The point is that you think about it. Which means you probably use far less than you would if you didn't think about it. It is impossible to live in the modern western world without having any impact.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I once worked out that it would be more efficient to bring the few tender plants indoors and use grow-lights rather than heat the greenhouse. In the end though I just gave up growing things that wouldn't survive the winter in the greenhouse or on a window sill indoors.
By the way China burns the most coal but has the vast majority of the world's electric vehicles mad isn't it.
And the USA recycles about 30% of it's waste (compared to nearly 70% in Wales) with little sign of investment or will to change this, and the average American has a carbon footprint about 3x that of the average European. The best selling cars over there are still massive V6 and V8 pickup trucks and SUVs.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
We’ve been talking about this for many years, nothing will change same as ever. In the late 60’s my at the time husband was set to put a windmill in the garden for our use, Wasn’t allowed, well, was but the electric company wanted so much money just to connect it to the house we couldn’t afford it. It was all talked about then, and still is, and still will be.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Is that 'true'? I don't 'want' plastics in my clothes, I didn't 'want' to pollute - but what was the option? Who was talking micro plastics when plastics in clothes made them cheaper?
The problem is that you don't know what you want. You don't know what is bad or good until after the event. When there was a choice between fossil fuel and electric cars - why did the individual then go fossil? Could the individual predict massive pollution and global warming? Was it because of want or maybe ease and convenience? I bought a diesel because I was told it was better and more fuel efficient. They were promoted as good.
It could well be that an ingredient in my toothpaste has a catastrophic effect in 20 years - how would I know? Did any sensible Victorian really want arsenic in their wallpaper? What about lead in paint? Lead in fuel? Did the individual have a choice?
I saw, on BBC breakfast a couple of weekends back, an article about crabs dying and washing up on a beach around Teeside. The presenter was saying that no one knew why it was happening and posited that it may be a disease, or even climate change. Over the presenter's shoulder was a massive windfarm. Could it also have been that? Noise/vibration pollution underwater? Electromagnetic fields? Massive disturbance of the sea bed? Does anyone really know?
But who here has a choice? Who says if windfarms are the way? What if solar panels cause disposal issues in 15 years? Mini nuclear plants - where/how are the fuel rods being disposed of? Why is it assumed that all 'green' things have no impact? Did the car manufacturer realise what the car would become? Isn't volume and scale ignored?
In this country we have 400 cars per 1000 pop. We will go battery in car - is that sensible? What happens when China/India's economies dwarf the EU and the States and they have the same ownership levels? Will batteries become a problem?
The common man doesn't have an option mostly - he is presented with the latest 'fad' - he doesn't decide if he wants that new fad or not - he can't, because he doesn't know the ramifications.
I don't know how to get this across - it's going tooooooo fast. For millennia, Shaun worked on the land, maybe bred some crops or livestock. It was slow as it was hit and miss - and it only had a local effect. No science. The last 70 years, since computerisation, has changed all that. The world has shrunk. The ramifications are massive. Once a product is designed, whether that's organic or non-organic, it is around the world. No one looks at how it is made, how it is to be disposed of. The ramifications are massive. It needs a different form of government - and not the market. The market doesn't care.
I've been recycling for over 40 years,long before it was fashionable. I have a trench coat and camel jacket that old,will never go out of fashion. Last holiday nearly 13 years ago. I don't buy beans from Africa in the winter, they're tasteless Bananas are shipped,they don't have a big carbon footprint. I can't afford to get rid of my diesel car,it's 13 years old, have had it 9 years. Hubby tried to buy something different, for a few years,with a budget of £5.000. So will never afford an electric car. They don't tell you much about the cost and manpower and vehicles involved in having a point installed in your property. I haven't eaten meat for about 40 years,but if everyone went veggi,what about the farms,the farmers. If they go over to growing crops,we get a poor year,no crops! We have just paid the survey fee for solar panels,are having 2 batteries as well, cannot see the point of having them otherwise. I do have a tumble dryer,if you get a solid week of rain,I will be forced to use it. I have just bought myself a heated airer,but it takes many hours to dry the clothes. I have gone over to using shampoo and body bars, cardboard boxes,hubby has always used a bar of soap- that comes in plastic these days I do mainly a cold wash with the washing machine,full load. Grow quite a bit of our own fruit and veg. The majority of our furniture is second hand,all of the furniture is in the conservatory,mostly from charity shops. I am offsetting the friends and family who do none of the above. New tech every few months, plastic toys,nothing recycled! Who knows
What if solar panels cause disposal issues in 15 years?
Just cherry picking from your post here but loads of these issues are dealt with in some way by industry standards. Solar panels are required to be designed to be recycled and I think about 95% or more of their materials will be recycled, including making more panels. What annoys me though is that the panels aren't designed in a modular way that would mean most of the panel could be left in situ and just the working parts replaced. It's fine to design for recycling but we're always told to reuse before recycling. It seems like a missed opportunity and the 'right to repair' rules should really cover this type of thing as well. There's also the point that a panel producing less 50% of its potential is still producing power so it seems like a retirement home for solar panels might have more efficiency than just recycling them. The solar farms you see popping up all over the place could be using older panels to run down their life or the panels could be shipped to sunnier countries where their reduced efficiency is less of a problem.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
I don't 'want' plastics in my clothes, I didn't 'want' to pollute - but what was the option? Who was talking micro plastics when plastics in clothes made them cheaper?
