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The other crisis
During Covid, everything was focused on surviving that, and we lost momentum on tackling climate change.
Now, governments are all focused on Ukraine and again climate slips to the back burner.
But we now only have seven years in which to halve our carbon emissions - or we face irreversible, catastrophic climate change (as opposed to mere seriously bad climate change) .
We're already past the point of no return on some aspects of the climate - the storm, droughts, floods and famine (the four horsemen of climate change) will be with us for the rest of our lives and our children's lives - and they will get worse even if we half our emissions tomorrow.
What we're fighting for now is survival.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/28/ipcc-issues-bleakest-warning-yet-impacts-climate-breakdown (and if you don't like the Guardian, there's similar articles in other papers and on the BBC news)
It's easy to feel helpless in the face of a problem of this magnitude. There's the temptation to do nothing because we can't see how it will make any difference.
And yet it does make a difference. Not least, because what we do, our friends become more likely to do. And that ripples out.
Our friends are interested in our heat pump and looking into getting their own.
More and more people are reducing beef and lamb consumption (the worst meats for CO2 emissions). We're flexitarian - which in our case currently means that we never buy beef or lamb, but would happily eat a left over beef sandwich at the end of a party as wasting food is stupid.
We eat vegan for a lot of our meals, but also eat cheese part of the time. Every month or so, we'll have some pork sausages or some chicken, but there are so many interesting veggie options that we're doing this less and less. Our veg box from Riverford always has a good variety of food, and they have great recipes on their web site.
I know I'm far from the only one of my friends trying to cut consumption overall. Lots of people I know are cutting back on new clothes, repairing what they have, and buying second-hand. I've actually lost track of when I last bought a new item of clothing - but it was certainly well before Covid. And yet, I still have plenty to wear - my wardrobe had a lot of stuff in it. (If you do this challenge, underwear and socks don't count)
I've become really good at resisting 'stuff'. Okay, apart from new board games!
What challenges can you set yourselves?
The ones that count are:
Travel - the less you travel the better, and if you can cut out flying you gain big points as that's definitely the highest emitter.
Heat - Insulation is a long term investment, but it makes a big difference emissions-wise.
The big problem with heating is that people don't plan far ahead. If your gas boiler breaks down, then the need is to instantly rush out and replace it. Think ahead. If your boiler is getting old, speak to a heat pump installer and find out what options exist - there's more than one type of heat pump and one may suit your needs better than another. Check what grants exist. Then, if your boiler does hit problems, you already know what route to follow. (You can probably borrow electric plug in radiators for the installation period - that's what we did)
Meat - Try to cut out, or greatly reduce your consumption of, beef and lamb.
Can you halve your carbon emissions over the next few years?
Please try.
The future of the most adorable seven year old on the planet (feel free to substitute your own sprog or grandsprog here) depends on it. She's too young to vote, and by the time she is, it may already be too late. Please help her and all those children throughout the world who need us.
Remember, whenever a government says combating climate change will be too expensive - what they actually mean is "We're passing the bill to the next generation, only it will cost more for them as they will have to pay for the damage as well as the solution."
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Unless your son is doing the cooking, let him eat veg :)
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Given that my ration of meat today was a single slice of black pudding the size of a 50p piece -- stewed with leek tops and onion to eat on toast -- and that I buy meat on average less than once a week, including such butchery items as dripping and stew bones, with an average spend of £11 a month... I'm honestly not worried about the impact of my eating habits on the planet. I reckon England can sustain that level of farm animals quite happily as part of good mixed agricultural practice.
I've currently run out of room for more rags as a result of ripping through another pyjama jacket at the shoulder; I wear my clothes until they wear out, and they *are* wearing out. (I clearly need to polish my shoes and clean my bicycle more often, as I'm accumulating rag faster than I use it!)
In the last year, I've spent around £12 on clothes *including* underwear (are socks not underwear?) I cycled eight drizzly miles today in shoes with a hole in the bottom, which is definitely less than ideal... (my fault for unthinkingly putting aesthetics above practicality; better to have put on blue shoes with black socks than to have gone out in the rain in the worn-out black shoes!)
The most practical thing I could do would probably be to pay to get the magnificent antique (and partially rotted) timber windows replaced by plastic double-glazed ones, because when I sit by the window I can feel the chill from behind the curtains. However, that would involve scaffolding and major expense -- and instinctively I'd rather have the windows *repaired* back to their Edwardian heyday, however inefficient the glazing.
For the present it's actually relatively convenient to have a cold room, because it mean that I can keep food items in it that might get too warm in the kitchen (and also uncollected rubbish bags...!) I simply proceed on the principle that it's not worth trying to raise the indoors temperature too high.
Personally, I don't think I actually can halve my carbon dioxide emissions over the next few years, because as things are I don't have a lot of easy wins left. Currently I don't travel *at all* except under my own power -- which means I haven't been anywhere more than twenty miles away from home in years (shades of Sam Gamgee). I'm running my central heating well below the minimum temperatures recommended 'for comfort', and simply wearing more clothing -- as my Edwardian predecessors did, I suspect. I'm eating only organic, locally-produced meat, and fruit and vegetables only in their seasons (fortunately I'm actually quite fond of cabbage salad!) and only English where possible; I do eat large numbers of Spanish oranges over the winter, because once the last apples start to go woolly there isn't anything else local until the forced rhubarb starts to come in. I wear my clothes and shoes until they literally can't be mended any more.
