Use 10 Percent Less

All things must change when the consumer changes

Less Pollution

Rescuing old paint

by Leave a Comment

A friend brought a news article to my attention and it was such pleasant surprise. It really fits perfectly with the Use 10 Percent Less concept. A group of people in Leeds, UK, collect old paint tins that are on their way to landfill and recycle and repurpose the leftover paint, and they’ve made a business out of it. It’s such an inspiring story but there’s a lot more to it than just rescuing old paint.

Rescuing old paint - Seagulls Paint Store
Photo from the Good News Network article

The news article that was referred to me was posted on Good News Network (nice to see someone concentrating on good news instead of feeding on everyones fears) and you can find the specific article here – https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/seagulls-paint-recycling-in-leeds/

It works out that they started their business, Seagulls Paint, in 2004 and they’ve made a real business out it that is still going today. What a great achievement! This video is a good introduction.

Going back to the original news article, they quote a few interesting statistics. In the 18 years up to the publication of the article in 2022, they had saved over 4 million litres of paint from going to landfill, which is equivalent to saving 11.4 million tons of carbon emissions, or equivalent to planting 68 million trees. Once again, well done!

But it’s not just about rescuing old paint. At the same time as helping the environment by saving waste and giving it new life, they give opportunities to previous offenders, people struggling with mental health, and isolated young people. They give new life to the community as well as to the paint. It’s a real community project that has benefits in all directions.

They are not just rescuing old paint, they’re also rescuing the community.

How many other community projects could pop-up that do a similar thing? Helping to reduce the human burden on the world and reinforcing good within our communities. It would be nice to see more and more projects like this.

Now, talking about rescuing old paint, I’m off to the garage to see how many old paint tins I have there. Hmm, what interesting things could be done with them?

Related Links – Rescuing old paint

Climate Change – what can we do?

by 2 Comments

I often get asked be people if climate change is real. Wow, that surprises me and it highlights how much poor information is being spread around. When I explain why climate change and global warming are real and it’s very clear that human activity is definitely the reason for the rapid change, then they ask me “What can we do?”. That’s a really good question because in general, our world’s political leaders are not doing what’s needed. That’s really sad (more on that later). Anyway, for each and every individual in the world, the solution is very simple and very clear. I’ll bet you’ll be surprised what the single, simple, most impactful thing you can do to arrest climate change is…

climate change what can we do?
Photo by rupixen.com on Unsplash

Spend less money!

Yes, the single, simple thing all us can do to have an immediate, positive impact can be summed up as “Spend less money!”. Now you probably think I’m crazy, but give me a minute to explain.

A quick apology…

I know that many people are absolutely struggling to find enough money to live, and the concept of “spending less money” might come as an inconsiderate insult. I certainly don’t mean that and am full of compassion for people in this predicament. If that’s you, rest assured that you are not the problem when it comes to global warming and climate change.

It’s pretty much 100% true (not quite, but almost) that every time your spend money, you’re creating carbon emissions. Let’s think through a few examples.

  1. Fuel for your car
    • This is an easy one. Everything you spend on fuel ends up directly creating more carbon emissions. Buy less fuel and you’d create less emissions.
  2. A holiday flight
    • Another easy one. When you spend money on a holiday flight, you’re creating a lot of additional carbon emissions, even if it’s a cheap flight. Plus you have to spend money on clothes, luggage and getting to the airport, all things that create more emissions.
  3. Food from the supermarket
    • For this one, let’s even ignore the carbon emissions that were created in the growing and production of the food. Every single thing in the supermarket had to be shipped there which creates carbon emissions. Then the supermarket needs electricity for lighting, and cooling. Then there’s driving to the supermarket to get the stuff. The list could go on and on.
  4. A coffee from a coffee shop
    • Really? Even a coffee? Yes, of course. The coffee beans probably came from somewhere else in the world, needing to be shipped. The beans have to be roasted and even the coffee machine in the shop uses significant energy and creates emissions. The shop needs lighting and heating or cooling. The disposable cup needed to be manufactured, creating more emissions. And more.
  5. New clothing
    • Most clothing is made in another country and needs to be shipped. The material used to make the clothes probably didn’t even come from that country. Sometimes the material is synthetic (made from hydrocarbons even) and had to be manufactured in a factory. Even the process to colour the material generated carbon emissions. Then it had to make its way to you through a shop or home delivery, even more emissions. When you hear people talk about a “supply chain”, think “carbon emissions” instead.
  6. A Netflix subscription
    • Surely a Netflix (or equivalent) subscription doesn’t create emissions? Sorry, it does. All of those movies and TV shows have to be stored on large arrays of computers all over the world. These computers use up a large amount of energy to run, creating emissions, and they have to be running 24/7/365. You could then get into the emissions needed to build the computers, or the emissions created in making a movie or TV show, and things get even worse.
  7. A mobile phone
    • To make a mobile phone requires a whole lot of minerals from mines in various parts of the world. Big earth moving machinery is required. Then minerals need to be processed and shipped to factories to make the phones. Then run a production line inside the factory, ship the products all over the world and sell them in shops to you. Carbon emissions all along the way. A simple mobile phone is the result of a huge carbon intensive industry (like almost all industries!). This article “iPhone 13 release date: How much energy will you save by not buying the new model?” says each iPhone 13 releases 64 kg of additional CO2 to the atmosphere and that the worst thing you can do is trade in your functioning old phone for the new model. Want to help the environment? Don’t buy that new phone.
  8. A mobile phone contract
    • And yes, even the mobile phone contract creates carbon emissions. There’s a network of communication towers and computer systems covering the whole world. It’s a big deal, sucking up energy and emitting carbon and making our atmosphere warmer. It’s not a free ride.
  9. Your internet subscription
    • Same thing goes for your internet subscription (the one you’re probably using to read this article). Just by using the internet you’re creating carbon emissions. The internet is really a vast array of computers connected to each other, covering the whole world. The big thing is that all of these computers have to be powered on all of the time. Carbon, carbon, carbon!

