People sometimes think of protecting the environment as being about protecting rural landscapes, keeping them remote and unspoilt. But in reality we cannot separate what we do in urban areas from what do in rural areas or what we do in rural areas from what we do in urban areas, if we wish to care for the environment. Everything is interconnected. The pollution from our urban areas affects the air and soil in rural areas. Pollution from farming affects air and water ways. The carbon emissions from urban areas contributes to the global heating that affects everyone, everywhere. If we want to keep our landscapes green and rich in biodiversity, then we need to cut back on the amount of energy we use to heat our buildings, to cut back our use of motorised transport, to make more efficient use of water and other resources, to cut back our use of plastics, and ensure that what we recycle forms a closed loop. And do so wherever we live and work.
following on from yesterday, the other option is to encourage people to carry their own travel cup with them. This needs promoting not just with customers but with baristas too. Twice recently I have handed over my keep cup to find that the barista makes the coffee in a disposable cup before tipping it into the reusable cup! And as you can imagine this somewhat destroys the skill used in making a flat white.
A small thing to notice, but in France all take away cups, whether for hot or cold drinks are in paper cups with paper lids. At some point the government must have determined that this was the best thing, drawn up legislation, announced a start date and the enacted it. Clear, straightforward and comprehensive so everyone knows where they are.
Starting in 2019, France set out a list of dates specifying when the use of certain plastic items would be banned, as well as requirements for the labelling and recycling of plastics, such that by 2040 single use plastic will be completely phased out. https://www.france24.com/en/20191231-france-begins-phasing-out-single-use-plastics
Here in the UK a ban on single use plastic such as cutlery, plates, stirrers, drinking straws (with exemption for health needs), plastic stemmed cotton buds, balloon sticks, expanded and foamed extruded polystyrene fast-food containers, is due to come into effect in October 2023, but not as part of a comprehensive strategy.
This I feel is worth sharing and comes from Public and Commercial Services Union whose members mainly work in government departments and other public bodies.
“Our members are civil servants who are committed to serving the public. This means they will not provide inaccurate or misleading information to the public, and that policy decisions should be grounded in the best available evidence. These values are grounded in the Civil Service Code.
If the Prime Minister was a civil servant he would stand in gross breach of that Code as his announcement is not routed in evidence and is in fact misleading. It is not possible to ‘max’ out gas and oil exploration in the North Sea and claim you are heading for net zero.
“In the face of a climate crisis that is destroying crops and killing people worldwide, forcing many to flee their homes as they face floods and wildfires, PCS choses to call out the Prime Minister on this line that continued extraction of fossil fuels is the best decision for the security of the UK, or the world. We will continue to campaign that that this government, and indeed any future ones, stand by international and domestic climate change commitments. Therefore, we ask that the Government reconsider its decision to issue new oil and gas licenses.”
Earlier I reported on the Ffos-y-Fran open coal mine – https://greentau.org/2023/05/02/counting-on-day-1-108-2/. The mining of the coal – according to the terms of the licence should have stopped last September. Despite their best efforts, the company has not been given any permission to continue beyond that date and yet coal is still be taken out of the ground and away from the site every day. Llyr Gruffydd MS, who is chair of the Senedd’s Climate Change Committee has demanded answers from the Welsh Government over concerns about the extraction of coal at one of Europe’s biggest opencast mines.
Looking on line, this is his email address if you wish to ask what progress is being made to end this continuing extraction of coal: llyr.Gruffydd@senedd.wales
The Welsh government in 2016 enacted the Future Well-being Act which sets out to make Wales a better place to live, bearing in mind the challenges of climate change, poverty, and poor health. “In order to make things better, everyone needs to work together. We need to think about what people want now. But also how that will affects people in the future.”
The act respires the 44 public bodies – including Local Health Boards, Local Authorities, National Park Authorities, Natural Resources Wales, National Library of Wales etc – to work together on all 7 prescribed goals, vis
A globally responsible Wales
A prosperous Wales
A resilient Wales
A healthier Wales
A more equal Wales
A Wales of cohesive communities
A Wales of vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language
One of the partner organisations of Earth Overshoot Day is the New Economics Foundation. Here in the UK they are pushing three campaigns that would help create a level playing field:-
“The Great Homes Upgrade is a campaign for a large-scale, UK-wide programme of upgrading our leaky, inefficient homes. It would be funded by the UK government, but managed mainly through local authorities and other local organisations. This would make sure that everyone can make sure their home is well-insulated and heated by clean, green energy — regardless of whether we rent a flat or own a castle. We want the government to commit to bring every home in the UK up to a good standard by 2030 — that means upgrading 7m homes by 2025 and 19m by 2030.”
The Living Income campaign calls for the provision of a universal income with “an ‘income floor’ that is enough to meet life’s essentials, like the weekly shop or an emergency boiler repair, which no one can fall below whether they are in or out of work. The level is based on the independently-assessed Minimum Income Standard, which is also used to determine the real living wage. By setting an ‘income floor’, which is an amount of money no one can fall below whether they are in or out of work, the Living Income provides everyone with peace of mind.”
“We need a plan that ensures that everyone – no matter who and no matter where they are from – has enough to live on, whether they are in or out of work.”
Homes for Us – “A new generation of social homes will help us live, rest and flourish. We all need somewhere to call home – a place to rest, to share with our loved ones, to make a life or watch your kids grow up. But right now many of us can’t afford a decent home. We call on the government to put our interests before those of corporate landlords and developers, and start building the high-quality, genuinely affordable social homes we need.” https://homesforus.org.uk/
A lack of a level playing field can mean that the poorest face the highest costs. A recent Green Christian talk, “ Looking ahead to winter – making sure nobody is left behind”, highlighted that for the poorest fuel costs are likely to be highest. Those with money can afford to insulate their homes, install a heat pump and smart heating controls, all reducing the amount of energy needed – and therefore cost – of keeping warm. Equally those who are poorest tend not to own but to rent their home and any improvements in energy efficiency, insulation and even repairs (to prevent leaks or damp etc), can only happen with the willing input of the landlord.
The Wellbeing Economy Alliance highlights that a socially and environmentally improved economy can not be introduced without first creating a level playing field: “We don’t leave it to people to fend for themselves or rely on limited redistributive mechanisms, but pre-distribute power, wealth, time, and income so that the heavy lifting is done by the economy itself. Example: social enterprises and businesses owned by their workers, community wealth building and living wage”
It is that lack of a level playing field that leaves people struggling to afford somewhere to live, struggling to gain employment, struggling with ill health – caught in a vicious circle when they cannot afford the time or money to step into a better life. What is true of people is equally true of nations – poor nations struggle with debts, with low incomes and low investment that make improving welfare near impossible.
For those who are interested the Global Footprint Network has a online tool that calculates in broad terms your environmental footprint. Knowing the size of our impact on the earth can motivate us to change our lifestyle accordingly. https://www.footprintcalculator.org/home
But do we want to shrink our lives, do we want to give up things we enjoy?
An interesting article on their blog reframes the approach. Rather than focusing on reducing our footprint, focus on creating a comfortable lifestyle that is more efficient in its use of resources. And a more resource efficient lifestyle will be a more secure and a more affordable lifestyle. And if shared, this lifestyle will enable others to enjoy a comfortable, safe and affordable lifestyle too .
The Green Tau 