December Meme, Day Two

[pensnest]

watervole asked for my thoughts on global warming and what we can do as individuals to help.

There are a lot of days when I try very hard not to think about global warming at all, because it terrifies me. I keep wondering what will happen during my children's lives, and their children's lives. I want—I assume most parents want—my children to have the kind of life I had, only better, and the way we are treating our planet makes me feel horribly sure that that isn't going to be possible. The evidence is *in*, and the world still isn't taking it seriously.

I feel so small in the face of it. And I know that I don't do much to help. I mean, I've signed petitions, written to my MP (who is a weasel in a minor government position, so no help there), and I'm pretty sure I've given money to the cause, but it all feels very small.

How to help as an individual… again, it all feels very small. That said, the small things are things that everybody could do, and if everybody did them, it would help. No, not everybody. There are people in the world who can't make the little sacrifices—and I don't want to suggest that people for whom it isn't practical, even possible, to do the little things, are at fault. But there are a lot of smallish things that we can do, and when I read of privileged people refusing to do them, I want to smite someone.

Keeping the lights off, and using energy efficient lightbulbs. Putting on extra clothes instead of turning up the heating—we have giant fleece dressing gowns which go over *everything* and are splendidly warm. Taking public transport—I don't do this perhaps as often as I could, and it must be said that doing without a car would be quite a big sacrifice. Driving an economical car helps, though.

It twines in with other worthy causes, I think. We have milk delivered, in recyclable bottles, and it would be cheaper to buy it at the supermarket but I rather approve of the milkman—and he'll bring me juice at short notice, or cream, etc. We recycle everything possible—a small thing, nowadays, but presumably the fact that councils all over the country collect recyclables now is due to individuals doing their best to recycle before it was easy. I resent people who don't bother, because seriously, do we need more landfill? We do not. I save my carrier bags for supermarket shopping (and have pouchable bags in my handbag for random shopping), and when I get loose vegetables at the supermarket, don't bother to put them in little plastic bags—and I prefer to get loose veg rather than the packaged kind, if possible.

And, actually, with the exception of the milk delivery, all these things save me money. Lower energy bills—looking at the EPCs of houses for sale, switching to low-energy lightbulbs pays back in just over a year. Loose veg is cheaper than stuff in polystyrene packaging. And so on.

I don't know whether getting organic fruit and veg and meat delivered is good or bad in terms of global warming—quite possibly a mixture. That and growing some vegetables this summer has certainly meant fewer car trips to the supermarket. Cutting down on meat consumption is a bigger contribution, and it goes together with getting better quality meat, so we're doing that. Buying into carbon capture schemes when we fly anywhere—and we really do have to visit my FIL on the other side of the world sometimes. Composting?

There's probably more that I, and you, and everyone could do as individuals. Any suggestions would be very welcome in comments.

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Comments

[sperrywink]

All good things!

[watervole]

I think organic fruit and veg work out pretty even in carbon terms. With organic growers like Riverford who really work on their carbon footprint, then there's a definite gain. With organic food flown in by air, there's a definite loss.

Flying is a big problem. Carbon credit schemes are well intended, but rarely produce much long-term gain. (tree planting cannot guarantee the survival of the trees fifty years from now, and of course, they're only replacing trees that were lost originally, rather than removing the new carbon from the air flight)

Anything you can do to reduce air travel is the biggest gain of all. Family ties do make this a tricky issue.

[pensnest]

My veg boxes are pretty good, I think, because the contents are basically grown in this country. But when I was getting fruit+veg, there were bananas and satsumas, and probably other things too, that can't have been grown locally. When I move, I will look into Riverford as an option.

Sometimes I think the hardest thing about trying to be careful with the environment is knowing what exactly is involved. Is such and such a measure really beneficial, or are there hidden costs in the manufacture (or whatever) that negate the benefits?

Anyway, thanks for the very interesting subject prompt.

[solariana.livejournal.com]

ARGH! I just have to roll my eyes at people who don't recycle. We have single stream recycling both at home and at work (meaning all recycling goes in together, no need to separate paper, cans, plastics, etc.). We have a recycling bin RIGHT NEXT TO THE TRASH BIN and people still throw recyclables right in the trash. I must confess that I am picking stuff from the trash and re-sorting it to the recycle bin almost daily at work. What really irks me is sometimes people will say this or that person does it on purpose just to irritate me and another person who pushes recycling. How STUPID can you be?

At home, My parents and I share their trash service. They put out one small trash bag per week. I put out 1-2 tiny trash bags per month, plus used kitty litter. Between the 3 of us we FILL the recycle bin up every week. If there is too much, I can take it to work. It's really irritating to drive passed house after house and seeing their trash bins full of paper, boxes and plastics.

/rant *G*

[pensnest]

Right with you! People who are too lazy or careless are really annoying, but people who do it *on purpose* are just beyond the pale. Grarrr!

[solariana.livejournal.com]

I try to explain to them that we're killing the planet and that we have no more room for landfills so NOT recycling is going to raise the price of trash service as they have to haul further and further out. I even asked how they would feel if their kids couldn't afford to buy a house (that isn't on top of an old landfill, LOL). I even try telling them that the more you recycle, you're helping to keep costs of fuel and goods down. They just don't care. There are way too many people who just don't care!