These examples show why it’s almost always true that, when you spend money, you’re almost certainly creating carbon emissions. But the amount of carbon is not linked to the amount of money that you spend. Sometimes, you can spend a little and create a lot of carbon (like a cheap holiday flight on a low-cost airline) and sometimes you can spend money and not emit much carbon at all (like buying a veggie box from a local farmer).

climate change - what can we do?
Photo by John McArthur on Unsplash

When spending money, make the best choices

In today’s world, we can’t just stop spending money, so we know that we’re going to causing more carbon emissions and hence climate change – what can we do? Not every dollar spent creates the same amount of carbon, so we can make smart choices. We can avoid spending the money altogether (the best plan where possible!) and we can deliberately choose the option that emits the least carbon when we need to spend.

Here are just a few examples of positive choices we can make.

  1. Buy less processed foods
    • The more processing that is done to a food, the more carbon that is emitted from the factories that are doing the processing. Go for the least processed, least preserved, least packaged options and you will be reducing your carbon emissions. Unfortunately, the rise of convenient supermarkets has also heralded the rise in processed food where the cheapest ingredients are processed until they’re unrecognisable, preserved so they’ll last a long, long time and intricately packaged to attract you to buy them – adding more emissions every step of the way.
  2. Choose a renewable electricity supplier if you can
    • Contrary to popular belief, renewable electricity doesn’t mean zero emissions. Just imagine all the energy and materials needed to build and deploy solar panels and wind turbines. Nothing is a free ride. Even nuclear electricity creates enormous amounts of emissions to build a nuclear power plant. However, over a long period of time, renewable electricity creates vastly less emissions than other forms like coal, gas and biomass. Best to spend your money on renewable electricity and then use a little of it as you can.
  3. Drive a little slower and less aggressively
    • Simply driving a little slower and less aggressively uses significantly less fuel. This saves you money and reduces the carbon emissions into the atmosphere. It’s a winner all round and easy to do (just takes you a bit longer to get places). I wrote a full post on this some time ago – Use Less Fuel – easy and guaranteed
  4. Take longer holidays less frequently
    • Let’s say you regularly take one-week holidays and use low-cost airlines. You could simply halve your airline emissions by taking two-week holidays at half the frequency. This is a simple way to cut emissions quickly and still do what you like doing.
  5. Eat less meat
    • The meat industry ends up emitting lots of carbon pollution. Land has to be cleared for the animals to graze. More land has to be cleared to grow grain to feed to the animals (sounds crazy, but true). Farm machinery is needed to handle all of this. The animals emit methane (a powerful greenhouse gas). Meat processing centres are needed. Packaging, refrigerating, selling though stores – it all adds up. Buy less meat and you’ll be reducing the overall carbon emissions.
  6. Buy things designed to last a long time
    • buying things that have to be replaced regularly creates a lot of carbon emissions. At the time, they may be cheap, but over time you’ll spend a lot on replacements. Imagine an item that costs £200 but you have to replace it every two years, compared to an item that costs £1000 but last ten years. Over the ten years, the same money has been spent, but the carbon emissions are much lower if you only needed one item. A while ago, I wrote a post about a mobile phone designed to last a long time – Fairphone – a better phone option?