I could probably cook more efficiently by avoiding baking etc., but preparing food is one of my few remaining luxuries and sources of entertainment. I have no children, and am never likely to have any. (Ironically one of my greatest sources of inefficiency is probably in living alone; 'two can live as cheaply as one', and certainly use less than twice as many resources by sharing them, even in a small space.) Nocturnal habits also don't help -- I waste a lot of sunlight by being asleep, and then have to use artificial lighting to make up the deficit, even by winter standards. And I could be more disciplined about switching *off* the computer, instead of leaving it to run for convenience' sake. But that sort of thing is not going to make any major difference -- probably far less than an hour with a cake in the oven, given the inefficiency of electrical heating and the very low power requirements of the CPU.
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I can safely say that I'm not worried about your meat eating impact either :)
I eat the occasional local lamb's kidney, and a packet of sausages every couple of months.
Socks count as underwear, unless you're a knitter, then they become a handy hobby.
Have you considered this sort of stuff for your windows? Not elegant, but could help cut the chill. It's much cheaper than real double glazing.
https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Seasonal-Secondary-Glazing-Film---6m2/p/210014
You and I are pretty much in the same boat - very little left that we can cut. If everyone lived like you, the world would be in a much better state.
(Ironically one of my greatest sources of inefficiency is probably in living alone; 'two can live as cheaply as one', and certainly use less than twice as many resources by sharing them, even in a small space.)
Don't suppose you'd fancy taking in a lodger? I probably would if I lived alone, but that's because I hate being alone. For many people it would probably be the exact opposite.
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Now I'm back to oatmeal sausages and cauliflower-stem curry (the tough stems make a surprisingly good substitute for root vegetables, as do left-over cabbage stalks once you've chopped all the leaves off)...
I find socks quite interesting to knit for other people (who tend to be inordinately impressed), but I've yet to complete a pair that I'd actually want to wear myself. All the ones I've tried have been rather uncomfortable to walk on, and you tend to need special wool -- it's not something that works very well on scraps of other people's leftovers. Maybe my feet are unusually sensitive and/or sweaty; I know I have poor circulation in all my extremities, which is why I get chilblains on my fingers and toes and blister easily.
I'd forgotten about that stuff! My parents used to use it on their Crittall windows -- it played merry havoc with the interior paintwork when you took it off every year, leaving a yellow Sellotape-like strip on the white gloss.
From what I remember it was definitely not a one-man job to put it on. (Also, I'm not sure how well it would work on a really big window -- the curtains are about eight foot by ten or eleven, I think, and well off the floor -- as opposed to the small steel-framed panes.) And I don't actually possess a hair-dryer, although I imagine all these things could be worked around with assistance if you were really determined...
I only have a single bedroom and a single bed -- it's all very well for the occasional guest to sleep on the sofa by the balcony (I did that myself for some weeks during the Great Squirrel War), but I can't see lodgers being happy to pay for that. Although there probably are sofa-surfers out there who would be desperate enough to take anything :-(
But I don't think they would welcome my lax cleaning standards, poor personal hygiene, anti-social hours, and minimal heating -- it gets to the stage where most of the time I'm embarrassed for tradesmen to see how much squalor I live in, although I don't actually enjoy it. (As my mother once said, "It would be one thing if you were a *happy* hippy...")
And the kitchen is so small that you really can't have more than one person in there at a time; it's rather convenient to be able to stand in the middle and access all the cupboards within two strides, but if anyone wants to talk to me while I'm cooking then they have to hang around in the corridor outside and look in through the doorway, or they get frightfully in the way ;-p
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A big source of carbon dioxide and methane is food waste. I used to be involved in a food-rescue group. We campaigned against industrial-scale dumping of perfectly edible food into landfill. I noticed how big retailers and government lecture the public on using up soft bananas and stale bread whilst they and the rest of the food industry continue to needlessly dump thousands of tonnes of food into landfill each year!
As for me, I live alone, no offspring, I don't own a car, I walk where I can, I rarely fly and I don't buy lots of stuff. I grow a small portion of my own food, don't heat the whole house in winter. I thought about getting solar PV but it wouldn't be cost-effective for me because I don't use enough electricity and my roof faces east, west and north. I rarely buy fresh meat unless it's on a yellow ticket. I compost my waste paper and green garden and kitchen waste, and I don't buy or cook food if I'm not going to eat it. I think I'm doing enough. Though I am planning on getting a new scanner for the PC this year...
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You're scoring way higher than most people in this country. I award you a gold star! (you get gold star with cluster if you ever advance from rarely fly to never fly)
I agree - it needs both individual action, corporate action and government action.
Climate change is the only factor that affects my vote - our local MP has an appalling voting record on climate change.
I've now moved all my savings to banks/funds that have zero fossil fuel investments and actively invest in ethical funds (as opposed to just passively avoiding arms and tobacco)
Which bank are you with? That's one that people often fail to think of, but some big UK banks are neck deep in fossil fuels.
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I haven't considered changing banks for environmental reasons -- I'm with one of the "not-so-bad" big five for current account and a major building society for savings. I'm quite liberal minded and I don't feel comfortable with dictating others' lifestyles. Still, more power to your elbows. :)