Counting On … – Page 35

Counting on … day 139

1st August 2024

Today is Earth overshoot day, the day on which we have used up the whole year’s worth of the world’s capacity to replace regenerative resources – we fished our full quota from the oceans, maxed out on the atmosphere’s capacity to absorb carbon dioxide, cut down more than a year’s worth of timber, used up a year’s ration of soil fertility etc etc. Going beyond this point we are consuming now at the expense of future generations.

Of course this is not happening uniformly, nor equally, across all populations. Many smaller – ‘poorer’ or ‘less developed’ – nations have yet to reach their national overshoot day, whilst for many larger -‘richer’ or ‘highly developed’ – nations passed their national overshoot day some months ago. The UK’s overshoot day was 3rdJune. For the Republic of Moldovan it will be 28th December.

https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/

Counting on … day 138

31st July 2024

Advice from a bank “do I really need this product?”

Simply spending money on buying stuff is not good for the environment and as damage to the environment, is already and will at present rates increasingly, incur financial costs that will affect us all, it is not good economically either.

Counting on … day 137

30th July 2024

Who to bank with?

If Barclays is such a major funder of fossil fuels, who should one bank with? Are all banks equally dubious?

There are in fact plenty of other banks that have better ethical credentials. Several groups have researched this and have web sites where you can compare different banks and some will even enable you to make the switch to a greener bank.

https://www.switchit.green/

Make My Money Matter

https://justmoney.org.uk/ – this one has a particular Christian edge with specific information for churches and charities

Good With Money

https://www.mymothertree.com/ – this group can work with businesses and bigger charities

Counting on … day 136

29th July 2024

Today is the start of Christian Climate Action’s week of action urging the National Trust to switch away from its current bank, Barclays, because Barclays is Europe’s biggest funder of fossil fuels in Europe. “We love the National Trust – not Barclays”

There is an online petition you can sign and you can reader a longer article here – https://greentau.org/2024/07/29/green-tau-issue-91/

Counting on … day 135

26th July 2024

Ergonomic

A pair of shoes that fits well is a pair well wear repeatedly. A pair of shoes that doesn’t will probably end up being discarded before it wears out. My current bicycle is the most comfortable I’ve ever had – partly because the bike shop helped ensure that everything about it was the right fit – and as a consequence I have looked after it with far more care than previous bikes.

Things that are made to fit tend to last longer and to be more enjoyable to use.

Counting on … day 133

25th July 2024

Life long

If our lives are to be more sustainable, we need to rely on many of the things we use having a long life – that they be robust and reliable. We need white goods such as washing machines and cookers to last not just 5 years but ten, twenty or thirty years. When we went to Zimbabwe in 1992, we took with us the fridge that my parents bought when I was five years old – making the fridge about 25 years old. When we buy electronic goods such as phones and tablets, we want them to have lives of at least ten years – together with all the upgrades to the operating system. When we buy cycles, we want them to have lives of 30 – 40 years (and the hope that they won’t be stolen).

As well as wanting a long life for domestic items, we also need the same for commercial items be that equipment in schools and hospitals, railway carriages and buses, lampposts and paving stones etc.

Counting on … day 132

24th July 2024

Beneficial

This could be because it improves or adds to the joy of your life! It could because it benefits nature: organically produced (sometimes this is referred to as bio-organic or bio), or because its production encourages wild plants and animals, or preserves habitants etc, or it could because it provides jobs for ex prisoners, or creates jobs in areas of underemployment.

Counting on … day 131

23rd July 2024

Affordable

Things we buy have to be affordable financially otherwise we can’t buy them! (But equally if essential items are more than people can afford we need to ask questions – are people being overcharged or are they being underpaid?) However things also need to affordable in terms of cost to the environment. And they need to affordable in terms of a fair price being paid to the producer and other people in the supply chain, and fair taxes being paid

There are schemes such as the fair trade mark and the fair tax mark that can help us make better choices when we’re buying.

Counting on … day 131

22nd July 2024

Waste free

Waste implies something not wanted, not needed. Ideally we any to buy and use things waste free – eg apples that come loose and not in a plastic bag, a pen that doesn’t come in a cardboard box inside another plastic box. Such excess packaging unnecessarily uses materials and energy and may result in a residue that cannot even be recycled.

Some packaging is necessary – butter without a wrapper would be hard to take home! – but even then there may be alternative solutions. There are an increasing number of refill shops for groceries, loose fruits and vegetables in supermarkets, and milk delivery services that often deliver more than just milk in refillable containers.

At other times we may be able to make a conscious choices to not buy things in unnecessary and wasteful packaging.

Counting on … day 130

22nd July 2024

Wanted

There is no point in buying something you don’t want! Buying something on a whim and then discarding it is a waste of resources. It is not a sustainable approach.

Equally there is not much point in buying something for someone else (say as a Christmas present) if it’s something they don’t want. One solution might be to agree within your family/ circle of friends that you will buy presents from charity shops with the premise that no one should feel guilty about returning something unwanted back to the charity shop.