Recently in ethical shopping Category

This is my last post for Community Care, and I'd like to thank all readers, especially the few who have written interesting comments, and my employers at Community Care who have been so good to me.

Regular readers will know of my interest in how money affects sustainable development, stemming from my early involvement in York Local Agenda 21. The three pillars of sustainability, according to Agenda 21, are our natural environment (air, water, soil, ecosystems and living things) our social environment (people) and our fiscal environment, which is how we organise our trade, taxation, businesses, banking and how wealth is spread between us.  Our monetary environment is just as important as our biosphere and our fellow humans.

Over the past few years there's been a lot of noise about the evils of plastic bags.  They've been blamed for filling up landfills and inflating people's carbon footprints, mimicking jellyfish and confusing turtles, even being labelled 'witches knickers' when blown into Irish hedges and trees.  Now, in the grand scheme of things, plastic bags are not the biggest of our consumption 'wrongs', despite a million being given out every minute.  But every little thing we do to improve the problem helps us go in the right direction.

I like watching television, but I know where the off-button is and I do lots of other things as well as watch telly.  I have several friends who don't have a telly and when I mention something I've seen or that they 'should see', they remind me that they don't sit and goggle... and on occasions I've felt a bit guilty that I do!  For a period of about 5 years in my 20s I also didn't have a telly, until my girlfriend's grandmother gave us one.  We didn't miss TV, and couldn't understand how people made the time to watch it, but once we'd got one, we quickly became hooked, sorry 'accustomed' to our daily watching habits.

There are two things which have led me to email my MP and ask him to support a motion (EDM 1082) which proposes the development of a Post Office Bank.  Firstly, with many 'High Street' banks having financial difficulties and some having to be bailed out by the Government, it would make sense to have a bank entirely supported by the Government, with no shareholders looking for a profit.  Secondly, Post Offices are still closing down partly as a result of decisions to increase the online or electronic transfer of pensions and other benefits.

I see Post Offices as an essential cornerstone of local communities, and their closure has meant that people who used to walk less than a mile to get to their local Post Office might now have to go by car.  Their loss isn't just the Post Office facilities, but the other things the shop sells... newspapers, sweets, basic groceries (our local one sells milk, sugar, teabags, basic stationery and birthday cards etc). The weekly trip to the Post Office, for some, used to be an important part of their social lives, as some people living alone don't have a lot of human contact and their weekly pension collection is the contact they need to feel part of society.  If a Post Office closes, other shops nearby might lose trade too, so putting them at risk.  

The House of Commons Business and Enterprise Select Committee is conducting an inquiry into the future of the Post Office, and this includes suggestions about a Post Office Bank, able to offer cheques, credit/debit cards, overdrafts and other financial services.  My MP, Hugh Bayley, suggested a number of other possible services (after consulting with sub postmasters and the City of York Council) including allowing branches to process some other financial products such as council tax and rent payments, insurance etc, and issuing things like bus passes.  Some Post Offices could have internet terminals to allow access to services currently being promoted as easily accessible on the web, like TV licences and car tax.  Many people still don't have domestic access to the 'net and access at a post office might be one way of keeping the local offices open.  Hugh Bayley also suggested a Post Office Travel Agency... something I'm less keen on, but my suggestion would be being able to link with the local Credit Union so payments could be made easily, instead of the current arangement (in York at least) of the CU having a room in the Council Treasury Building twice a week.  And, of course the main (perceived) reason that Post Office use has declined, being able to issue pensions and benefits. 

So, I look forward to hearing more about the future of the Post Office, and to knowing that their future is assured.  I will also make more use of the Write to Them website, as it enables you to contact your MP, MEP, local councillor and other representatives very easily.   I also pledge to use my local Post Office more often, to play my part in it's continued success. 

There are many ways to convey a message.  And when it comes to climate change and overconsumption, there are blogs, protest marches, films, and I've just discovered poetry.

So, I'd like you to click on this link: http://www.myspace.com/dannychivers and then click on the poem 'Consumed' by Danny Chivers, and listen, whilst you read the text.  But as I'm inexperienced in this bloggy webby thing, I've discovered that clicking on this opens Danny's page in the same window so you'll have to open a new window with this page in to read the poem at the same time.  Getting the message across isn't always that easy!

I quite like the idea of Lent, despite my not being Christian.  I like the idea of giving up stuff... eating less... perhaps no chocolate, or stopping something more 'sinful' like smoking... Anything which can reduce our profligate consumption has got to be good, and if this reduction helps our health, even better.

I was brought up as an atheist, but as an adult and a scientist, I believe that we cannot prove the non-existance of a Deity, and I have lots of people in my life who have assorted faiths, so being overtly atheist somehow seems wrong to me, so I'm officially agnostic; I'm a 'don't know'.  This seems to be a respectful and honest position to take.

I subscribe to a number of email newsletters, and one came through last week with news of an eco-calendar which has caused a bit of controversy. Ethical Junction member Flipside Vision have produced a 'Calendar of Climate Change' for 2009 with a plethora of wonderful images depicting our world, many of which have significant connections to climate change themes.  For instance, February has an image of a Dutch painting of a windmill and a canal, and alongside this, a smaller picture of modern windmills which generate electricity.

I became interested in poverty when I got involved in Local Agenda 21 in the mid 1990s, a few years after John Major signed a document called 'Agenda 21' at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. This committed all the signitory countries to explore and implement 'Sustainable Development' by encouraging Local Authorities to empower their local communities to find local solutions...  I learned that sustainable development was a balance between our natural environment, our social environment and our fiscal (money) environment... and that the number one enemy of sustainable development was... POVERTY.