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.
I want to start this offering with a correction. In my last column ('Our last chance to halt greenhouse gas emissions', Community Care Magazine, 28th May 09) I stated that CFC gases were 'nothing to do with... greenhouse gas emissions'. Well that is incorrect. Chlorofluorocarbons, once used as propellants in aerosol cans and still in many fridges and freezers, ARE greenhouse gases. They aren't as powerful as some, and their contribution to climate change is not nearly as much as the fossil CO2 were pumping out or the methane from cows and rice paddies, but they do add to the anthropogenic warming. I think it is important to get the science straight!
I found this out because I attended a workshop at the Transition Network Conference about how certain chemical/physical feedback mechanisms are accelerating climate change. These so-called 'positive' feedbacks (actually not very positive, and better known as accelerating feedbacks) include some which are quite easy to understand, for example: we all know that dark colours absorb more heat than lighter ones, so imagine the north pole of a planet covered in snow and ice. That reflects sunlight and heat and the area remains cold. Now warm it up a bit and melt some of the snow and ice, revealing dark rocks and dark sea water. This allows more heat to be absorbed, so the area warms up some more, and more ice melts. This is one simple accelerating feedback, and Earth has several, amplified by our CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions. Anyone interested in learning more about this could check out this 27 page pdf or other bits of the Apollo-Gaia website, such as the video resources. The main thing we must take from this is that we have no time to lose if we're to stop ourselves making ourselves, and most of the other species on Earth, extinct. We are on our way to making this planet uninhabitable.
I attended another Film Premiere last night, that of a very educational documentary called The End Of The Line which is about the situation facing our fisheries, and overfishing. This is a powerful film which anybody who eats seafood needs to see. I thought that by not eating seafood (I've been vegetarian for 25 years) I was doing enough to reduce my impact on the World's oceans, but I could be doing more. I firmly believe that we in the developed countries, with access to lots of fruit, vegetables, grains, seeds and beans, do not need to eat any animals, but I understand that the majority of people like eating fish, and for between 1 and 2 billion people, fish is a key part of their diet. So, if you want to be able to continue eating fish (and this film shows that there won't be any left by about 2048, as we will have eaten them all) you can do your bit by asking your supplier about where the fish came from, how they were caught and are they from sustainable sources? There is a great website called fishonline which has a list of fish which are not endangered (fish to eat) and those to avoid.
And don't think that eating farmed fish is the answer either, as one kilo of farmed salmon uses 5kg of anchovies as food. Far better to use the anchovies direct, if you eat fish at all, that is! Some fish farmers are exploring using vegetable protein to feed their fish, and this means soya beans, often planted where rainforest used to be. So your farmed fish might be responsible for destroying the oceans or the rianforests... which do you prefer? You might now understand why I don't eat fish!
The film is now on release and will probably be on our small screens soon. Well worth watching as it has lots of information which should help us to preserve fish stocks for future generations.
Earlier this week I took the train up to Middlesborough to do some filming wih the BBC, for the programme 'Inside Out' which has local editions for the different regions. I'd been asked to go and help a radio presenter, John Foster, start a week of living on a pound a day. This was inspired by a book by Kath Kelly called How I Lived a Year On Just a Pound A Day.
Food is responsible for the largest part of our individual carbon footprints, more than transport or household energy and heating. So when it comes to greening our lives, reducing food waste is one of the top issues. Obviously there are things we can do in our own lives which will cut our individual and family food waste... such as getting portion size correct, learning how to re-use leftovers, and, initially, taking a shopping list to the supermarket and sticking to it!!!
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.
Late last week I had a meeting with a new friend who had come to York to participate in a historical re-enactment event. I knew nothing about this pastime/lifestyle apart from seeing quite a few re-enactors at the Norfolk Park event in Sheffield a few years ago, when I attended as Professor Fiddlesticks. It looked as if they were having fun, but I though little more about it.
A greener life is not just about recycling, using public transport, buying fair-trade and having a pot of basil on the windowsill. I place quite a lot of importance on creativity, health and a well-stimulated mind. Therefore I have a lot of time for art... I especially like looking at (and touching!) sculpture, and there are certain photographers I like too.
