Step Up

Problem Statement

Worst case scenario: our emissions are cooking the planet.  Every commute and cow fart is melting a polar bear’s back yard just a little more and he’s pissed off but mainly hungry - and they are higher up the food chain than us.  Sea levels are rising and we may lose Scunthorpe.  Scunthorpe!  Whales are gagging on coke bottles and dildos and coral reefs are being boiled, threatening the gap year tourism plans of about 30,000 students per annum.

Best case scenario: global warming is a vast conspiracy dreamt up by Prince Charles and Sir David Attenborough and microplastic is delicious and can improve your love life if eaten as part of a balanced diet.  
But in either scenario, we are a consumption-driven mob of fly-tippers who only have the two gears: hysterical fear or complete nonchalance.  The undeniable reality, backed by science or not, is that it would be good for us to be thoughtful about what we do on a day to day basis and the whether those activities are wasteful or have the potential to negatively impact the environment, animals or indeed other people.

Discounted Activity 1

Standing in central London and being annoying.  The word “demonstration” is used but this annoys me greatly.  Standing around shouting and blocking traffic demonstrates nothing in this context.  Leaving Hyde Park covered in plastic bottles and other litter demonstrates only irony.  There is no planet B.  Why not?  We name the planets when we discover them?  Let’s call one “B”.  But well done, you… helped? 

Discounted Activity 2

Writing a message like “Do we really need this packaging?!?!” on a plastic bag from Tescos and handing it in to them along with a post to social media.  I have huge respect for the awareness that War on Plastic brought - to me personally - but the notion that a supermarket employee will do anything beyond putting that plastic letter in the bin is absurd.  The only boost this provides is that the person who posts to Instagram can then believe they somehow helped and then go home and carry on as before.  Nah.

Proposed Course of Action

The line I’m going to plot through this is, hopefully, one of common sense.  We, my family and I, are going to be mindful of plastic use and wasteful behaviours and seek to curb or refactor those behaviours to provide a material and positive change.  

This is not going to be easy, by any stretch of the imagination, and there are most certainly going to be trade offs.  And, if I am doing it right, the changes to my life will really piss me off.  This is not an exercise in glib, righteous prancing in hemp trousers and judging people for not driving a Prius - this is happening.  It’s on.