Newstead in Brisbane. The lowest greenhouse polluting Australian households are in Tasmania, in the Derwent Valley, Kentish and Brighton areas.So Southbank and Docklands are the highest polluters in Melbourne.

However, looking at the results of the 2004 election (http://www.abc.net.au/elections/federal/2004/results/) we find that the people who vote for the Greens (http://greens.org.au/) tend to be wealthy inner-city people. Only in wealthy inner-city electorates do Greens votes reach double digits (i.e. over 10%).

In Melbourne (including the CBD, Southbank, Parkville, Kensington, Docklands, etc) 18.98% voted for the Greens. In Melbourne Ports (Williamstown, Port Melbourne, St Kilda, etc) it is 14.10% In Higgins (Armadale, Malvern, Toorak, etc) it is 11.35% and in Kooyong (Kew, Hawthorn, Balwyn, Canterbury, Camberwell, etc) it is 12.54%

All the other electorates farther from the city, and even in the Liberal mortgage belts, have single-digit percentages of Greens voters. E.g. Aston (4.86%), Ballarat (6.73%), Batman (6.93%), etc.

So what can we conclude from this? It seems as if Greens voters pollute the most.

[BJelly]

I obviously can't talk for all Greens voters, but I'm not from a wealthy suburb.

I'm middle class, I'll be sending our kids to the State School down the road. We have a stationwagon - we need the extra space for portacots and prams etc. I wouldn't be seen dead in a 4WD - I think they are a complete joke for city people. When the kids get older and have less stuff, we'll get a smaller car.

I compost my green waste, I sort out my recyclables, I buy clothes for myself at the charity stores, I sometimes buy 2nd hand clothes for the kids, but luckily we get a lot of handmedowns, and for convenience I do buy new clothes for them too. We have the new fluro lights, and try to conserve our water and energy use.

On the negative side - we do have lots of electronic stuff - my hubby likes his surround sound etc - boys and their toys:rolleyes: And we will be flying OS to visit family at Xmas. But I did ask for a family member to get us carbon credits as a gift to help make up for this:o

Maybe the rich overconsumers recognise they need help from government to help mitigate their negative impact on the environment.:confused:

[missie_mack]

I can see how inner city people can be affected.

Usually they are space effected. They dont always have room for clothes lines (especially if they are living in apartments albeit glorious apartments) so they tend to use clothes dryers. While it is wonderful to recycle the effort would be reduced if you have twice the packaging of a normal household- and those who live a busy working life may tend to utilise take home food services (take home not take away) And their homes are usually bigger than those living in less affluent situations thus they use more power more cleaning etc etc

Personally I dont know if people are really aware of all the things that cause environmental damage and people just love their energy draining mod cons which they dont want to give up even if they know the effects they have on the environment

[LovelyRita]

To start with, how they come to the conclusion that they are bigger polluters is based on how much they buy, not on all factors combined, so I don't think you could conclude that Greens are the biggest polluters just from that.

Also, the environment is only a part of why I am voting for the Greens. A range of other issues that the Greens address is what has lured me from the major parties.

I don't think you can judge who pollutes the most by how much they consume. Yes, consuming in excess can have a huge impact on the environment, but it isn't the only impact.