Saturday was Earth Hour: switch off your lights for an hour in the evening - so we spent an hour in a candle lit house. It was quite nice, it reminded me of spending time in my grandparents little summerhouse during my childhood. The house had no electricity, and to us kids there was something exiting about lighting petroleum lamps and candles in the evening, on special occasions we even got to light little plastic lanterns with tea lights in them on the patio - a 'beautiful' sight.
This was only in the 70's, not thaaat long ago -yet can anybody imaging having a place with no electricity today. What would my kids think if they had to spend a week in a place with no TV? Could I manage for a week with no Internet? Not to mention warm showers and a fridge. My grandparents had a hole in the floor with a trap door, where they could keep milk and other things cool enough to last for a few days, but it wasn't exactly a fridge.
We are so used to electricity now for all sorts of purposes that most of us would struggle if it became less available. In fact while I was reminiscing about candlelit summer holidays my husband was reminded of his time in Baghdad during the first Gulf War and he will tell you any day that life without electricity is not great! Maybe it is time we started appreciating this power a bit more, and started using it wisely.
Currently we produce a lot of our electricity in ways not very environmentally friendly. I am not going to go into details about coal fired power stations, nuclear power stations or even renewable energy for that matter, because I simply don't know enough about it to say anything intelligent,(and no smart comments about the intelligence of my other entries please...) but I would like to raise a point about the way we just take electricity for granted.
We don't just use it when we need it, we overuse it! Take a walk down any high street and several of the shops will have the lights on outside opening hours. In my own town we have a beautiful old historical palace and lights are shining on it all through the night - why? I know it looks pretty, it definitely does, but is that really what we should be doing with the electricity we produce at such cost to the environment?
What about our own personal actions. We all know that we are supposed to switch the lights off when we leave a room, but what about all the other electrical appliances that we just use without giving it much thought.
I remember in my home economics class in school we were taught that the first thing to do when baking was to switch on the oven; but why should I do that if it is going to take 25 minutes to get the mix ready, and it would take the oven max 10 minutes to reach the required temperature? (yes, it can take 25 minutes to get the mix ready, especially if you have 2 kids involved in the process...)
Not to mention when we buy yet another T-shirt, do we give it any thought at all how much energy was used in the production of just that one garment?
I think we all need to wise up when it comes to electricity, and if we realised that it doesn't just appear by magic, we could save both money and the environment.
I have mentioned several times that I would like to put solar panels on our roof. I am no longer just saying this because I want to increase my green credentials - solar panels are after all quite a symbol of green homes, but also because I really don't want to give up on all my electric comforts. It is not unlikely that prices for electricity will go up in the future - it will follow on from increased oil prices and stricter limits on CO2 emissions, and in that situation I would feel very happy to know that I have access to at least a basic supply. We still wouldn't be able to continue the way we are at the moment, generally domestic solar panels can't really supply that amount of energy, but we would have some power cheaply available.
Anyway time to go and put the kettle on, start the washing machine, get the shopping in the fridge, whisk up a cake, wash my hair, dry my hair, hoover the living room, watch some TV and do some work on my laptop...
Sunday 28 March 2010
Sunday 21 March 2010
Water, water, water
Due to a very generous donation from my mother in law we are currently in discussion with a plumber to get our bathroom sorted. This has flagged up a couple of interesting things to me. We are getting a new suite fitted and looking through the catalogue of various options, we reasonably quickly agreed that an eco suite with built in water saving features would be the best option. It has a shallower bath, but as only the kids use the bathtub, that shouldn't really matter and the toilet uses only a third of the normal average amount of water to flush. Amazingly this suite wasn't even expensive - to me this was a no brainer.
In fact it really made me wonder about the priorities we have in this country. If it is possible to make toilets that flush on minimal water and seemingly without causing a massive price hike, why are all new toilets not like that? How come that when looking through pages and pages of options for toilets and bathtubs, there was only this one if you wanted to reduce water usage? I am amazed - has the toilet producers not realised that water is another resource we need to be careful about. OK, as I have mentioned before water shortages are not really an issue in Scotland - we have plenty of the stuff and it keeps coming; but many other places have issues, including areas in England and I am sure that whoever sells toilets in Scotland also supplies in England, so water consumption should be a concern.
