Friday, July 28, 2006

How Environmentally Friendly Are You?

Thanks to Niles for pointing out THIS page from the Environment Agency Website. It tells us...You can make a small promise like turning off the tap when you brush your teeth or using a ‘bag for life’, or you could go further and promise to organise a green project in your community, or to offset your carbon emissions when you take a flight. Promise to do your bit and you can come back and see how much you’ve achieved. Recruit your friends to make a promise too, and between everyone, you can make a difference.

I'm not going to make promises I can't keep but I suppose it has made me think about a few things I do which I could do differently, which I guess is the whole point of it.

1. I promise I will take a shower instead of a bath. Easy one. I always shower. Can't remember the last time I had a bath!
2. I promise to air my washing in public - not in the tumble dryer. I air enough dirty washing in public, thank you! I am not allowed near the washing machine in my house and wouldn't know what to do with it if I was...
3. I promise I will put a water saving device in my toilet. I just suggested that one to my partner. I will save you from the response.
4. I promise I will boil only the water I need, rather than filling the kettle every time. I don't use a kettle.
5. I promise I will turn the tap off when I brush my teeth. I do anyway.
6. I promise I will share my car journeys to work with a colleague, cycle or replace those car journeys with public transport at least once a week. Not applicable.
7. I promise to use rechargeable batteries instead of disposable ones. I already do on gadgets that take them.
8. I promise that I will pay back the environmental impact of any air travel I take. In what? Air miles? I fly very rarely indeed.
9. I promise to use a reusable bag when I shop, rather than plastic carriers. I might turn into Roy Cropper.
10. I promise I will organise or volunteer for an environmental project in my local community. I have helped create a natural habitat on the field next to where I live.

21 comments:

ian said...

3. You don't put it in the toilet. You put it in the cistern. It reduces the amount of water in the flush. I suspect you already know this.

Perhaps the government could respond to this initiative too, by cutting down on the number of flights from America. Particularly those carrying bombs or bliars.

Jeff said...

Iain

No need to worry abou the environment, I have it on good athority from the scientists representing the oil companies that there realy is no climate change happening.

So flush, boil and bath away,
and should you feel hot in this heatwave pop on a plane to the arctic and pick up a few ice cubes.

Anonymous said...

No doubt this web site has been given huge publicity by the environmentally aware BBC, especially on Children's channels.
When I pass their White City offices they always seem to have huge car parks. -It would be very interesting to know what percentage of staff have access to a space. Most firms in London have just 2 or 3 for 400 staff, and you get there by tube/bus/bike.
I have a feeling that the BBC has more, especially given the 24/7 working patterns. Perhaps next time you review the press you could ask?
But I suppose their all important, special people.
Do as I say not as I do.

Anonymous said...

At your age I think you could still learn how to use a washing machine... of course always making sure its full and set to a short cicle.

Anonymous said...

This environment thingy has all the trappings of a new religion. High scientist-priests, inviolable dogma, predictions of the Second Coming when the heavens shall crack asunder, global warming hellfire for the unbelievers, and the Prophet DC who hugs glaciers and wears a windmill on his head....

Anonymous said...

I have five ceiling fans that run on high 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. I drive a gas guzzler. I only dry my laundry on the line because I read that tumble-dryers are the biggest consumer of energy in any household - meaning expensive electricity bills. I do whatever the hell I feel like doing, within the law and figure the planet has been taking care of itself for a couple of million years without my help.

I do not understand how this 'global warming' idiocy caught on among the non-moonbats - especially given that reputable environmental scientists say it's rubbish.

It is lefty tool to stop, or even reverse, progress and to damage industrialisation. (Believe me, the Indonesians who work in Nike and other Western factories will take industrialisation any day and to hell with the rain forests.)

When the Romans were in Britain, upper class Saxons who mixed around socially with the Romans were lolling about in togas and there were vineyards in Britain. Then 2,000 years of global cooling set in. Duh.

I can understand the mean-spirited intentions of the lefties, but how can normal people be caught up in this rubbish? Paying back the environment for your air miles. Somebody give me a break around here!

Anonymous said...

Bag for Life?

God, a Collostomy bag FOR LIFE?

Let Blair do that one!

strapworld said...

May I recommend STATE OF FEAR by Michael Crichton.

Especially the appendix on Eugenics! eyeopening!

It puts all this nonsense into perspective. Verity is right.

Anonymous said...

