Living an island, the majority of my life, it’s no surprise to say how thing have visibly changed from my youth to where see things today and while it is certainly cliche to say “things were different back in my day” it is inevitable.
I expect everyone, no doubt will also say the same at some point in your life and while its always nostalgic to look back on what may be considered better days, in no uncertain terms it should not thought that the future will be any less full of excitement; new people and places and as such a place to look forward to, rather than reflecting on and being stuck in the past.
While this excerpt is not intended to bring up specific memories of youth, but recent extreme weather and global events have really made me think more about the environment we live in as I did when I was younger. The weather, for example, has been so extreme, in recent years that such uncertainty about the world was not on my immediate radar.
I’ve never been an eco-warrior and I have had my share of contribution to the world’s carbon footprint. That said, I always try to find ways of reducing waste domestically and throughout my work life wherever I’m employed. Being only human though, complacency does tend to creep in and its easy to end up wasting money on throw away items, disregarding what the impact to the environment maybe.
I guess, where I’m going with this is I want to highlight things I would never have expected to happen as a kid, currently happening now and emphasise really how alarming it is without ramming opinion and rant down people’s throats.
Thinking back, I was 12 years old when I heard of Friends of the Earth, (FOTE) a less extreme organisation that Greenpeace – notorious for putting themselves in the firing line for the sake of the environment. I don’t condemn for what they do Greenpeace, they absolutely have the best interests of the environment at heart and sometimes the way to get publicity is to be extreme. However, it can be questionable as to what extent one should go putting themselves and others in potential risk.
I digress. 12 years old… I was signed up by our neighbours to join FOTE who bombarded me with pamphlets and information on the environment mainly reducing greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane for example: Greenhouse gases for those who don’t know act like a layer of insulation which keeps the earth’s heat in, which would normally escape through the atmosphere. This in turn reflects the heat back to the earth an ultimately raises the overall temperature of the planet. As a side note, FOTE highlighted the deforestation of the Amazonian Rainforests. These rainforests are known to be the ‘lungs’ of the planet whereby they convert the carbon dioxide we breathe out ack into oxygen therefore replacing the greenhouse gas wit the friendly alternative. As a side note, the deforestation was generally done by big businesses wanting to breed and rear cattle and livestock for the meat industry, to which of course methane is also a biproduct, so not only are they taking away the ability to convert greenhouse gases, the cattle industry contributes further in increasing these harmful gases.
FOTE gave awareness about Chlorofluorocarbon gases (CFCs) at the time, found in refrigerator unit and as propellants for aerosols such as deodorants, hairsprays and such and drove a campaign to purchase products with alternative ‘ozone friendly’ gases. CFCs are responsible for ‘eating away’ the protective ozone layer which reflects the Sun’s harmful radiation. CFCs are known to have contributed to a hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic.
They were also keen back then at trying to reduce the energy used by households so power plants were in less demand and promoted things like only using the kettle with the right amount of water needed, turning off the lights when not in the rooms etc. Things we bang on about today, but we seem to be doing this for reasons to reduce our outgoing bills rather than the thought considered for the environment.
I feel I have ranted, but there is good reason.
Aside from the child eco-warrior we see each time a news story comes on about the climate, another story really shocked me earlier this year with regards to the world’s glaciers and in particular Switzerland’s glaciers who not only have melted by half are indeed melting faster than ever.
You can find dome of the news reports:
Swiss glaciers see worst melt on record in back-to-back heat waves | CNN
Switzerland’s vanishing glaciers threaten Europe’s water supply – BBC News
I have been fortunate to be up close many years back to the Tsanfleron glacier in Switzerland near the ski resort of Diablerets and found it awe-inspiring to see its enormity. However, according to a recent report, the glacier which has been documented since Roman times is likely to completely melt within the next few months maybe weeks. Something which has been around for centuries now looks like it may disappear forever, and global warming is clearly the contributing factor. Dry winters and higher than average hot summers are leading to its accerlated rate.
Glaciers are incredible up close and you may think, well it’s just a glacier. A lump of ice between mountains, never seen one, never will etc. Perhaps even up close, one could think on how boring it is…hardly moves, pretty cold, doesn’t really serve a purpose. I get it but, the point is; if the glaciers are melting faster than ever and accelerating it doesn’t bode well for the ice caps and other frozen water storage elsewhere on the planet and ultimately while it may not be something e see in our lifetimes, it will knock on to our kids. Not only will they no longer see such magnificent wonders, they may have to be housed in areas where the rising waters can’t yet reach and live in an even more crowded world.
But it’s not all doom and gloom! It isn’t yet too late. We are a huge society and no one person alone can fix the worlds issues but if everyone had a slightly more positive spin on how they can reduce their carbon footprint, even slightly, the combined effort will contribute something which we can build hope on.
I look back to how I strived to save resource as a kid. Now I am on the lookout for ways to reduce my fuel usage in my car by car sharing where possible, become more economical by emptying the car of unnecessary heavy items to improve fuel economy and using it less by only using it when necessary.
Recently, I have really started to be more considerate to power use in the home. Only keeping lights on when necessary and not throughout he house, keeping one room heating on when required should it become less bearable with the added layers of jumpers etc. I have switched all lighting to LED which while expensive in the short term pays dividends over time.
As suggested in the beginning – there’s no expectation to do anything from reading this post other than to consider what effect we are continuing to have on the environment and what things our kids and future generations could be missing out on. It not for the sake of the immediate to long term affect in the environment – consider what affect you could have on the impact to your wallet and surely saving the environment as well as a few quick helps us all out in the long term.
Let me know if you’ve been able to save on the pennies and how you did it. I’m always ready to see how I can also cut my bills even if it saves us a few beers 😉
