watervole: (Save the Earth)
Judith Proctor ([personal profile] watervole) wrote2012-01-07 10:10 pm

Climate Change

 Kerravonsen recently stuck her head above the parapet and invited people to ask her questions about her faith.

It's always hard to talk about topics that polarise opinion and hard to talk about them when you can get strong negative reactions.

Yet some things are always present in our lives.

With Kerravonsen, it's religion, with me, it's climate change.

I often don't talk about it, because I can't always cope with the stress of dealing with people who refuse to accept that we're changing our planet.  (sometimes, it can be equally stressful talking to people who accept it is happening, but don't want to change their lifestyle)

Yet, it's central to much of what I do.

I turn out lights by reflex.  Yes, it saves money, but I do it primarily because wasting energy is a sin. (And I'm not using the word 'sin' casually)

I haven't travelled overseas in a decade and will probably never do so again - the CO2 emissions from air travel dwarf any saving you can make elsewhere in your life.

We live in an exceptionally well insulated house and don't heat above 18C (though it can get warmer than that from passive solar heating).

We grow quite a lot of our own veg.

I try not to buy food from overseas - if I do, I try and ensure it has not travelled by air (Riverford are very good in this regard - they never ship by air)

We're not perfect.  It's actually quite hard to maintain a low carbon footprint in a country where few of us can afford to buy the land to produce our own food - unless you have that safety net to fall back on, then you have to have a paying job and that means a car and heating and lighting and all the rest of it.  There are also some things that I'm not yet willing to do without, my computer for one. 

Yet, if everyone did no more than I do, we could probably slash this country's carbon emissions.

It's a new year, why not see what you can trim from your carbon emissions?

[identity profile] asphodeline.livejournal.com 2012-01-08 06:55 pm (UTC)(link)
I should be honest and say I do enjoy the challenge of the "what would Gran have used" scenario. You've made me stop and think a bit about how I do like to be economical. I don't use much in the way of kitchen equipment - hand mix things and hand chop etc. Deliberately don't have a tumble dryer or dishwasher and John and I will only purchase A+ or better electrical white goods.

Personally I think it's fun to see what you can achieve but also important to try to make a difference. We both have a mini dream of living in an eco house but for the forseeable future we're going for"normal" house ecofriendly!