The plumber actually unknowingly confirmed that water saving is not a huge issue for him and probably his fellow workers. On one visit he said to me that he had noticed that we had chosen quite a plain suite, 'if he could get us a different suite for the same price, would we be interested?'. I replied that 'we had chosen the suite because of its water saving features, so unless he could source another one with those credentials, then no thanks'. His jaw almost hit the ground, and he looked as if he had seen a ghost - can it really be that I was the first of his customers to be concerned about water usage??? Just imagine what would have happened if I had asked for a grey water system to be installed...
Anyway it reminded me of some statistics I have come across lately, which I think are quite good to know:
97% of all the water on this planet is sea water and therefore difficult to turn into drinking water. 2% of fresh water is caught in the polar ice caps. That leaves just 1% for the Earths population to live from - that is not a lot for a growing population. (And here in the western world we use it to flush toilets!)
This again led me to think about the issue of drinking water and not least the amount of bottled water we use and the money we spend on it. There are ridiculous examples, such as the '10 Thousand BC Water', which is basically melted glacier ice, costing upto $45 for 750ml, or the nine times purified 'Bling H2O' costing $40-60 per bottle - complete with Swarowski crystals...
But even if you are drinking bottled water from a spring in Scotland you pay mad money: bottled water costs twice as much as petrol, three times as much as milk and 10.000 times more than tap water!
On top of the silly price we are paying for bottled water the environment is also paying a heavy price, in particular concerning all the plastic bottles used. According to a report from WWF from 2001 roughly 1.5 million tons of plastic are used every year in the bottling of 89 billion liters of water. That's a lot!
So where does all this leave me. For a starter it has emphasized that buying bottles of water is a complete waste and we really should stop that all together. Secondly it has reminded me that even if it doesn't save me money directly I should get organised about collecting rainwater for use in the garden. Thirdly I have made a mental note to include a greywater system to the longterm priority list, it does make sense to reuse water for flushing toilets etc (and by the time I get organised hopefully the plumber will also have converted to a more water efficient attitude...)
Last but not least all this thinking about water has made me very thirsty, so I shall now go and get a glass and fill it with...juice. Cheers
In fact it really made me wonder about the priorities we have in this country. If it is possible to make toilets that flush on minimal water and seemingly without causing a massive price hike, why are all new toilets not like that? How come that when looking through pages and pages of options for toilets and bathtubs, there was only this one if you wanted to reduce water usage? I am amazed - has the toilet producers not realised that water is another resource we need to be careful about. OK, as I have mentioned before water shortages are not really an issue in Scotland - we have plenty of the stuff and it keeps coming; but many other places have issues, including areas in England and I am sure that whoever sells toilets in Scotland also supplies in England, so water consumption should be a concern.
The plumber actually unknowingly confirmed that water saving is not a huge issue for him and probably his fellow workers. On one visit he said to me that he had noticed that we had chosen quite a plain suite, 'if he could get us a different suite for the same price, would we be interested?'. I replied that 'we had chosen the suite because of its water saving features, so unless he could source another one with those credentials, then no thanks'. His jaw almost hit the ground, and he looked as if he had seen a ghost - can it really be that I was the first of his customers to be concerned about water usage??? Just imagine what would have happened if I had asked for a grey water system to be installed...
Anyway it reminded me of some statistics I have come across lately, which I think are quite good to know:
97% of all the water on this planet is sea water and therefore difficult to turn into drinking water. 2% of fresh water is caught in the polar ice caps. That leaves just 1% for the Earths population to live from - that is not a lot for a growing population. (And here in the western world we use it to flush toilets!)
This again led me to think about the issue of drinking water and not least the amount of bottled water we use and the money we spend on it. There are ridiculous examples, such as the '10 Thousand BC Water', which is basically melted glacier ice, costing upto $45 for 750ml, or the nine times purified 'Bling H2O' costing $40-60 per bottle - complete with Swarowski crystals...
But even if you are drinking bottled water from a spring in Scotland you pay mad money: bottled water costs twice as much as petrol, three times as much as milk and 10.000 times more than tap water!
