Reflections and actions during COP26 and going on
21st February 2022
Fancy a refill? Following on from last week’s Green Tau, reusable water bottles and coffee cups – keep cups – are excellent for refills, avoiding creating yet more single use paper/plastic items that require recycling/ disposal. (You do of course have to remember to take them with you!) My favourite is a small flask as it keeps cold drinks cold in the summer and hot ones hot in the winter.
20th February 2022
The Guardian posts a daily note of global CO2 levels. They are a stark reminder of the seriousness of the crisis that we are facing.
“C02 weekly averages
6 February, 2022: 418.38ppm
This time last year: 417.04ppm
1 Year Change: 1.38ppm (0.32%)
10 years ago: 393.99ppm
Safe level: 350ppm”
19th February 2022
As we adapt to the climate changes which have already happened, we will get used to days when the weather is so extreme – whether through wind, heat, snow, rain – that we have to stay at home. We will accept that work and social plans will have to be flexible, that travel will not always be possible. We will by habit, keep phones charged, have torches that work, spare food in the pantry. The USA and Canada have ‘snow days’ when snow forecasts trigger planned school closures: we’ll have ‘extreme weather days’.
18th February 2022
Crocuses and snowdrops and hellebores all provide food for bees and other early insects. Most spring bulbs are best planted in the autumn. However come the autumn you may have forgotten where the rest of your bulbs are planted and risk planting them to close together or too widely spread! Take a photo now so that you can check their whereabouts in the autumn.
Snowdrops are best planted now, ‘in the green’.
17th February 2022
Tanker lorries transport goods other than petrol – even marmite!
Can we expect marmite pumps in our local refill store?
I suspect the tankers are transporting the yeast extract ‘waste’ – a byproduct of the brewing industry – en route to the factory where it is transformed into a spread. I equally suspect that the consistency of the spread doesn’t make it a ready candidate for refill stores. But could not the glass jars be returned and refilled as per milk bottles? Maybe write to your preferred yeast extract manufacturer?
16th February 2022
Lent is two weeks away. Lent is often seen as a season in which we can discipline/ train ourselves to live better lives, to live in closer harmony with God. Often it is a season when we forgo things that give us pleasure – or things that cause us harm – so that we can embrace the feeling of sacrifice and grow through it. Can we come into closer harmony with God through deepening our relationship with God’s creation? Can we live more simply so that others may simply live?
15th February 2022
Refilling cars with petrol at a service station is common practice.
What if it was the same with oils for cooking and eating? An olive oil pump? You may find that you can! Refill stores often stock different sorts of oil with which customers refill their bottles. As this grows in popularity, let’s also make a point of asking for organic and fairly traded oils.
14th February 2022
Remembering who and what we love is important, as is making sure we spend time with those we love. Getting about and about in nature is always easier when the sun is shining! Getting out and about regularly helps us see all the changes caused by the seasons as well as the weather.
The other day I noticed a tree full of glowing catkins.
13th February 2022
To “Show the Love” two hearts that were made yesterday are being dispatched, one to our local MP and one to our Local Councillor. The hearts are a reminder to those who make them and those who receive them of the importance of caring for creation and of what we loose if we do not.
Follow this link to take part https://www.theclimatecoalition.org/show-the-love
12th February 2022
An end to fracking in the UK! The Guardian reports that “Cuadrilla will permanently plug and abandon its two shale wells in Lancashire, drawing a line on Britain’s failed fracking industry.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/10/fracking-firm-cuadrilla-to-permanently-abandon-controversial-uk-sites
Protests and sound arguments again help protect the environment.
The Green Tau 