• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About
  • Background
  • My Other Sites
    • Life in the Right Direction
    • Peter Whiting At Home (and elsewhere)
    • FabHappy
  • Contact
    • Email me

Use 10 Percent Less

All things must change when the consumer changes

  • Less Pollution
  • Less Waste
  • Recycling
  • Less Fossil Fuels
  • Climate Change
  • Nature
  • Societal Change

Societal Change

Useless emissions, for what?

April 9, 2022 by Peter 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

  • It didn’t take much of a search to find companies that provide this type service for “celebrations” or “creation of atmosphere” at sporting events. For example
    • https://www.entertainmenteffects.co.uk/flame-effects/
  • I don’t like to pick on companies that are just trying to make a success of what they do and, as can easily be pointed out, there is a demand for this type of service. However, we now understand the direct link between greenhouse gas emissions and the warming of our atmosphere, so we simple must eliminate all useless emissions. Not just these ones, all.
  • Drink water to reduce CO2 emissions?
  • The Natural Thermostat and CO2 – from Life in the Right Direction
  • Lockdown and Private Jets – from peterwhiting.net

Filed Under: Climate Change, Less Pollution, Societal Change Tagged With: climate change, CO2, sustainability

Olio – using less by sharing

April 24, 2021 by Peter Leave a Comment

I hear many people argue that we need a new style of economy to replace our current sell-buy-use-discard economy (for example, see “The Story of Stuff“). There is talk of circular and sharing economies. Recently, I was pleased to find a sharing app called “Olio” that allows people to connect and share left over foods and non-food items. It seems to work well.

The Olio food sharing app

My first tests of Olio

I thought I’d test out Olio as I had some coffee beans and some soft-drinks that I didn’t need. Seven items in total. So I took photos and posted them in the Olio app. I don’t live in the centre of London and am a bit out of the way, but all items we snapped up by somebody nearby within 24 hours. That was a good result.

Somebody who wants the items sends me a message through the app. They say when they can come by to pick them up and it’s at this point that I give them my precise address. It’s great to see happy people arriving to pick up items that they’ll really use.

After this success, I tried some “non-food” items. I put a selection of excess dinner plates of ours on the Olio app and they did get taken by someone even though is took two or three weeks before that happened. Again, it’s nice to know someone is happily making use of these items that we no longer needed.

More about Olio

Here’s what Olio says about itself on the “What is Olio?” page on their website;

OLIO connects neighbours with each other and with local businesses so surplus food can be shared, not thrown away. This could be food nearing its sell-by date in local stores, spare home-grown vegetables, bread from your baker, or the groceries in your fridge when you go away. For your convenience, OLIO can also be used for non-food household items too.

OLIO is super easy! To make an item available, simply open the app, add a photo, description, and when and where the item is available for pick-up.

To access items, simply browse the listings available near you, request whatever takes your fancy and arrange a pick-up via private messaging.

Here at OLIO we believe that small actions can lead to big change. Collectively – one rescued cupcake, carrot or bottle of lotion at a time – we can build a more sustainable future where our most precious resources are shared, not thrown away. Join today!

https://olioex.com/about/

Olio was started by by two women, Tessa and Saasha, a few years ago. You can read about their stories leading up to the start of Olio on their “Our Story” page. They are two people who haven’t done anything like this before and honestly seem like they just want to do something good for the world. In a few years, their app has grown in use to over 2.6 million people in 54 different countries.

Protecting Natural Capital

Of course, consumers sharing excess items is not of interest of the big companies selling them in the first place (see Business vs Exploitation). It’s a pity that, in general, throwing usable items into land fill and buying more new ones will improve the financial results of big companies. That’s the truth but it shouldn’t be so. We need to consider natural capital just as importantly as financial capital, and the Olio app is a step in that direction. The more we can share our excess items, the less we demand from nature to make new ones, and the less waste we create that, eventually, nature has to deal with somehow.

Related Links

  • Olio – https://olioex.com
  • The Story of Stuff – from lifeintherightdirection.com
  • A world where having less is cool – from lifeintherightdirection.com
  • Just don’t waste – Sir David Attenborough
  • Business vs Exploitation – from lifeintherightdirection.com

Filed Under: Less Waste, Societal Change Tagged With: sharing

Extinction of convenience

May 14, 2020 by Peter 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

Filed Under: Less Fossil Fuels, Less Pollution, Less Waste, Recycling, Societal Change Tagged With: air travel, consumerism, economy, packaging, planes, plastic, sustainability

They need us more than we need them

April 13, 2020 by Peter Leave a Comment

I was surprised a few days ago to find a quote that was advocating one of the Use 10 Percent Less themes, namely “all things must change when the consumer does“. When I found the following quote in the April/May 2020 edition of the “Resurgence & Ecologist” magazine and saw “they need us more than we need them“, I was very interested.

“The corporate world will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability.

Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them.

Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”

– Arundhati Roy, War Talk

[Read more…] about They need us more than we need them

Filed Under: Societal Change Tagged With: Arundhati Roy, consumerism, economy, sustainability

Primary Sidebar

  • Facebook
  • RSS

You’ve been successfully subscribed to our newsletter!

Hi, I'm Peter Whiting. I believe if we just started consuming 10 percent less stuff, we could set the world on a much better path. And 10 percent isn't that much...

Recent Posts

  • Useless emissions, for what?
  • Drink water to reduce CO2 emissions?
  • Olio – using less by sharing
  • Renewable isn’t always good
  • The Power of Less – from Good Energy
  • Fairphone – a better phone option?
  • Buy local to reduce emissions
  • Anything but Plastic – it’s good to use less
  • Shaving without plastic
  • Extinction of convenience
  • They need us more than we need them
  • Plastic, pollution and the coronavirus
  • Concerns about HS2
  • Just don’t waste – Sir David Attenborough
  • Disposable Batteries – what a waste!
  • 250 potatoes
  • UK Climate Debate and Pollution
  • Greenpeace versus BP
  • Toothbrushes and plastic
  • Our choices can release CO2 – choose wisely

Recent Comments

  • Lockdown and Private Jets - Peter Whiting at Home (and elsewhere) on Fairphone – a better phone option?
  • Sharon Whiting on Drink water to reduce CO2 emissions?
  • Lia Mills on Drink water to reduce CO2 emissions?
  • Pen on Ban New Plastic
  • Peter on The Power of Less – from Good Energy

Categories

  • Climate Change
  • Less Fossil Fuels
  • Less Pollution
  • Less Waste
  • Nature
  • Recycling
  • Societal Change
  • Uncategorized

Footer

  • Home
  • About
  • Background
  • My Other Sites
    • Life in the Right Direction
    • Peter Whiting At Home (and elsewhere)
    • FabHappy
  • Contact
    • Email me

Categories

  • Climate Change
  • Less Fossil Fuels
  • Less Pollution
  • Less Waste
  • Nature
  • Recycling
  • Societal Change
  • Uncategorized

Tags

air travel alcohol Arundhati Roy battery biomass BP butterflies climate change climate justice CO2 consumerism coronavirus dental floss economy environment farming fish forests fossil fuels Greenpeace HS2 logging meat mining nylon overconsumption packaging paper pesticides planes plastic razor renewable energy shale gas sharing soap solar sustainability toothbrush trains trees water

Archives

You’ve been successfully subscribed to our newsletter!

Search

Copyright © 2022 - FabHappy Limited