On top of the silly price we are paying for bottled water the environment is also paying a heavy price, in particular concerning all the plastic bottles used. According to a report from WWF from 2001 roughly 1.5 million tons of plastic are used every year in the bottling of 89 billion liters of water. That's a lot!
So where does all this leave me. For a starter it has emphasized that buying bottles of water is a complete waste and we really should stop that all together. Secondly it has reminded me that even if it doesn't save me money directly I should get organised about collecting rainwater for use in the garden. Thirdly I have made a mental note to include a greywater system to the longterm priority list, it does make sense to reuse water for flushing toilets etc (and by the time I get organised hopefully the plumber will also have converted to a more water efficient attitude...)
Last but not least all this thinking about water has made me very thirsty, so I shall now go and get a glass and fill it with...juice. Cheers
Monday 15 March 2010
I am not failing!
Over the last few months I have had a few comments regarding the success -or more precisely lack of success- of our green project. It has even been suggested that I am not helping the green cause by describing the difficulties I sometimes have. I feel the time has come to defend myself!
Changing your lifestyle is a big effort, nobody does that overnight. Changing to a seriously green lifestyle is huge, because it impacts on every single bit of your life! It impacts on what you eat, what you do, how you travel, what you buy, what you use, what you don't use, your energy consumption, what you waste, what you teach your kids - the list could go on. No area of life is safe from environmental dilemmas.
I am going to stick my neck out and make the claim that the main difference between a lot of the people who claim to be serious about the environment and me is that I admit to having gaps in my green lifestyle. (OK, quite a few gaps) I am not saying this to be mean and I most definitely don't want to criticize anybody's efforts, but I think it is important to realise the complexity of the situation - and just because somebody has gaps in other places than me that doesn't necessarily make them greener.
The other argument about not spelling out how difficult it is to become green is to me frankly nonsense. Making everybody believe that turning green is easy and straightforward is not helpful, the truth will very quickly become known and make anybody trying to change feel like a failure.
I recently looked at a model created to show successful lifestyle changes and one of the key elements is 'expect relapses'. If you are changing to healthier eating expect to still have a piece of cake from time to time - it doesn't mean everything is lost. If you are turning towards a more active lifestyle expect to have days when the exercise routine won't get done - but that isn't equal to the end of the project. So when I sometimes end up taking the easy solution, then I am actually just being human (Nice to get that confirmed...)
Another key element of a successful lifestyle change is apparently congratulating yourself on progress - don't dwell on the times things go wrong, focus on the progress that does happen.
So this is where I stand:
This project is not failing just because we own a car and I occasionally drive it to the school.
we are not failing simply on the grounds that my son loves blueberries and I on the odd day give in and buy some in the supermarket imported from Argentina.
It is not a failure just because I admit to disliking public transport.
It is not the end simply because I haven't signed up for a veg box scheme yet
It can still be a success even if we ended up booking flights to go see much missed family
In fact our green family project is succeeding because:
I walk my daughter to school at least nine times out of ten
I am trying to grow my own vegetables
I got on my bike last week and enjoyed it, even if I completely underestimated the route and almost gave myself a heart attack trying to go up a steep hill.
we have reduced our meat intake and saved money in the process
even my friends have accepted and support my changed priorities -one gave me a gardening book as a present
Our energy bills haven't gone through the roof
I recently managed to have a conversation about renewable energy without sounding like an idiot
my daughter switches off the lights to help the polar bears
I do go on public transport sometimes, although not with joy
and most of all:
I have had comments regarding this blog saying that it had actually made people sit up, think and take some form of action.
To me that is success!
It is only just over 6 months since me and my family started the process and there has been a lot to take on board in a short space of time. The most important thing I have learned so far is that being green is very complex. It is like putting a jigsaw of a 1000 pieces together: it takes a long time, some areas you can put together quite easily, others take a lot more effort - but focusing on just one piece or claiming that the right hand corner is more important than the left is pointless, you need the whole picture.
Changing your lifestyle is a big effort, nobody does that overnight. Changing to a seriously green lifestyle is huge, because it impacts on every single bit of your life! It impacts on what you eat, what you do, how you travel, what you buy, what you use, what you don't use, your energy consumption, what you waste, what you teach your kids - the list could go on. No area of life is safe from environmental dilemmas.