Our economy is a carbon polluting economy!

If it’s pretty much 100% true that everytime we spend money we cause carbon emissions, then we have to conclude that the economy that we have constructed is a carbon polluting economy. Also, look at many of the ultra-rich people in the world and consider how much pollution their companies have created. It seems that the people who have polluted the world the most have become the richest. This is because abusing the natural resources of the Earth is maybe the most common way to make a large amount of money. Our economy rewards the abuse of the Earth’s natural resources and the people who have made a fortune doing so are now in the positions or the most power.

What can we do? The only answer to change the economy. The current economy is a big part of the problem. But the people in power will not want any change to a system that has rewarded them so handsomely.

This is our biggest problem.

A radical way forward

Here’s a radical way to change the economy to support the reduction in carbon pollution. How about we remove all income taxes, company taxes and VAT? Let’s remove all current taxes and introduce a single new tax which makes everyone pay purely for the greenhouse gas emissions caused by the money they spend. Such a new tax scheme would mean that everyone would be implicitly worried about how many emissions they were causing, because they’d be worried about the amount of tax they’d have to pay.

Doing this would completely align our economy with what’s needed to slow and halt global warming and climate change. I feel it’s the only way to make quick, rapid progress in a fair way. Of course, governments and the powerful, rich people (is there really a difference between these two?) will not want to do this, so it’s unlikely to happen. Very sad indeed.

To answer the question “what can we do?” regarding climate change and global warming, the simple answers are first, to spend less money (consume less) and second, to make smarter, less polluting choices when we do spend money and third, send the message to our politicians that the only real solution is to reform our economy by making a tax system that penalises carbon emissions. Politicians need to realise that this is the only way to a long-term future for life on Earth.

Related Links – Climate Change – what can we do?

Useless emissions, for what?

by Leave a Comment

The science is very clear. The concentration of carbon dioxide (and other so-called “greenhouse” gases) is increasing and this is leading to an increase in the average temperature of the atmosphere. Without arguing about the the details of why this is happening, the science of the above statement is undeniable. Adding to this, the knowledge that human pollution is adding about 45 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere each year, then it really disturbs me when I see some of the useless emissions that we create every year. It’s extremely urgent that we avoid adding more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, yet we add extra for no useful purpose whatsoever. Argh!

An example of useless emissions at a cricket match
A photo I took from my tv during a cricket match – an example of useless emissions

What are we celebrating here?

Sometimes I’m concerned that seemingly minor things seem to irritate me significantly. I took the photo above from my television last year. During a cricket game in the UK, they used flames to celebrate and “create an atmosphere”. Ironic to use that word “atmosphere” here because they’re adding more carbon dioxide to the ever warming atmosphere that we live in. We’ve just been through the COP26 meeting and realised (temporarily?) how urgent it is to reduce our pollution, and then we see these useless emissions being created at a sporting event. It makes me mad.

When I first saw this, it really struck me that a stadium full of people were cheering as the flame throwers released their energy, and added more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. It was almost as if the people where cheering the addition of more warming gases into the atmosphere, just after all the issues raised at COP26. It will sound extreme, but it felt to me like a group of people standing around and cheering a hunter who just killed one of the few elephants left on the planet.

useless emissions used to "celebrate" during a cricket match
Another photo of useless emissions being made during a cricket match

Little things matter

When it comes to greenhouse gas pollution and the warming of the atmosphere, we’re in an absolute emergency situation. There is no time left to wait and there are some very big challenges that we have to tackle. If we don’t get on with this urgently, we’ll not be able to slow the degradation of the climate enough and it will become extremely uncomfortable for us.

Even though there are big topics to deal with, little things matter too. And the burning of fossils fuels at a sporting event just to create an impact is one of those small things. It’s a symbol that we just don’t get it. We don’t realise that we’re adding pollution to the atmosphere that we don’t have to, and this pollution is accelerating the heating of the Earth (a process already well underway). It’s a relatively little thing, but let’s stop it! No more useless burning of fossil fuels for such things as “celebrating”. And let’s find all the other little things where we pollute for no reason, and stop those as well.