Books per se are not that green. They use lots of resources in their manufacture, are printed in one place and have to be carted all over the place and are heavy. Most are only read once and then sit in a bookshelf... OK, bookshelves are a way of sequestering carbon, but really we should share our books and use libraries more... but I am going to suggest you go and buy a good book. (And when you've read it, lend it to friends!)
I am very fond of Kate Lock, whom I first came accross as a columnist in the York Press, and soon met as she was having some problems with her compost and she asked a volunteer York Rotter to come and sort it out. It turned out that she was on some kind of mission to be greener and that my assisting her meant that I would appear in the book she was crafting. That book is now on sale and I have spent a good few hours of my holiday immersed in it.. 'Confessions of an Eco-Shopper, the true story of one woman's mission to go green' (ISBN 978 0340 954676, Hodder & Stoughton 2008) is an excellent read, with everyday challenges such as having a veggie-box delivery and wondering what to do with unknown veg, growing her own herbs and salads, ethical fish suppers, dispensing with the bleach and using vinegar instead, experimenting with 'green and reusable' sanitary protection, finding out if fair-trade tastes as good as 'ordinary' teas and coffees. Kate put a lot of effort into researching the book, trialling all-sorts of products and lifestyle changes. Of course my favourite 'Isle' (its arranged like a supermarket!) is the one on rubbish and recycling, where we follow her path from non-composter to happy and successful rotter, even trying out a wormery and 'Bokashi' to recycle her cooked and meaty foodstuff wastes.
I read the book cover to cover, and learned a lot. It is really good to read a female approach to living a greener life... so many commentators are male, and they tend not to write about clothes, cosmetics or sanitary-wear. So I am going to shamelessly plunder some of these topics for future blog posts. Although Kate thanks me for helping her with her composting, I'm sure she will see this as a 'fair swap'!
I get the feeling that it's actually Gordon agreeing with me... has he been reading this blog? Well, maybe, but I was pleased that the issue of wasted food was raised at the highest political levels, at the G8 Summit in Japan. Many people were not pleased at Brown's 'advice' and the fact that the group had a huge multi-coursed meal with associated..... WASTE!!!
More often we are hearing various terms bandied around in the media and some of them are not self-explanitory... one of these is 'Peak Oil'. So last week I attended a York Greenspeak meeting which was all about this fascinating and very current subject. I knew a bit about the theory that oil reserves are about half finished, but less about how this will affect us economically and socially.
Peak oil was suggested by Shell geologist Dr Marion King Hubbert in 1956 as he had worked out that the discovery and extraction of oil would follow a 'bell curve' distribution. He accurately predicted peak US oil production (1970) and that world oil production would be somewhere about now, ie that we may be about to start the long period of reduced oil extraction. Peak world oil discovery was 1964, which means that although there is probably more oil to be discovered, it isn't the 'easy to get' stuff and it will be smaller quantities, and more expensive to get out. Meanwhile, world oil use continues to rise, as developing countries continue to develop and human populations continue to grow. Published world oil reserves suggest that peak oil will be about 2030, but recently Shell has drastically reduced their reserve figures, suggesting that oil companies may have overstated their reserves (to boost confidence and share prices?).
So, we are heading for a situation with less available mineral oil, and this will affect us in a number of ways. Firstly, scarcity drives prices up. We are already experiencing this. When the price of a barrel of oil goes up, it becomes more economically viable to extract oil out of 'unconventional' sources such as tar sands and oil shales, but these require more energy to get the oil out, so the price won't go down again. Higher prices also mean that investment into alternatives such as hydrogen, biofuels, coal liquifaction and nuclear will go up. But all of these alternatives have problems and knock-on issues... biofuels for instance are competing for finite arable land for food and biodiversity, the hydrogen economy depends on either electricity to split water or fossil gas to provide the hydrogen, and coal and gas both add carbon dioxide to the overloaded atmosphere. The two greenest solutions to the coming energy crisis are energy efficiency and renewables from wind, sun, tides and hydro.
So how do we 'ordinary people' deal with this knowledge? Well it would be responsible and prudent to reduce our energy use, by driving less and in smaller more efficient vehicles, by reducing energy use in the home by insulating, having more efficient appliances and switching them off when not in use, by reducing meat and dairy in our diets, by buying less and recycling more, by buying locally and in season... you know the score by now! Unfortunately, we all know what we SHOULD do but are finding it very difficult to change.
