saving the planet
If there an any of you who still haven't seen Al Gore's An Incovenient Truth I'd consider it your duty as a world citizen to do so. I thought the same about Michael Moore's Farenheit 911 but for different reasons.
Common perceptions of NZ is that it is clean, green and lovely. And for the most part it is but there are still many New Zealanders who are too lazy or too ignorant to understand their own impact on their environment.
This is highlighted in a new TV series called Wasted. Essentially its a makeover show for the environmentally challenged. I was disgusted to see a family of throwing away a bag of rubbish a day, running their washing machine virtually 24 hrs and living in a house where heaters and radiators blazed all day while the house itself remained uninsulated. They were completely oblivious - even the $7,000 annual energy bill didn't give them a clue. That family alone created a household footprint 37 times the size of their home.
Just yesterday I read two articles. One on how neo-green was the new black, the other about a kiwi chef in Australia. The thrust of the first was obvious, the second however focussed more on the fact that the chef bought locally, travelled to markets himself and other "green" ideas to reduce the impact of his industry on his environment.
I think its finally here. We stand on the cusp of great change. Now there are more generations that believe than do not. More importantly those generations have come of voting age. While old folks will always moan (like my mum does) about having too many bins for recycling, only having rubbish collected fortnightly and the death of the old school light bulb*. She isn't quick to realise that she is forced to comply with what she considers an annoyance because her generation (and others) were to fucking slow to do anything about it.
*And any other Daily Mail claptrap. If there was ever a newspaper to champion the misplaced, misinformed causes of the middle classes "I'm alright Jack"s and "Not in my backyard"s, it this turgid reactionary piece of shit on a page.
To be (mildy) fair, my mum is actually very green. She grows loads of her own fruit and vegetables, has a compost heap, keeps chickens for eggs and manure, maintains a flowering wilderness, doesn't have central heating, has double glazing and insulation, uses those energy light bulb and NEVER EVER puts a TV on standby. Its just what goes into her head everyday by reading that rag that scares me.
Permit me one more aside: All those people doing cardio workouts in gyms across the planet, on bikes, cross trainers and treadmill are creating energy. Why doesn't SOMEONE harness that energy to power the city or area where the gym is located. ITS A GENIUS IDEA!
So to what I was really going to say: its only been 3 years or so since the Roberts family started becoming more environmentally friendly. After an enlightening project at work we began to recycle the usual elements: cans, bottles, paper swell as some others like books and clothes. It did mean a short trip in the car to Sainsbury's car park but the benefits definitely outweighed the impact.
Now we are homeowners in a beautiful part of the world we have done the following:
Things we haven't done:
Like always, there's more we can do but its a bloody good start. What are you doing?
Common perceptions of NZ is that it is clean, green and lovely. And for the most part it is but there are still many New Zealanders who are too lazy or too ignorant to understand their own impact on their environment.
This is highlighted in a new TV series called Wasted. Essentially its a makeover show for the environmentally challenged. I was disgusted to see a family of throwing away a bag of rubbish a day, running their washing machine virtually 24 hrs and living in a house where heaters and radiators blazed all day while the house itself remained uninsulated. They were completely oblivious - even the $7,000 annual energy bill didn't give them a clue. That family alone created a household footprint 37 times the size of their home.
Just yesterday I read two articles. One on how neo-green was the new black, the other about a kiwi chef in Australia. The thrust of the first was obvious, the second however focussed more on the fact that the chef bought locally, travelled to markets himself and other "green" ideas to reduce the impact of his industry on his environment.
I think its finally here. We stand on the cusp of great change. Now there are more generations that believe than do not. More importantly those generations have come of voting age. While old folks will always moan (like my mum does) about having too many bins for recycling, only having rubbish collected fortnightly and the death of the old school light bulb*. She isn't quick to realise that she is forced to comply with what she considers an annoyance because her generation (and others) were to fucking slow to do anything about it.
*And any other Daily Mail claptrap. If there was ever a newspaper to champion the misplaced, misinformed causes of the middle classes "I'm alright Jack"s and "Not in my backyard"s, it this turgid reactionary piece of shit on a page.
To be (mildy) fair, my mum is actually very green. She grows loads of her own fruit and vegetables, has a compost heap, keeps chickens for eggs and manure, maintains a flowering wilderness, doesn't have central heating, has double glazing and insulation, uses those energy light bulb and NEVER EVER puts a TV on standby. Its just what goes into her head everyday by reading that rag that scares me.
Permit me one more aside: All those people doing cardio workouts in gyms across the planet, on bikes, cross trainers and treadmill are creating energy. Why doesn't SOMEONE harness that energy to power the city or area where the gym is located. ITS A GENIUS IDEA!
So to what I was really going to say: its only been 3 years or so since the Roberts family started becoming more environmentally friendly. After an enlightening project at work we began to recycle the usual elements: cans, bottles, paper swell as some others like books and clothes. It did mean a short trip in the car to Sainsbury's car park but the benefits definitely outweighed the impact.
Now we are homeowners in a beautiful part of the world we have done the following:
- Starting using the bokashi composting system
- Take cloth bags for shopping to eliminate the need for plastic ones
- Have changed our lightbulbs to the energy saving kind
- Bought bikes for quick trips to the shops and other replaceable car journeys
- Recycle paper, plastic, metal and glass
- Only put the dishwasher on when its full (sometimes we wsh-up old skool style) and dry washing on the line rather than using the dryer
- Use mostly cold washes for the washing machine - 1 hot wash for badly soiled stuff and gym things
- Never put the TV on standby (mum hs always said it was a fire risk) and try not to leave things on at the switch: like the stereo, phone chargers, the kettle and the like
- Decomissioned our wood burner and are in the process of installing heat pump technology (300% efficient).
Things we haven't done:
- Purchased high energy efficiency rated appliances - sadly they were just too expensive for first time home buyers - ours have one or two stars, next time we hope to afford them
- Elimated the car for journeys to work - we live 40km from where we work and public transport is poor. We do however travel to work together
Like always, there's more we can do but its a bloody good start. What are you doing?
posted by Phil at 9:21 am
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