THE giant cube made of scaffolding in Melksham Market Place has been causing a bit of a stir.
The 27-foot square cube has been erected for the town’s ClimateFest event this weekend and represents one tonne of CO2 – the amount on CO2 each of us produces every month.
Some people on social media have criticised the project. One resident commented, “It’s an eyesore blighting the Market Place (and nobody knows or understands why it’s there!)”
Critics also questioned how much CO2 it would have taken to erect it.
But the man behind the project, environmental campaigner Michael Saunders, has defended the cube saying, “The Cube has been an absolutely massive and far greater success than anticipated in demonstrating how much carbon dioxide each of us is involved in producing.
“There has been so much positive comment regarding The Cube and surprise from people being able to see how much CO2 we are each responsible for, and in fairness a few questions which is to be expected after building something so prominent.
“Some people have asked how much it cost the council to build The Cube; the answer is nothing, as it has been more than generously provided and constructed by Melksham Scaffolding Ltd, who we are all so lucky to have supporting our town.
“To give a bit more perspective to the amount of CO2 we are each constantly involved in creating, we each have a carbon footprint which is our average share of the CO2 created, and this is 12 times the size of The Cube each year!
“Driving a piston-engined car produces on average 4.6 times the size of The Cube in CO2 each year without considering other toxic gases coming from the exhaust. Cars produce 59% of the CO2, trucks and buses 28% and vans 12%. Just commuting back and forth to work and the shops produces 88% of this CO2. Should we abandon our car and walk or cycle into town at the weekends?
“Heating our homes, we each produce on average 2.7 times the size of The Cube in CO2 a year. Should we buy our energy from the providers of solar, wind or hydro power?
“We all know what is destroying our climate but how many of us has the courage or will to change our lifestyle to protect our planet and only home for our children and grandchildren’s future?
“If we don’t all do something very soon to reduce our CO2 creation, by 2030 it may be too late and it will just get hotter and hotter and hotter!
“Changing our lifestyle may not look too exciting to start with, but it will soon become fun competing with our friends and family to reduce our creation of carbon dioxide.”
