Counting On … – Page 41

Counting on … day 142

6th August 2024

Today is both the feast of the Transfiguration and the anniversary of the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima. The former showed Jesus to the disciples in a new light and gave them a foretaste of a different future. Did the latter show us humanity in a new light?

Did it so shocked us, that it led to eventually to The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons? If I’m being optimistic, then yes and to date it has prevented the use of such weapons in anger. If I’m being pessimistic, then a yes but whilst it may have curbed a nuclear war it has not curbed the continued production and holding of such weapons.

Is there still time to envisage a different and better future?

Counting on … day 141

5th August 2024

We can all make this Amazon-Free August!

For information about why and how visit the Ethical Consumer’s webpage – and take the pledge.

https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethical-campaigns-boycotts/amazon-free-pledge?utm_source=ECRA+Monthly+Newsletter&utm_campaign=d243fbdbb8-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_07_10+subs&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-589049e916-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

Counting on … day 140

2nd August 2024

The Earth Overshoot Day website talks about the ‘power of possibility’ and hosts examples of many and various ways in which we could reduce our annual overshoot and so organise our care and use of resources that we could both maintain and enhance the world’s fruitfulness.

One area is food.

If we – prevent food loss and waste

– opt for plant-based foods

– adopt agroecological and regenerative practices

we could, they suggest, shift Earth Overshoot Day by 32 days.

https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/solutions/food/

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.