Let’s be serious. Let’s stop all useless emissions. Let’s buy ourselves some time to fix this problem

We can fix this, but no more useless emissions

Let’s not get depressed about global warming. There’s no point in that. At least we understand what’s happening now and what the mechanism is, so we have a chance to do the things that will be needed to keep the temperature of our atmosphere within a relatively comfortable range. But we have act seriously and urgently. Every kilogram of greenhouse gases that is released into the atmosphere simply increases the warming and makes our task harder.

These useless emissions that I’ve highlighted here are, for the most part, a glaring signal that we don’t understand our predicament and the urgent need to find solutions. Please eliminate all useless emissions now. Immediately. If ever we create greenhouse gas emissions, let’s be sure we understand what we’re doing and verify that we’re only doing so because their isn’t a viable alternative yet.

flame based celebrations at a rugby game

Related Links – Useless Emissions

Drink water to reduce CO2 emissions?

by 2 Comments

Sometimes it is extremely easy to reduce CO2 emissions and one way to do that is to simply drink water, or tap water to be more specific. Surely there will be some of you asking how can drinking water help reduce CO2 emissions? Well that’s easy to explain and I’ll do that in a moment. Others will be thinking that drinking water isn’t very interesting and they’d rather drink something else. It’s in these circumstances that I wonder if the world is ready to reduce pollution and slow the effects of climate change. Until someone has invented a better solution, all we can do right now is reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to buy us some extra time. It’s going to be a bit inconvenient for a while. Following on from COP26, it’s clear we have to do everything we can to reduce emissions and that includes the personal choices of all of us. Everything helps and collectively we need to get emissions of greenhouse gases down very quickly.

Drink water to reduce CO2 emissions?
Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

How does drinking water reduce CO2 emissions?

Obviously, the direct action of drinking water does not reduce CO2 emissions, it’s the indirect consequence of us not drinking something else that gives the reduction of emissions. By drinking anything else that had to be grown, harvested, modified in a factory, packaged, shipped and purchased, we’re generally creating CO2 emissions and other forms of pollution at every step of the way. If we simply fill a glass with water from the tap and drink that, we’re mostly eliminating these emissions and pollution.

How would this affect us?

Since a lot of the things we drink (other than water) contain sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, caffeine, artificial sweeteners, artificial colourants, alcohol and other chemicals, drinking water from the tap would actually be better for us. Water is all our body needs when it comes to fluids. Anything else we drink is just to satisfy certain urges, to fit in with expected social norms or as a response to effective advertising. Are any of those things really a good reason to reinforce the climate negative effects of our societies pollution habits?

Drinking tap water would also save us, collectively, an enormous amount of money. Some might say this would be bad for the economy. That can’t really be true can it? Let’s examine this a little.

What would happen is the whole world started drinking only water from “now”?

Let’s imagine a crazy world where every single person in the world suddenly started to drink only tap water from now on (I acknowledge that some places don’t have access to clean water – this is terrible, and should be of concern to the whole global human community). Nothing else was consumed. What would happen?

One thing for sure, some very large companies would go broke. For example, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Red Bull. Coca-Cola’s revenue in 2019 was 37 billion US dollars. The global alcohol market is somewhere between 0.5 and 1.5 trillion US dollars depending on how it’s measured. So, if the world all began to drink only water, these businesses and industries would fail. In the short term, many people would be out of work and the GDP of some countries would be significantly affected.

That appears to be a bad situation, but can drinking water really be bad for the economy? A successful economy is just one where money flows round and round continuously and creates the possibility for people or businesses to attract more customers when superior products and services are offered. If everyone started drinking water, the average consumer would now have more money in their pockets and would start spending this on other things. After a period of adjustment, which might be rough for a while, everything would stabilise.

The bottom line is that a successful economy cannot hinge directly on people drinking any particular beverage.

Other surprising outcomes

If the whole world starting drinking simple water exclusively, then nobody would need to boil a kettle for a cup of tea or coffee. What would that mean? Let’s consider the United Kingdom and do a little math. An average kettle uses about 2000 Watts of power and lets say it is used for only one minute to boil water for one cup.

An article from Wales Online suggests that 56 million Brits drink on average 1.78 cups of tea per day before lockdown. The articles says it’s almost double that during lockdown, but I’ll be conservative here and use the pre-lockdown numbers. I’ll also assume it’s the same average consumption for coffee. So, we have 56 million people drinking on average 3.56 cups of tea or coffee per day.

