The environment. I am torn between hopefully banning all new plastic from the house and despairing that without China and India on board, there is really nothing the West can do to stop the world from becoming a plastic graveyard.
I read Pope Francis "Message" on the care of the earth, I find it very interesting, and not only because he jetted off to Africa today. (It may be childish, but I always think it funny when environmentalists get on planes.* At least Greta Thunberg made the gesture of putting to sea on a yacht. FIFTEEN DAYS from Plymouth to New York! Yikes!)
The top question that concerns me today is whether or not "climate change" is a matter of faith and morals.
But a more personal question is what I can do to reduce the amount of plastic we use in this flat because I know that our plastic rubbish is not disappearing in a cloud of organic water vapour. I don't know, but I suspect, that everything that goes into the recycling bin it is not all being recycled.
I would love it if everyone who doesn't already have one adopted a "simpler lifestyle" that included a complete veto of plastic products made in China. This includes fast fashion: I am all for cotton, linen and wool, and having a mortgage, I usually get these materials from charity shops.
I feel sad looking at plastic products in shops because whether someone buys them or not, the damage is done. They're here and they're going to be here for a looooooong time. Four hundred and fifty years for a plastic bottle, says this website. (But as the first plastic bottles were sold in 1947, how do they know?)
Meanwhile, it seems unlikely I will ever have a plastic-free household, but at least I can work on reducing the rubbish. As the eldest of five, not to mention as someone who is childless-not-by-choice, I absolutely hate the idea that a solution to the problem is to have fewer kids. I believe that the solution to solving the world's woes is MORE human brains, not fewer.
And that's my rant. I'm now going to collect apples for our organic household cider.
*NB. I get on planes myself, so there you go. I have looked into transatlantic crossings by ship, but they do take a very long time and are few and far between.
Update: Here's something NASA has to say about climate change. Here's the Royal Society.
I'm actually not particularly concerned with individuals who fly alone for business purposes. I don't think you can reasonably expect the Pope or the Queen to fly coach. I suspect that so few people fly for work at all it's relatively inconsequential. In my company of 220 people or so there are perhaps half a dozen who fly frequently. The rest of us fly little or not at all.
ReplyDeleteThe production of plastic goods, especially plastic packaging now that there are so many alternatives becoming available, as well as by-products of manufacturing vomited hourly into the environment by short-sighted and profit-driven corporations strikes me as a much greater problem.
Yes, Greta Thunberg made a nice gesture but most people can't afford to take two weeks out of their life just to get somewhere. Unless we want to go back to the beginning of the 20th century, when immigrants left their parents never to return because the steamship tickets were too expensive. But I don't think that's a way to live.
I am absolutely disgusted with plastic--so disgusted, I shopped at a no-plastic "by the weight" shop today, and I will do again in future!
ReplyDeleteI know! I bought reusable produce bags to avoid the flimsy semi-opaque disposables provided at the supermarket and every time I use them I feel such a glow of achievement. Slowly winding my way towards zero waste (though my husband will take a lot of convincing).
DeleteGreat! Good for you!
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