Reflections and actions during COP26 and going on
24th February 2022
Safe guarding scarce resources.
Helium is a naturally occurring gas. It is very light and once released it quickly escapes to the edges of the earth’s atmosphere. Where helium has become trapped in rock strata it can be Helium extracted for commercial use. It cannot be chemically manufactured and is therefore a limited finite resource. Helium is is a key component in the operating of MRI scanners.
It is surely irresponsible to use it to fill party balloons?
23rd February 2022
As well as counting on ourselves to take action, we count on others too. Our local council, the Borough of Richmond upon Thames has recently review it progress vis a vis its climate emergency strategy. An independent assessment of all councils, ranked Richmond as eleventh overall, and third highest within the London Boroughs. Richmond scored particularly highly on ‘Community, engagement and communications’ and well above average on ‘Ecological emergency’. For full details see
22nd February 202s
Another refill? Did you know that Lush make their black plastic pots from recycled plastic and that each one that is returned, goes to their own reprocessing facility to be remade into a new pot ready to be filled again. And for each one returned 50p is paid back! Lush calls this ‘packaging as a service’!
Sadly only about 15% of pots are returned. It sounds as if we consumers need to be more proactive participants of the circular economy.
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.
The Green Tau 