A different kind of harvest
I believe in environmental sustainability, and I believe in the essential capacity of most people to overcome challenges. So I’m not too gloomy about our future prospects, though many people and organisations paint a bleak picture about the future of this planet.
But I have a slight problem with those who say I must cut down my carbon footprint and do more to live sustainably. Sustainable options usually involve the exchange of convenience – a car to drive to work, a plane to fly us to Australia – for something less impactful, that takes longer and gives a new pace to life – so we take the bus to work, or we walk – and this I do understand. Except that I already live quite a modest life, and, as far as I can, I live low-impact. I cut down my use of water and turn out the lights, I eat only a little meat, I don’t do dairy or sugar or beef or white flour, and I have clothes in my wardrobe that I’ve had for two decades. The list goes on.
Yes, I would love to do more to reduce the impact of my life on the environment. And yet, the time it would take me to go swimming, riding or shopping without a car would make these activities a practical impossibility. I would have to hire taxis, and how environmental is that?
I’m glad my daughter can leap up and down the stairs like a gazelle. Some days it takes me ten minutes just to reach the front door. So the injunction to her to cycle or walk might be a minor inconvenience. To me, that kind of injunction means I would live almost exclusively at home. Which is not how I wish to live.
So the question becomes, what can I do to help with the environment in such a way that I do not feel personally and socially compromised almost to the point of atrophy?
I went out to pick brambles recently, and there were none. Someone has cut back all the bushes, and anyway, it is far late in the season: the warm weather may be deceptive, but I can’t cheat the calendar. So instead, in a different kind of harvest, I filled a bag with litter, recycled most of it and threw lots of shredded plastic into the bin. That is something I can do, and do regularly, to help the environment, gain some exercise and fresh air, without surrendering more of my normal life to the cause of environmentalism.
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Please share:
November 19, 2018 @ 12:22 pm
Although I am 100% being kinder to our precious planet I agree totally with this post. We also try and live a low impact life – many of the things you have mentioned and our cars are both older than the average with our sweet little Clio now 20 years old, the larger VW replaced one that was over twenty years old when it became unreliable. But, you can only do what you can do and there is a danger to try so hard that your environmental efforts become ineffective. As you say driving yourself to your swimming – two journeys – is better than calling a taxi – four journeys – so I reckon we all do our little bit and the littles hopefully will become large. What we really need are for the huge conglomerates to get on board and put the planet before profits. We can only live in hope about that though.
November 19, 2018 @ 12:33 pm
Dear Diane
Thank you for visiting, and commenting. I’m so pleased we agree :-))
I’m consoled to know that, although my efforts may be small, there is always something more and low-impact I can do – collecting litter – which makes a difference. I’ve always done that, and risked appearing eccentric, and I hope that one day, lots of other people will join me! I was so pleased recently to notice one of my neighbours with a black bag collecting litter from hereabouts. Mony a meekle macks a muckle!
November 22, 2018 @ 12:52 am
Hi Fran. I have been looking for you for a while. Every time I go to your wordpress blog it is no longer there so I give up. Then a brilliant flash of light sent me to this obscure place. (Hint: tell some other people.)
Anyway, about carbon footprints. On my road trip to Cairns, Robin and I probably emitted about 1,000 kg of CO2 between us. It took seven days. When I flew home, on my own, to Melbourne I probably emitted about 1,800 kg of CO2. There were 180 passengers so all together that one flight would have contributed 32 tonnes.
Scary!!
November 22, 2018 @ 2:31 pm
Hi John!!! Thanks for following me here, and I’m sorry that, in the midst of your other treks, you’ve had such a job to locate me. Yes, I left WordPress quite some time ago, though I’m still linked up to it in the system for some things, I suspect.
Yikes, I dread to think what our travel footprint was when the three of us flew to Oz and NZ. No wonder they use double deckers and cram us in like fishes. I understand that now. Maybe we could plant some trees….
Take care!
Fran xxx