Category: Counting On …

Reflections and actions during COP26 and going on

Counting on day …. 129

19th July 2024

Efficient 

The things we buy and use should perform their task without the need for disproportionate amounts of time or energy. Some products – eg washing machines and fridges – come with a rating that tells you how efficient they are in their use of energy. 

Equally there are some things that we are sold that use electrical or other power where ‘elbow grease’ would be as – if not – more effective. For example leaf blowers which blow leaves around as a way of clearing them, whereas a brush would do the same task  with no additional energy other that our own muscles.

Counting on … day 128

18th July 2024

Nature friendly 

The products we buy and consumer should not harm nature – and rather enhance the natural environment. They should be produced without use of herbicides and pesticides, without adding pollutants to the air of water systems, and not involve cruelty to animals including sea creatures and birds etc. Nor should production damage the soils or involve widespread destruction of forests.

Counting on … day 126

16th July 2024

Robust and repairable

If our lives are to be sustainable, we need to ensure that the things we buy are fit for purpose, that they will be robust for use throughout their life – and should they be breakdown, be easily repairable.

Some manufacturers have a reputation for producing goods that are durable and repairable –  for example Dualit toasters, Stanley vacuum flasks, Fairphones and, from my experience, iPhones – which  are readily available second hand. 

In terms of repairability, ‘right to repair’ legislation and practice is evolving with the aim of both designing, and allowing, products to be repairable. For further reading – https://www.wired.com/story/right-to-repair-uk/

Counting on … day 125

15th August 2024

Part of  reducing our environmental footprint is about being sustainable and being able to make and use things that are renewable. To explore this I have created a nemonic which I will explore over the next couple of weeks:-

Robust/ reliable

Ethical

Nature friendly

Efficient

Wanted

Affordable

Beneficial 

Life long

Ergonomic

Counting on … day 124

12th July 2024

To reduce our global footprint we need to live much more sustainably. Whilst Earth Overshoot Day for the whole world will this year be 1st August, we passed the UK’s Overshoot Day last month – 1st June. In other words we in the UK would need two earths to support our current lifestyles!

Earth Overshoot day has a ecological footprint calculator which you might want to try out – http://footprintcalculator.org/home/en – it is not very refined but points out areas we might want to think about as we try and reduce our negative impact on the environment.

Counting on … day 123

11th July 2024

It is easy to see how plant and animal/ fish resources can be regenerated. But what about metals? 

The iron ore that is mined from the earth was typically formed millions of years ago – the exception being where recent volcanic eruptions release iron-containing magma. So rather than talking about regenerating metals, we should talk about recycling metals. 

Do we recycle as much – indeed all – the metal we discard? 

The FT reports “The UK produces 10mn-11mn tonnes of scrap steel each year of which less than 3mn is recycled. The rest is exported as there is not enough demand from domestic steelmakers.” https://www.ft.com/content/1e273a6d-2683-419c-9567-91281df3c648   However as the UK switches from coal burning blast furnaces to green electric furnaces, which smelt 100% recycled steel, that demand will grow. 

What about newer metals such as lithium, which we have only recently begun to exploit? Even if we did recycle all that we discard, growing demand for lithium still means more raw ore will be mined. Can this be sustained – and sustained in a way that does it exploit people nor damage their land and ecosystems?

“Q. How can I recycle my lithium-ion batteries?

  1. You can take your used batteries to designated collection points such as local authorities, civic amenity sites, retailers, and waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) recycling sites that hold an ABTO license.” https://www.cellcycle.co.uk/a-guide-to-lithium-ion-battery-recycling-in-the-uk/

Further reading –

https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20240319-the-most-sustainable-alternatives-to-lithium-batteries

Counting on … day 122

10th July 2024

In less than a month the world’s population will have used up a year’s worth of renewable resources. Earth Overshoot Day – this year 1st August – is the day when our consumption of resources exceeds the rate at which the earth can regenerate those resources for future consumption.  

Natural resources regenerate over time. For example annual plants such as wheat, poppies, beans lettuces produce seeds each year which can sprout and produce a fresh crop. Some do this on an annual cycle, whilst others, such as rice, may reproduce several crops per year – depending on climatic conditions. Other plants have a much longer regenerative time frame. An oak for example may take 150 years to be of an age to produce acorns. 

The same is true for fauna. Some species such as fruit flies  will produce the next generation within a matter of days, where as for an elephant, the time scale is closer to twenty years.

Other regenerative resources include water, nitrogen and carbon. The life cycle of these varies according to climatic, topographical, and other factors. In tropical rain forests water can go through a daily cycle of rainfall, evaporation, condensation and once again, rainfall. In the artic regions rainfall is usually infrequent with much of the water then being locked away as ice sheets and glaciers. 

Air, soil and water have regenerative features in terms of absorbing and ‘cleaning’ pollutants. One of the major causes of the current climate breakdown is our human action in pumping more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than can safely be absorbed. The safe level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is around 280 part per million. In March 2024 CO2 levels were at 425 ppm and still rising.

Counting on … day 121

9th July 2024

This year we returned (by train) to Wengen in Switzerland where we had not been for four years. We noticed a few changes – shops that had closed (sadly the pharmacy) and hotels that were being rebuilt. But most surprising was the arrival of take-away coffees. There are now at least three outlets where you can buy a take-away coffee – at the news kiosk by the station, at the Co-op, and from a new small coffee shop in the main street. Whereas before people bought a coffee in a real cup and sat down to drink it, now they could buy a coffee and walk the streets with it in a throw-away cup.

With that comes the environmental cost of making single -use cups, collecting them after use and – provided they don’t end up in landfill – recycling them. Like buying water in a plastic bottle we have been sucked into a throw away culture on the false premise that it is both cheap and convenient. 

We can begin to change that culture by opting for a ‘sit down coffee in a cup’ and where that is not possible, carrying and using a ‘keep-cup’.

From a previous posts on keep cups – https://greentau.org/2022/08/24/counting-on-day-288/

Counting on … Day 4

Counting on … day 120

8th July 2024

We’re now in Plastic Free July – https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/

Cutting back on our use of plastic and our failure to prevent waste plastic from entering our food, water and other ecosystems is important. Last year I wrote “The United Nations Environment Programme is calling on all countries to reduce their plastic consumption by 80% by 2040. Plastics are problem items because they are made from oil and thus come with an inbuilt unsustainable carbon footprint, and because much of the plastic is not recycled and instead causes pollution – especially in marine areas”

Sadly we now live in a culture where buying things wrapped in plastic – sandwiches and strawberries, biros and note books – is the norm. One item that stands out is water. We live in a country where tap water is drinkable and, to all intents and purposes, free yet shops and cafes are stacked out with bottles (plastic ) of water. In the UK we consume more than 2.5 billion litres of bottled water per year and throw away over 7.7 billion plastic water bottles. 

We need to change this culture of buying bottled water – using a refillable water bottle would save money, protect the environment, and make a stand against the market economy that wants to make everything into a retail opportunity .

 Further reading: https://greentau.org/tag/plastic/