Category: Counting On …

Reflections and actions during COP26 and going on

Counting on …day 420

27th December 2022

12 days of hope.

Ten plus years ago we bought 6 solar panels which have paid for themselves (income earned from generation against capital cost) plus when the sun is shining we have free electricity. We wait for a sunny day before running the washing machine – yesterday we cleared a backlog with two loads and hung out the washing in the south facing bedroom where solar gain aided the drying.

Solar panels, domestic and commercial, are part of the achievable renewal energy revolution.

Counting on …day 419

26th December 2022

12 days of hope. 

Today’s Guardian reported on the rewilding of Swindale Beck: ‘For Schofield, an ecologist who is senior site manager at the RSPB in Haweswater, restoring the natural process to the beck was emotional work. “The stream as it was just looked like a canal, with stone banks and levees built up as time passed from years of dredging and dumping material on the sides. So we had to be quite interventionist ourselves, using diggers, creating a channel, removing spoil. For many conservation projects you do not see the results for a very long time, but with this one, we completed it on a Friday. It rained all weekend and on the Monday when we went to look at the beck, there was just this completely restored river, that curved and meandered and looked like it had been there for ever. It was a really powerfully emotional moment.” Within about three months, the rewards continued as salmon began spawning again in the gravel bed, made possible by the slowing down of the stream and the creation of still pools and shallows. Schofield said the restoration had improved numbers of common sandpiper, kingfishers, dippers and grey herons and increased the diversity of invertebrates in the stream.’ 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/26/diversity-returns-to-lakeland-stream-after-restoration-puts-its-bends-back

Similar rewilding projects are happening across the country including our nearby Beverley Brook. It’s name means beaver meadows indicating who used to inhabit its waters. 

Counting on … day 417

24th December 2022

Christmas is often a time when we have more to recycle and possibly a reduced collection service. Both recycling bins and recycling lorries have a limited capacity in terms of volume. Now is a good time to see your recycling box as a Tetris puzzle. By careful stacking, interlacing and flattening, how much can you fit it? 

Counting on … day 415

22nd December 2022

Ginger biscuits have the smell of Christmas. Rather than using just ginger, add other spices too such as cinnamon, allspice  and cardamon. 

The following is a simple recipe 

75g margerine, 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of syrup. Melt these gently in the microwave. 

Add 225g plan in flour plus 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda and 1 tsp of more of your choice of spices. Mix and add oat milk/ the juice of an orange to bind as necessary to for a firming dough. 

Chill.

Roll out and cut into shapes. 

Bake at 180C until cooked. They will still be slightly soft but leave on the baking tray. This completes the cooking and gives rise to the term biscuit meaning twice cooked.

Counting on … day 414

21st December 2022 

Keeping the front door closed is an obvious way of keeping one’s home warm during the winter. It saves on energy bills too. However not all retailers follow the same logic and instead leave their shop doors wide open. 

‘Close the Door’ has some tips as to how you can tactfully suggest that it would be better for the environment if their doors were not left open. (It also deters petty theft). They also have a list of companies who have signed up to a policy of not leaving doors open.

http://www.closethedoor.org.uk/

Counting on … day 413

20th December 2022

Following on from the news that France is banning internal flights, I have set up a Parliamentary Petition asking the UK Government to ban internal flights as a means of achieving our net zero carbon target.

Please do sign and share the petition.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/629859

Counting on … day 412

19th December 2022

Spare a thought for the humble earthworm. According to a report in the Guardian, ‘Populations of earthworms in the UK may have fallen by about a third in the past 25 years, an assessment has shown.… “It would have widespread impacts on the species that feed on soil invertebrates, like birds,  but also affect soil processing and nutrient cycling, the whole functioning of our ecosystems,” he [Prof James Pearce-Higgins] said. “Thrushes, starlings and many waders that rely on soil invertebrates are in long-term decline. These declines are greatest in south-east England where hotter, drier summers may also reduce the availability of earthworms to foraging birds.”

Dr Ailidh Barnes, also at the BTO, said there were good reasons to expect declines in earthworms on farmland. “Changes in the UK countryside over the last century, such as extensive drainage, pesticide use and inorganic fertiliser application, are likely to have negatively affected earthworm populations.” Repeated ploughing was also likely to cause harm.”

There are 29 different species of earth worms in the UK. 

Counting on … day 410 

17th December 2022

Delegates at the Biodiversity COP are working to define what it is to be ‘nature positive’. I would hope it means a default of working with rather than against the natural environment wherever possible. One of the Guardian correspondents commented that little is being said about how we as individuals can be ‘nature positive’, adding “Dietary changes, for example, is one of the most significant things people reading this could do to reduce their impact on biodiversity, namely cutting meat consumption.”

Counting on… day 409

16th December 2022

The Ethical Consumer has provided a list of alternatives to using Amazon this Christmas. I f you want to know more about why Amazon is considered to be so unethical follow this link: https://ethicalconsumer.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=a8ca94202812f2c92c29fbe59&id=6f28a9172a&e=40cf608d55

1. Gift experiences instead of items

What makes the person you’re gifting to happy? You could make handmade vouchers for things like:

  • Their favourite meal
  • Book a week off work for summer, and say you want to start planning that trip they would love to go on
  • A full day plan: such as a hike route drawn on a map, packed-lunch menu, and table reservation for mulled wine at the end of the walk

2. Repurpose what you already have

Many of us have possessions we don’t use. Could they become presents?

  • A book on your shelf that makes you think of them
  • A piece of clothing they complimented you on
  • Old photos that could be dug out and turned into a collage
  • Niche ingredients in your cupboard could be bulked out to make a full meal box, with a handwritten recipe.

3. Shop from independent companies

Use these guides, especially created to help people find ethical alternatives to Amazon.

… last but not least, Ethical Consumer’s Christmas Gift subscription is a perfect antidote to the mindless foray of consumerism that the festive season has become known for.