Climate Change is BAD

If you spotted the pun in the above title, then award yourself a coconut. In fact, award yourself two; I'm feeling generous today. If you don't get it, then let me explain:

Every year, bloggers get together and write about a particular issue such as poverty or animal rights. All their posts are published on one day: Blog Action Day, also know as BAD (see, you get it now, don't you?). This year, the topic for discussion is climate change, which, as we all know, is a terrible thing.

But what to do? Cutting personal greenhouse gas emissions is pretty difficult, and cutting corporate emissions is no walk in the park either. Renewable energy is still at a relatively embryonic stage (although it's getting better by the second, I have to say), people don't trust nuclear fission, and nuclear fusion is still the domain of theoretical physicists. And even if we did stop emitting carbon dioxide and cutting down rainforests and generally having a good time at the planet's expense, would it work? Perhaps not. Some people, in particular James Lovelock (of Gaia hypothesis fame), believe that no matter what we do, climate change is inevitable. So should we prepare the tinned food stockpiles and buy some real estate in the Arctic now, before it's too late? Should we sit it out in our icy bunkers, waiting for the Earth to start behaving itself again? Bear in mind that, according to Lovelock, it could be another 100,000 years before everything calms down. That's a lot of tinned food.

So maybe it's not time to give up the battle just yet, unless you like living off baked beans and tins of sardines. Keep on recycling and being energy efficient and who knows? Maybe you'll save the planet after all. But if you stop trying, then we're all screwed. And, as I'm sure you can imagine, knowing you're screwed is not a nice feeling.

And besides, even if it does all go pear-shaped, you can at least take comfort in the knowledge that you gave it your best shot. 'Cause it ain't the winning that matters, it's the taking part.

N.B. The above post was published on the 15th of October, but was in fact written on the 3rd. It is therefore possible that I have changed my environmental policy since writing this post, and that it no longer properly represents my views on climate change. Fat chance of that happening, though.

Green Gardening

You may remember that, as part of Blog Action Day last year, I talked a little about the environment. Unfortunately I wasn't able (i.e. forgot) to participate this year, but I have got some interesting news on eco-developments in West Berkshire. Not long ago, the council introduced green bins, into which you can put so called 'green waste'. Distasteful as this may sound, it refers simply to any waste that degrades quickly and harmlessly into compost and the like. For example, we generated a significant amount of green waste the other week when we pulled down the ivy covering one wall of the house, and still further yesterday when raking up the leaves on the lawn. (Tip: Don't try raking leaves on gravel. It's a road to nowhere.)

This leads me rather neatly on to the many joys to be found in gardening, not least of which is lopping. I don't know if you've ever wielded a decent pair of loppers before, but the feeling of power and capability gleaned from it is probably the greatest to be derived from any garden implement. They exude strength, indestructibility and an I-can-cut-through-pretty-much-anything-I-so-please attitude that makes using them a strangely pleasing experience. I am, in a manner of speaking, the official 'overzealous person with loppers' of the household, thanks to my efficient (if somewhat haphazard) pruning of unruly shrubbery and assorted other plants. My methods: cut little, cut well, cut everywhere, and don't stop cutting until everything is perfect. Oh, and don't worry too much about the bits you've cut off.

Coming a close second in my list of favourite gardening tasks is the usage of the humble rake. Firstly, there is the fun factor. If you own a leaf rake, much excitement can be gained by gently hitting on the ground and listening to the amusing 'boingggggg' emitted as a result. Alternatively, you can hold it at the very end of the handle and let the prongs fall to the ground from a small height, at which point you start to walk backwards. When the prongs hit the ground (preferably grass for best results) the lateral motion you are providing gives them enough energy to spring upwards to around the same height as they were at originally. The miracle force that is gravity causes them to drop again, and for as long as you continue to walk backwards the rake will bounce up and down to great comic effect across the garden. What fun!

I'm afraid this is all the horticultural fun you're going to get for the moment, but tune in next time when I'll be discussing... er... hmm... something. See you then!

Being Green

Actually, it's easier than it's made out to be. Here, for example, are some of the things we do to keep green:

1. Composting: We have, as you've probably guessed from my last post, a compost bin. And, as compost bins go, it's a pretty good one. You put garden waste in one end and (eventually) lovely, nutrient rich compost comes out the other. But you probably knew that. What you probably didn't know is my 3 Interesting Things you can Do with your Compost Bin. They are:
   1. With only some ping pong balls, an egg whisk, a sink plunger, a broom handle, a broken web cam and some imagination, you can make it into a Dalek.
   2. You can harvest flies from it to feed your pet tarantula (if you have one).
   3. You can, at the right temperature, grow mushrooms of varying toxicity in it.
   But most importantly, you can improve your green credentials. Would you rather let your clippings rot into an insubstantial, useless and foul smelling mush at the bottom of a landfill site, or let them rot into a more substantial and useful (although admittedly still foul smelling) mush at the bottom of your compost bin? Waste them or use them? The choice is yours.
2. Recycling: This is the biggie of all environmental issues, the one that pressure groups always nag you about. And with good reason. It takes a lorra lorra metal and energy to produce a can, and we haven't got an infinite supply of it. Sure, we can get energy from sustainable sources such as wind farms, but where the heck are we going to get all that metal from? Recycling! You've seen the adverts: Your can could end up as a plane, train, automobile etc. Now isn't that exciting? Well, not particularly, but at least it means we use a lot less metal. Not, of course, that it's just metal you can recycle. Paper, glass, plastic, those magic little men at the council will take anything and turn it into anything else. Or, if you like your rubbish, you can reuse it. Put all you ingredients into plastic bottles. Get your children into junk modelling. Donate your old clothes, toys, pets, unwanted kids etc. to charity. Do anything, but don't throw it into a landfill site!
3. Anything else you can think of: You know the sort of thing I mean: Drive less, buy organic, don't buy peat. It all adds up to a better planet.