Assuming one minute of boiling time per cup, that’s the equivalent of having 138,000 kettles running continuously all day long. If a reasonably powerful LED light bulb uses 10 Watts, that’s the equivalent of having 27 million LED bulbs burning continuously. Based on the UK average CO2 emissions from electricity (which is dropping every year), that’s the equivalent of 85 tonnes of CO2 per hour (let me know if I’ve got the math wrong!), or about 750,000 tonnes per year. This is less than a quarter of 1% of the UK’s total CO2 emissions, but it’s only from heating the water to drink tea and coffee, not including the production, packaging and shipping (and milk!) involved as well.

COP26 and Irn Bru

Based on everything I’ve said above, I was shocked to see the representatives at COP26 drinking Irn Bru. Apparently the company behind Irn Bru was allowed to sponsor the soft drinks and water at COP26 because Irn Bru is a “national champion” of Scotland. Is there a disconnect from reality here? The most important meeting in the world to tackle the emergency in front of us and the delegates at the meeting were given Irn Bru as a common drinking option, and the organisers were proud of it! Fact is that such drinks aren’t necessary and they create additional CO2 emissions. Could the organisers of COP26 have considered that?

This would have been a great forum for showcasing how simple personal choices can have an immediate impact on greenhouse gas emissions, but it was missed. If tap water was the only thing available at COP26 and there was a news article on that, could that have had an impact?

Where to from here?

In the spirit of Use 10 Percent Less, this is not an all or nothing issue. We all don’t have to switch to water only right now. The real point of this article is to give you reason to consider choosing simple water more often and avoiding the options that contribute to the climate emergency we’re battling. Can you drink 10 percent less manufactured beverages? That can’t be too hard can it? Then, could you drink 10 percent less again?

If we can do this, we’ll save money, be a bit healthier and reduce greenhouse gas emissions all at the same time.

Related Links

Renewable isn’t always good

by Leave a Comment

It’s difficult to decipher the headlines these days, and generally we don’t absorb more of the news than that. We’re too busy and there’s too much “news” thrown out there. Can we piece together the truth from a string of headlines? It’s hard enough to find the truth even with a deeper analysis. What first appears true might be false, and many things are both true and false to some degree. This is clear with the word “renewable”. Renewable energy is considered the holy grail for the future and every time the word “renewable” appears in a headline, it brings with it the sense of being the perfect saviour of the world. However, this isn’t always true, renewable isn’t always good. This is something that has hit me full in the face over the past few months.

[Read more…] about Renewable isn’t always good

Fairphone – a better phone option?

by 2 Comments

A couple of years ago, I read an article about Fairphone in an edition of “The Big Issue” and I was fascinated. The first thing that caught my notice was that when Fairphone’s founder, Bas van Abel, first wanted to create a fair mobile phone, one of the first things he needed to do was pay a bribe in Africa to access a mine. I’d heard that the mines in Africa can be run in terrible ways for the local people (who are basically desperate for any money they can get) and this was, and still is, a major concern for me. Just because it’s in Africa and out of my sight, doesn’t mean I can just put this out of my mind and accept it.

Eventually Bas van Abel sourced ethical materials and the Fairphone dream was underway. This dream wasn’t just the sourcing of ethical materials, the bigger part of the dream was to create a phone that was modular and could be easily repaired by the owner using inexpensive spare parts. This is why the Fairphone is of interest here at use10percentless.com, it’s a phone that you’re intended to keep for much longer than the standard smart phones, hence less waste.

Obviously, I decided to buy a Fairphone. I wanted my usage of a phone to have less impact on the world. It wasn’t an easy choice because it also meant I’d be switching from an Apple iPhone to an Android based phone. I’d never used Android before. However, on the positive side, it worked out that I spent roughly half as much money on my new Fairphone compared to the iPhone I would have bought if I’d stayed with Apple. [Read more…] about Fairphone – a better phone option?

Buy local to reduce emissions

by Leave a Comment

Remember those old movies where rich families would have exotic fruits from half way around the world that had to be transported on those old ships? In some parts of the world, exotic fruits could be just bananas and oranges. It seemed so decadent for these rich families to have such things. Well, today, we all have exactly these things available in our local supermarket, and we think nothing of it. It’s our right. But the ubiquitous availability of such things is one of the important reasons why our atmosphere is getting so polluted. It’s worth looking to buy local and to eliminate as many things as possible that are shipped great distances.

I’ve been worrying more and more about the energy used to move produce about the world and I’ve taken two steps recently to use 10 percent less, or more.

