Gareth Kane on Green Hints & Tips
Given that stand-by switches and plastic bags are responsible for a very small part of our carbon footprint, Gareth Kane considers whether eco-living hints are worth the paper they're written on.
There's been an interesting debate in the Guardian this week about all the little hints and tips the media gives out whenever climate change is discussed. George Marshall, director of projects at the Climate Outreach and Information Network, derides the hints and tips brigade for understating the scale of change required ("unplug your phone charger and save the planet"). The Grauniad's own Bibi van Der Zee reposts that "these actions don't acheive [sic - it is the Guardian after all] much themselves: isn't the effect of taking them what we should be after?"
Both sides use the statistics that suit them best. Our carbon footprint is made up of things that we have direct control over (our houses, our transport choices etc), and things we have much less control over (industry, energy production, the food supply chain, technology). Marshall expresses his stats at a national level, but the "no stand-by switch" brigade typically use one household's electricity use as their basis for comparison. These give wildly different scales, and both are correct - but the domestic scale of the tippers give people the feeling that they are making a difference.
I do agree with Marshall that the tips themselves can be wanting, which is strange when there are many simple hints and tips can take you a long way, for example:
- insulate your house - loft, cavity walls if you have them, windows & doors
- buy & use a bicycle
- buy local, organic food from local shops (or 2 out of those 3)
There's also the general energy-tidiness that comes from making sure that everything is switched off properly which should have a ripple effect through people's lives. If you do switch off your phone charger religiously, you're also less likely to leave lights or the heating on when its not needed, or more likely to purchase energy efficient white goods.
So at the end of the day I'm with the tippers, but they do need to up their game, rather than just repeating the same old mantras ad nauseam.
Until next time,
Gareth
Gareth Kane
Eco-living Blog
Terra Infirma
