In which Sourpuss muses on denial…

as a result of not being bothered to find the remote I watched a program about the storms this winter, now fortunately, for us, apart from some long distance journeys the bad weather didn’t really have much impact on us here in the NE.  The house in in one piece the garden isn’t in too bad a state, we could stay safely removed from the tragedies unfolding among farming communities in the South West, and the devastation to homes in other parts of the country, floods, sinkholes, coastal erosion…

But we are all connected, the food we buy this summer will be more expensive because of damage done now, money will have to be spent on repairing infrastructure will have to come from somewhere.

Anecdotally the weather is getting more unpredictable, and not just here, across the globe. The typhoon in the Philippines, snows in America, drought in Australia…

The overwhelming scientific evidence is that climate change is happening, and actually it doesn’t mean we’ll get lovely summers here in the UK, it means just what we’ve seen, more, violent storms, wetter weather, harder to predict.  And if we here in a rich country with good infrastructure find it hard to cope, how much worse must it be in the fragile communities of the Global south, in parts of Asia and Africa?

So why do people still deny the effect that we in the West have had, and are still having on the climate?  Is it simply by being in denial we are exempting ourselves from having to do anything about it?  To not put ourselves out, to not make changes to save the world we know?

There are the simple changes, energy saving light bulbs, yes I know you don’t get bright instant light, but you know, LED’s are a good alternative for task lighting. Plastic bags, yes really, is it that hard to not have a bag folded in a pocket if you are planning to go shopping? Or get your groceries delivered without bags, saving plastic, fuel and time… plus not getting suckered into the BOGOFFs you don’t need!

And that comes down to the nub, we in the west need to consume less of everything, do you really need a new top, dress, shoes… a new phone or telly?  Making do and mending is an important skill, and don’t throw away usable stuff, recycle it so someone else can avoid buying new, try Freegle, try charity shops, it does take time, but we only have the one planet, perhaps taking time to live more responsibly is better than beating level 87 on Candy Crush?

1,456 total views, 1 views today