Farmdrop – buying local produce

I’ve started using the Farmdrop delivery service (I have no affiliation with them at all) because they build agreements with local producers and have a “Sourcing Policy” that starts with “Prioritise Local” and the intention to source within 150 miles where possible and to never use air freight. Their website makes it easy to see where every option comes from and I like that. I now buy only fruits and vegetables that come from nearby counties in the UK and that makes me feel better. We’re currently getting delicious plums, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries and cheese from local farms, among other things. [Read more…] about Buy local to reduce emissions

Anything but Plastic – it’s good to use less

by Leave a Comment

This is a mini celebration of all the ethical and more sustainable businesses that are popping up all over the world. It’s very refreshing to see companies with principles and a real desire to supply something better to the world rather than destroy it in the quest for the highest profits. In this post, I’d like to highlight a company in the UK called “Anything but Plastic” who have provided me good service and helped me reduce the amount of plastic I bring into my home. I have absolutely no affiliation with this company, I just enjoy their products and service.

anything but Plastic
This is the card they included in my latest order.

Nothing is better

Before I move on, I’d like to reiterate one of the main principles behind Use 10 Percent Less, which is that the best thing we can possibly do is stop using things. Avoiding something and not using it is far better than buying recycled products, finding alternatives to plastic, looking for renewable options, and the like. Not using something that we don’t really need to use releases a little of the pressure on the world. But, when something is necessary, it’s important to find a product that creates the minimum impact on the natural world (of which we’re an integral part – Bee a Human). All of the plastic we briefly use and dispose of thoughtlessly is a terrible imposition on the world and that’s one of the reasons I turn to companies like anythingbutplastic.co.uk when I need to.

Anything but Plastic

I was led to “Anything but Plastic” when looking for a way to avoid standard dental floss that is made from plastic. It’s horrible to think that I use dental floss every day and these little bits of plastic have to go somewhere after I used them. Not only the floss is plastic, but the container is another small plastic thing that has to go somewhere and, wherever that “somewhere” is, this plastic will be there for hundreds of years (even if it’s incinerated, the releases CO2 will be in the atmosphere for a long time). [Read more…] about Anything but Plastic – it’s good to use less

Extinction of convenience

by 1 Comment

The human race today, even in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic, is addicted to convenience. It’s this addiction that is bringing us down and, with all likelihood, be the main cause of our extinction. Due to our desire for extreme convenience, we use the resources of the world with gay abandon and create enormous amounts of pollution everywhere. In response to this, the world’s environment has been changing rapidly in recent decades, as if the world is preparing for the extinction of convenience, which includes us. Our only hope is to create an “extinction of convenience” of our own, and eliminate our insatiable desire for endless convenience.

During the current coronavirus pandemic, I see a persistent desire to get back to the ways things were even though there are plenty of fantastic examples of how things could be better. The skies are clearer because there are not many planes flying, pollution from our cities has dropped dramatically, nature in many parts of the world is springing back into action and local communities are becoming stronger all over the world, just to name a few. Do we really want to go back to the way things were? People are worried about the “economy” but we really need to build a new economy rather than simply return to the old one. [Read more…] about Extinction of convenience

Plastic, pollution and the coronavirus

by 1 Comment

These are difficult days for humanity with most of us now housebound to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Quite rightly, this life-and-death issue has to take priority until the threat passes. However, unusual times like these have created an link between pollution and the coronavirus that offers us the opportunity to view things in a different way and make some interesting observations.

Using less and treading lightly on the world

For quite a while now, we’ve known that the world is struggling under the weight of human consumption and human pollution. There have been great amounts of progress towards minimising unnecessary consumption and pollution, especially plastic pollution, even though much, much more needs to be done. However, with the coronavirus threat, many people have gone into super-consumption mode and are stock-piling. It’s understandable because people are afraid, but it’s interesting to observe.

Also, any concern about plastic pollution has dissipated temporarily. The amount of food being stockpiled with plastic packaging is astonishing. The protective equipment for health professionals (all very necessary of course) appears to be mostly plastic. The coronavirus testing kits being manufactured at pace contain lots of plastic. Hand-sanitiser dispensers are almost always plastic. The UK has (temporarily?) abolished the charge on plastic bags at supermarkets.

I agree that this can’t be helped at the moment and protecting people has to be our immediate priority; but we also have to remember that we’re protecting people so we can continue to have meaningful lives. If we choke the world with plastic, we might find it hard to live in such a place.

I keep thinking of Satish Kumar’s call to “tread lightly on the world” (see Elegant Simplicity – The Art of Living Well). It’s a good thing to keep in mind. There’s nothing wrong with treading lightly on the world with everything we do, but the human race doesn’t have a good track record of doing that. [Read more…] about Plastic, pollution and the coronavirus