But you do know now. So you can buy a 'guppy bag' to wash the ones you have and don't buy any more.
Before the Blue Planet programme, all the coffee companies sold plastic lined cups and it was very hard to buy reusable ones. You couldn't buy paper drinking straws. All 'disposable' cutlery was plastic and cotton buds were universally plastic as well. Shampoo not in a plastic bottle was the preserve of a very small number of committed yoghurt knitters and there were no shops selling milk in glass bottles, or dry goods not pre-packed.
Now - and it changed within a couple of years - even the supermarkets sell reusable coffee cups and many people routinely use them. Paper straws, wooden cotton buds, wooden disposable cutlery are all easier to find than the plastic ones. There are shops in even small provincial towns and villages like mine selling bar shampoo, refillable milk bottles and with rows of rice, beans, nuts and even bird seed dispensers for you to fill your own containers. Frozen food sold 'loose' is quite easy to come by as well. None of that came from Government legislation. Consumers asked for it, retailers found a way to provide it.
I hardly have any plastic clothes now - haven't bought any for years. I have recycled cashmere gloves on at the moment (because the heating is on quite low) and an English wool jumper. My cotton clothes are recycled and remade (by me) for as long as I can manage it. It's not difficult to find the alternatives now - they are more expensive so I buy fewer new things than I used to. Which is all good. If most people were refusing to buy fleece jumpers, most shops would stop selling them.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Posts
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
And the USA recycles about 30% of it's waste (compared to nearly 70% in Wales) with little sign of investment or will to change this, and the average American has a carbon footprint about 3x that of the average European. The best selling cars over there are still massive V6 and V8 pickup trucks and SUVs.
In the late 60’s my at the time husband was set to put a windmill in the garden for our use, Wasn’t allowed, well, was but the electric company wanted so much money just to connect it to the house we couldn’t afford it. It was all talked about then, and still is, and still will be.
Bananas are shipped,they don't have a big carbon footprint. I can't afford to get rid of my diesel car,it's 13 years old, have had it 9 years. Hubby tried to buy something different, for a few years,with a budget of £5.000. So will never afford an electric car. They don't tell you much about the cost and manpower and vehicles involved in having a point installed in your property. I haven't eaten meat for about 40 years,but if everyone went veggi,what about the farms,the farmers. If they go over to growing crops,we get a poor year,no crops! We have just paid the survey fee for solar panels,are having 2 batteries as well, cannot see the point of having them otherwise. I do have a tumble dryer,if you get a solid week of rain,I will be forced to use it. I have just bought myself a heated airer,but it takes many hours to dry the clothes. I have gone over to using shampoo and body bars, cardboard boxes,hubby has always used a bar of soap- that comes in plastic these days
I do mainly a cold wash with the washing machine,full load. Grow quite a bit of our own fruit and veg. The majority of our furniture is second hand,all of the furniture is in the conservatory,mostly from charity shops. I am offsetting the friends and family who do none of the above. New tech every few months, plastic toys,nothing recycled! Who knows
What annoys me though is that the panels aren't designed in a modular way that would mean most of the panel could be left in situ and just the working parts replaced. It's fine to design for recycling but we're always told to reuse before recycling. It seems like a missed opportunity and the 'right to repair' rules should really cover this type of thing as well. There's also the point that a panel producing less 50% of its potential is still producing power so it seems like a retirement home for solar panels might have more efficiency than just recycling them. The solar farms you see popping up all over the place could be using older panels to run down their life or the panels could be shipped to sunnier countries where their reduced efficiency is less of a problem.
I am starting though, we have gone from eating all meat, to 2 nights fish and 1 night vege a week.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Before the Blue Planet programme, all the coffee companies sold plastic lined cups and it was very hard to buy reusable ones. You couldn't buy paper drinking straws. All 'disposable' cutlery was plastic and cotton buds were universally plastic as well. Shampoo not in a plastic bottle was the preserve of a very small number of committed yoghurt knitters and there were no shops selling milk in glass bottles, or dry goods not pre-packed.
Now - and it changed within a couple of years - even the supermarkets sell reusable coffee cups and many people routinely use them. Paper straws, wooden cotton buds, wooden disposable cutlery are all easier to find than the plastic ones. There are shops in even small provincial towns and villages like mine selling bar shampoo, refillable milk bottles and with rows of rice, beans, nuts and even bird seed dispensers for you to fill your own containers. Frozen food sold 'loose' is quite easy to come by as well. None of that came from Government legislation. Consumers asked for it, retailers found a way to provide it.
I hardly have any plastic clothes now - haven't bought any for years. I have recycled cashmere gloves on at the moment (because the heating is on quite low) and an English wool jumper. My cotton clothes are recycled and remade (by me) for as long as I can manage it. It's not difficult to find the alternatives now - they are more expensive so I buy fewer new things than I used to. Which is all good. If most people were refusing to buy fleece jumpers, most shops would stop selling them.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”