| Necessary evil |
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I am reliably informed by the latest issue of the British Postmark Society Journal that around 600 post offices closed in the first quarter of 2008. Throughout the length and breadth of the country, hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of people no longer have a post office within walking distance. The implication, therefore, is that most of the people affected will probably drive to their next nearest post office, which in rural areas could be many miles away. If the post office in my village closed, I should have to drive to the nearest town, some five miles distant, probably at least twice a week: that means 20 additional road miles, or 32 kilometres, which is equivalent (at 200g/km) to some 6.4 kilos of CO2 added to the atmosphere. If that figure is used as an average, and, say, 100 people a week make the same journey by car, our village alone would contribute, in the course of one week, around 6.4 tonnes of CO2 to climate change, or in 50 weeks, 320 tonnes. Multiply that by 600 and you get 192,000 tonnes. And, of course, a lot more than 600 local post offices will eventually have been closed. Add to that all the local shops closing down under the onslaught of out-of-town supermarkets and it becomes obvious that it is not the hapless motorist who should be taxed on CO2 emissions, but the organisations that increasingly make driving an absolute necessity.
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