There's Nothing I can Do
This last weekend I spent three days working flat out, signing books for my lovely readers in Salisbury. Given that we are in the final run-up to Christmas it’s to be expected and I would not have it otherwise. One of the features of this event that intrigued me in particular was the unusual level of interest in my ecological travelogue, One Journey (https://www.michaelforester.co.uk/books/one-journey). The book explores a variety of planetary concerns based on my first hand experience, from deforestation in the Amazon Basin to Third World growth in Asia and the Philippines in particular.
Since it appeared in 2018, One Journey has been a relatively slow seller compared to some of my other books. But this year the book has been flying off the table. I am left to wonder as to what extent global fires and floods are increasing our awareness of what is happening to the planet on which we live.
Some of my more thoughtful readers will linger a long time and discuss the books with me at length before making their choice. In particular, one of the hundreds of peopleI spoke to on Sunday was a lady in late middle age who was particularly interested in One Journey due to its ecological leanings.
This lovely lady did indeed buy a copy of the book but as she handed over of her payment there was a look of anguish on her face. I wish I could do more, but I feel so helpless, she said. And I have to say that sometimesI share her feeling of helplessness so overwhelming is the task before us. I think we all do.
We appear now to have arrived at the position where it is impossible to think in terms of reducing global temperatures by 1.5 degrees as specified in the 2015 Paris agreement. Cop28 is already being accused of being a cop out by its failure to call for phasing out the use of fossil fuels. It prefers instead the wording of compromise that globally we will transition away from them. By how much remains open to nation-by-nation interpretation. More and more talk in the relevant press seems to focus simply on holding global temperatures to their present level and managing the consequences the best we can. That’s tough on you Samoa but no one that matters will worry until Miami goes under water or the Thames rises above the London flood barrier. It seems that there has been a worldwide shrug of the shoulders and a collective wail of There’s nothing I can do.
My answer to this lady was a suggestion that she think not in terms of what she cannot do but what she can do. I looked around for an example. Look at this I said taking a piece of kitchen towel from my lunchbox. It was tan in colour and far from the pristine white that we expect to see in our domestic consumable paper products. It’s unbleached, made from bamboo grown in managed plantations. In fact I said next time I purchase I will be buying similar unbleached product made from recycled cardboard.
I do this with all of my household paper consumable products – kitchen roll, facial tissues, toilet paper et cetera. It takes an adjustment, because we are so used to seeing white paper. But the bleach required to make that paper pristine white pours straight down the drain and out into the sea. How many marine environments are destroyed by our white kitchen paper every year? How many fish die? How many Coral Reefs?It doesn’t have to be that way. We could all be using unbleached household paper but most people turn their nose up at the idea because the colour is unappealing.
So, after careful thought, I’m using this post today to list some of the personal changes I have made in my attempt to reduce my own contribution to planetary damage. Please let me emphasise that I do this, not to signal my virtue, but to point out some of the things it is possible to do – some of the changes that are within your power if you have not already made them – to reduce the impact we all have on the planet.
Like most of us, I have made the changes that the government encourages to insulation levels and low powered light bulbs in my home. But it’s possible to go much, much further.Who decided that we need 270 mm of loft insulation? This year I have installed double that level. My house is noticeably more comfortable as a result. Perhaps one of you experts out there can tell me how much CO2 has been saved. How long will it take to recover the investment? I have no idea but it is undoubtedly better for our planetary home to be reducing the amount of CO2 pumped into the air as a result of heating my own personal home.
I have also installed solar panels on my roof. I’m told it will take 10 years or so to recover the cost of doing so. I don’t know if I have 10 years left on this planet to recover the money but that does not concern me. Like a lot people I am in a position to do this and if I want to bequeath an inhabitable planet to my grandchildren then this is not a ‘nice to have’ but a ‘need to have’.
Okay, I get it. Such levels of expenditure are beyond the means of many. But even if you don’t have substantial resources there is still a lot you can do to contribute. For example, some time back I stopped using liquid soap and went back to buying bars of solid soap like we all did years ago. Somewhere along the way, some manufacturer had convinced me that liquid soap was superior to solid soap. I had thought little of the packaging I was dropping into my waste bin as a result. Those bars of soap cost less than the equivalent quantity of liquid soap in the plastic container. It’s a win-win. Why aren’t we all doing it?
It’s a similar story with shampoo. Until this year I had been in the habit of washing my hair in the shower every day, using liquid shampoo. I am now told in the numerous articles I read that I’m not doing my scalp any favours by such frequent washing. So I cut back to using shampoo just twice a week. My hair still gets wet in the shower daily but my shampoo consumption has dropped to less than one third of what it was. Not only do all those chemicals not go down the drain any longer.The plastic containers that periodically I used to drop into the bin now don’t get bought in the first place. And no, I have not noticed any detrimental impact on my personal cleanliness. I hope you haven’t either.
Do I really need to drive the mile into town every time I visit? Clearly not. A lot of the time I can go on foot – not to the point where I get soaked, or freeze my fingers off during inclement weather. But when I can walk instead of driving, I do. Similarly, where it is practical to take the train instead of using the car for longer journeys, then I do that. And next time I change my vehicle I anticipate replacing it with either an EV or a hybrid.
I could go on at considerable length but I think you get the idea.
Will this solve the problem of global warming? No clearly not – I need a bit of help from China, the USA and from you in order to do that. As I said to that dear lady, focus not on what you cannot do, because that simply takes you down a road to despair.Focus on what you can do to make a change. Come up with one change you can make today, make it and then look for the next one tomorrow. We can change the devastation we are still bringing to this planet if, collectively, we have the will to do so.
And I’ll not be climbing any motorway bridges or supergluing myself to the tarmac of London streets until I have done everything in my personal power to make the way I live as planetary friendly as possible.
What is the personal contribution you can make today, or this week or this year? Write and tell me