I believe that global warming is bollocks. Some huge percentage, which I forget now, but 94% comes to mind, of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere comes from the oceans and is produced naturally. Man's activities account for less than 10% of the so-called greenhouse gases. And global warming is based on a theory that all this human industrial activity must be damaging the world because it ain't natural.

If it's as right as the theory that butter causes heart attacks (invented by Van den Bergs & Jurgens to sell Flora) then it must be rubbish. And if the supine population of western countries allow themselves to be taxed or overcharged for energy on the basis of such a half-baked theory then things are worse than I feared.

Anonymous said...

Verity said:

"how can normal people be caught up in this rubbish?"

But isn't that just the way that a new orthodoxy promotes itself, feeding on crowd conformity and official righteousness, to the point where ordinary people can in all solemnity be prosecuted for desecrating their sacred green wheelie bins with unacceptable offerings? As has happened already? A form of blasphemy, as Exeter council's chief recycling theologist (they brought the case) clearly thought.

Anonymous said...

I had a bag for life once.

Luckily I managed to divorce her...

Sorry! Just can't take all this silly nonsense with the po-faced deference the ecofreaks demand.

Three cheers for Verity.

dizzy said...

"I promise to use a reusable bag when I shop, rather than plastic carriers."

errr aren;t plastic carrier reusable?

towcestarian said...

The eco-lefties are all missing the point (as usual). Human environmental damage is ultimately a simple function of 2 factors: damage per-individual and number of individuals. As it is oh so politically incorrect to make any comment about overpopulation, all they bleat on about is damage-per individual.


However, given that globally, all individuals really want to do is improve their lot (ie use more energy and resources than their parents did), they ae attacking the wrong side of the equation. (OK pedants - its the wrong factor on the right side of the equation.)

If they really want to have an positive effect on the environment they should be out there serruptitiously irradiating the world's gonads. Particularly gonads belonging to those religions that are still breeding like rabbits (you know who I'm talking about, don't you, Guido).

I reckon that having only 2 Towcestarian brats and a vasectomy rather than having 3 or 4 of the little buggers gives me the right to use whatever amount of water I want to clean my teeth in.

Anonymous said...

"errr aren;t plastic carrier reusable?"

They certainly are - I take mine home from the supermarket and reuse them as bags to contain smelly nappies.

Anonymous said...

Verity on the nail as usual.
It makes me almost wish the enviroment loonies are right, the whole lot of them can then drown in the own swamp of hatered for their fellow human beings. If these crazys had their way 90% of Britain would still be covered by trees.

I am quite looking forward to hotter summers and I am sure people living close to the sea can afford wellington boots by the year 2100.

There are also so many other terrible "natual" things that can happen at any time to the world that could make the worst case of globle warming look like a minor incovenience.

Super tsunami
Super volcanos
Asteroid collision with earth
Human pandemic disease

The only thing that the ordinary people could do, if any of the above happened, would be putting themselves and their families in there 4x4 and getting the hell out of the place ASAP.

Anonymous said...

Notice the Germans enthusiasm for recycling. It must have been all that practice they got with gold-teeth, hair, and glases, etc back in 43.

Anonymous said...

BTW that turquoise is much more environmentally friendly than the nasty red or the sicky green.

Sooooo you. Does wonders for your complexion.

Anonymous said...

The ubiquitous Anonymous posted: "Bag for Life?

"God, a Colostomy bag FOR LIFE?"

Oh, no! It sounds like a Mark Oaten self-help programme ...

Anonymous said...

Bloody Hell Iain, I don't agree with most of the comments here but Gary Powell's post about the German people is downright offensive. Is that what passes for humour these days? I may be a libertarian but a little editorial judgement when moonbats attack might not go amiss.

Anonymous said...

Gary Powell said...
Notice the Germans enthusiasm for recycling. It must have been all that practice they got with gold-teeth, hair, and glases, etc back in 43.

11:33 PM

ed said...
Bloody Hell Iain, I don't agree with most of the comments here but Gary Powell's post about the German people is downright offensive. Is that what passes for humour these days? I may be a libertarian but a little editorial judgement when moonbats attack might not go amiss.

10:37 AM

Sorry Ed, but which part of Gary's comment is untrue/unfair? They did it and were proud of it!

Anonymous said...

I am slowly realising that the Green lobby might have finally been outed. A few years ago, I seemed to be the only eco sceptic I knew - now more and more people are pointing at the hippies and saying 'no more bolox'

I heard the term watermelon used to describe the eco nutters as it was Green on the outside, and red in the middle.

Loved the German observation!