I am going to stick my neck out and make the claim that the main difference between a lot of the people who claim to be serious about the environment and me is that I admit to having gaps in my green lifestyle. (OK, quite a few gaps) I am not saying this to be mean and I most definitely don't want to criticize anybody's efforts, but I think it is important to realise the complexity of the situation - and just because somebody has gaps in other places than me that doesn't necessarily make them greener.
The other argument about not spelling out how difficult it is to become green is to me frankly nonsense. Making everybody believe that turning green is easy and straightforward is not helpful, the truth will very quickly become known and make anybody trying to change feel like a failure.
I recently looked at a model created to show successful lifestyle changes and one of the key elements is 'expect relapses'. If you are changing to healthier eating expect to still have a piece of cake from time to time - it doesn't mean everything is lost. If you are turning towards a more active lifestyle expect to have days when the exercise routine won't get done - but that isn't equal to the end of the project. So when I sometimes end up taking the easy solution, then I am actually just being human (Nice to get that confirmed...)
Another key element of a successful lifestyle change is apparently congratulating yourself on progress - don't dwell on the times things go wrong, focus on the progress that does happen.
So this is where I stand:
This project is not failing just because we own a car and I occasionally drive it to the school.
we are not failing simply on the grounds that my son loves blueberries and I on the odd day give in and buy some in the supermarket imported from Argentina.
It is not a failure just because I admit to disliking public transport.
It is not the end simply because I haven't signed up for a veg box scheme yet
It can still be a success even if we ended up booking flights to go see much missed family
In fact our green family project is succeeding because:
I walk my daughter to school at least nine times out of ten
I am trying to grow my own vegetables
I got on my bike last week and enjoyed it, even if I completely underestimated the route and almost gave myself a heart attack trying to go up a steep hill.
we have reduced our meat intake and saved money in the process
even my friends have accepted and support my changed priorities -one gave me a gardening book as a present
Our energy bills haven't gone through the roof
I recently managed to have a conversation about renewable energy without sounding like an idiot
my daughter switches off the lights to help the polar bears
I do go on public transport sometimes, although not with joy
and most of all:
I have had comments regarding this blog saying that it had actually made people sit up, think and take some form of action.
To me that is success!
It is only just over 6 months since me and my family started the process and there has been a lot to take on board in a short space of time. The most important thing I have learned so far is that being green is very complex. It is like putting a jigsaw of a 1000 pieces together: it takes a long time, some areas you can put together quite easily, others take a lot more effort - but focusing on just one piece or claiming that the right hand corner is more important than the left is pointless, you need the whole picture.
Sunday 7 March 2010
Dilemmas
This has been a week of dilemmas - so many answers to find.
First of all there were the personal dilemmas. Like should I be proud that my son is reducing the washing pile, or concerned about how dirty he looks when he yet another day insists on wearing the same Superman T-shirt?
I have been having the school run debate again: The whole family have more or less been ill this week with varying degrees of colds, sore throats etc, and I have to admit being unwell just doesn't help the green progress. So after dragging myself out of bed every morning, I asked the question - can I get away with taking the car to the school? I have to admit we did go the motorised way, more than once. I am not proud of it, but I was just too tired to coax 2 reluctant children to walk.
Tiredness also set in when we were tidying in the kids' rooms. They have an incredible amount of toys and junk, and I am not sure how best to minimise this. I managed to smuggle some stuff into a bag for the charity shop, but what to do with all these little silly plastic things that come with magazines, party bags etc. What am I supposed to do with them? They are too small to go to the charity shop, they wouldn't even get 5p for them, they are too pointless and horrible to recycle as presents for other children (yes, I admit I do that sometimes with really nice stuff), so all they can really do is add to the mountain at the landfill site. Honestly what is the point of these things? And the even bigger question: how can I stop them filling up the toy box? Should I ask people to stop buying my children presents and tell my kids they are not allowed to get party bags when leaving birthday parties? That is definitely not going to make me 'Mum of the Week'.
Then there were all the dilemmas people seemed to put in front of me. During a discussion at the school gate about the cold weather, somebody asked me if it is better to have your heating on a lower setting but on all the time or do shorter burst on a higher setting? I don't know - I am kind of assuming it depends on your heating system, your level of insulation and other sorts of variables, but where to find the answer?
This was followed by my husband asking: for mothers day do you want chocolate handmade here in Scotland, but probably not fairtrade, or do you want fairtrade chocolate bought from a supermarket? Help - I really have no idea what should be given priority. There is obviously going to be some kind of carbon footprint no matter what, because we don't have many cacao plants in Scotland, but should I be supporting the business who ensures more local employment and hopefully retains some skills and money locally; or should I go with ensuring the cacao growers get decent money, but through that I would also be supporting supermarket shareholders? My first reply was to get the email address for the Scottish company to convince them to use fairtrade ingredients, but unfortunately I can't do that in time for next Sunday - so what should I choose?
Likewise I have been trying to decide which veg box company to go with. There are a few different options in this area. There is the very local one, based in this town and with the option of getting other groceries from local shops as well - but it is not organic. There are a couple of organic ones, based in this area, but because they sell organic produce they have to source some of the stuff from slightly further away. Which one is the better option? Should I be as local as possible or is organic more important?
Even 6 months down the line I find myself stumbling on these questions all the time. The ideal option hardly ever exists, and I am not sure how to fine tune my priorities. Maybe I can find an app for this, then I could put in the different options and it would calculate the best way forward. How about that? It would be great. Oh, guess I need to get an i-phone first...
First of all there were the personal dilemmas. Like should I be proud that my son is reducing the washing pile, or concerned about how dirty he looks when he yet another day insists on wearing the same Superman T-shirt?
I have been having the school run debate again: The whole family have more or less been ill this week with varying degrees of colds, sore throats etc, and I have to admit being unwell just doesn't help the green progress. So after dragging myself out of bed every morning, I asked the question - can I get away with taking the car to the school? I have to admit we did go the motorised way, more than once. I am not proud of it, but I was just too tired to coax 2 reluctant children to walk.
Tiredness also set in when we were tidying in the kids' rooms. They have an incredible amount of toys and junk, and I am not sure how best to minimise this. I managed to smuggle some stuff into a bag for the charity shop, but what to do with all these little silly plastic things that come with magazines, party bags etc. What am I supposed to do with them? They are too small to go to the charity shop, they wouldn't even get 5p for them, they are too pointless and horrible to recycle as presents for other children (yes, I admit I do that sometimes with really nice stuff), so all they can really do is add to the mountain at the landfill site. Honestly what is the point of these things? And the even bigger question: how can I stop them filling up the toy box? Should I ask people to stop buying my children presents and tell my kids they are not allowed to get party bags when leaving birthday parties? That is definitely not going to make me 'Mum of the Week'.
Then there were all the dilemmas people seemed to put in front of me. During a discussion at the school gate about the cold weather, somebody asked me if it is better to have your heating on a lower setting but on all the time or do shorter burst on a higher setting? I don't know - I am kind of assuming it depends on your heating system, your level of insulation and other sorts of variables, but where to find the answer?
This was followed by my husband asking: for mothers day do you want chocolate handmade here in Scotland, but probably not fairtrade, or do you want fairtrade chocolate bought from a supermarket? Help - I really have no idea what should be given priority. There is obviously going to be some kind of carbon footprint no matter what, because we don't have many cacao plants in Scotland, but should I be supporting the business who ensures more local employment and hopefully retains some skills and money locally; or should I go with ensuring the cacao growers get decent money, but through that I would also be supporting supermarket shareholders? My first reply was to get the email address for the Scottish company to convince them to use fairtrade ingredients, but unfortunately I can't do that in time for next Sunday - so what should I choose?
Likewise I have been trying to decide which veg box company to go with. There are a few different options in this area. There is the very local one, based in this town and with the option of getting other groceries from local shops as well - but it is not organic. There are a couple of organic ones, based in this area, but because they sell organic produce they have to source some of the stuff from slightly further away. Which one is the better option? Should I be as local as possible or is organic more important?
Even 6 months down the line I find myself stumbling on these questions all the time. The ideal option hardly ever exists, and I am not sure how to fine tune my priorities. Maybe I can find an app for this, then I could put in the different options and it would calculate the best way forward. How about that? It would be great. Oh, guess I need to get an i-phone first...
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