Wet doorsteps
The world outside our windows, both front and back, is orange. It is wonderful and it is breathtaking and it will last for only a week or so before the black branches of winter shape our views.
Perhaps it is because we are bathed in a golden light that somehow the household seems at peace with itself. G. even said as much yesterday when the kids were settled upstairs.
“Since you’ve come back from France I feel as though there’s a certain peace in the house.”
And then today he came into the kitchen having dropped the kids off at school saying,
“Isn’t it a wonderful day today. The colours outside are magnificent. K.M and L. sang all the way to school and J. and I had a great chat. Did you know, by the way, that they are saying it’s the warmest autumn on record and that the warmest one before that was last autumn.”
Personally, I like the trend towards milder autumns even if at the back of mind I am a wee bit concerned about all those melting icebergs swamping our low lying shorelines in say thirty years time. But what can I, on an individual level, do about it? Alright, so we turn off our lights and try and keep the heating down. We don’t use standby – ever , we hang the laundry out to dry in the cellar and since we live in the constrained borders of the middle with not much available space for landfill, we recycle conscientiously (actually we are forced to what with over priced bin bags) but still…we do our bit.
Somehow I get the niggeldy feeling though that “turning the light off” and not using "standby" is, at the end of the day, a bit of a Mickey Mouse measure.
If, as they claim carbon dioxide, is going to choke the earth and slowly cook us alive then I suspect impossible things need to be done. The kind of things no one really wants to do and therefore does nothing about. It goes to the heart of one of the seven gluttonies. Greed. Examples that I can think of that would probably put a break on global warming but for which nothing is being done include:
Banning MacDonald’s from giving away cheap and tacky toys that last as long as the trip home. Imagine the amount of energy that went into i) producing the plastic; ii) moulding the plastic; iii) international travel to approve design; iii) manufacturing the toy; iv) packaging toy; and finally v) transporting toy around the globe. Only for it to fall to pieces five minutes after purchase. The amount of toy wastage shocks me more than leaving a lamp burning in the bedroom. And believe me the VC-G’s are no stranger to toy overdose. In fact with Christmas and St Nicholas just around the corner I’m already getting ready to clear the decks of toys accumulated in 2006 to make way for the new horde of toys about to land on us. Whilst some can be given to charity shops for re-use there is still an enormous amount of “broken bits” and “incomplete puzzles” or “dated” toys where the only option is to bin them.
Limiting the amount of new office blocks being built. I am convinced that in the not too distant future we will simply not need all this office space. Our city council is a big offender. They have a perfectly good, distinguished and beautiful town hall in the middle of town. Yet still, they are building an enormous new town hall for more “spacious” offices next to the station. Why? Concrete, I gather, is one of the worst producers of greenhouse gases. I can imagine it. Try mixing the amount of quantities needed to build “spacious”, fifteen storied offices, by hand or by horse or by ox. It would take probably three times as long. But, hey with oil to burn who needs hands, hooves or ropes. Down by the station the great grey bones of a soon to be completed office block is already hovering over the skyline where only two months ago there was open space.The old town hall took over a hundred years to build; has been in constant use for almost four hundred years; has miraculously survived numerous attempts to bomb it out of existence and is perfectly fine.
Prohibiting the use of diesel-fired machines to blow autumn leaves into a pile. Why waste fuel on this? Although I admit that mixing concrete by hand is a tough challenge brushing up leaves is not. Again by comparison my single lamp burning on the landing seems like a very mild offender when compared to these combustion machines that look like outdated lawn mowers attached to a shoulder.
Closing down parts of public buildings. Such as huge 1970’s faculty libraries. The one opposite us is eight stories high, looks empty most of the day yet is heated to full capacity throughout the winter. Most students use the internet and do not sit in the library to study. The few that do could all be congregated on the first floor, leaving the remaining seven floors unheated.
Everywhere, it is evident to everyone, that there are ways in which to stop the world from overheating and yet everywhere, everyone kids themselves into thinking that “turning off the lights” will help save the planet.
And come to think about it - G. and I are hardly environmental saints. We bought our house because we were seduced by the charm of the high ceilings; we have churned out our fair share of concrete for renovation projects; of course we are going to put in a second bathroom as soon as we have saved enough money; we use a hoover instead of a dustpan and personally I (though not G.) am prone to buying cheap IKEA bits and bobs that I probably won't use for the rest of my life. Conclusion: plus ca change. So I guess we'll just have sit back, continue producing, consuming and wasting until the water levels reach our front door and deal with it then.
In the meantime I am enjoying our glowing autumn and mild temperatures…and seemingly so is the rest of the family.
Perhaps it is because we are bathed in a golden light that somehow the household seems at peace with itself. G. even said as much yesterday when the kids were settled upstairs.
“Since you’ve come back from France I feel as though there’s a certain peace in the house.”
And then today he came into the kitchen having dropped the kids off at school saying,
“Isn’t it a wonderful day today. The colours outside are magnificent. K.M and L. sang all the way to school and J. and I had a great chat. Did you know, by the way, that they are saying it’s the warmest autumn on record and that the warmest one before that was last autumn.”
Personally, I like the trend towards milder autumns even if at the back of mind I am a wee bit concerned about all those melting icebergs swamping our low lying shorelines in say thirty years time. But what can I, on an individual level, do about it? Alright, so we turn off our lights and try and keep the heating down. We don’t use standby – ever , we hang the laundry out to dry in the cellar and since we live in the constrained borders of the middle with not much available space for landfill, we recycle conscientiously (actually we are forced to what with over priced bin bags) but still…we do our bit.
Somehow I get the niggeldy feeling though that “turning the light off” and not using "standby" is, at the end of the day, a bit of a Mickey Mouse measure.
If, as they claim carbon dioxide, is going to choke the earth and slowly cook us alive then I suspect impossible things need to be done. The kind of things no one really wants to do and therefore does nothing about. It goes to the heart of one of the seven gluttonies. Greed. Examples that I can think of that would probably put a break on global warming but for which nothing is being done include:
Banning MacDonald’s from giving away cheap and tacky toys that last as long as the trip home. Imagine the amount of energy that went into i) producing the plastic; ii) moulding the plastic; iii) international travel to approve design; iii) manufacturing the toy; iv) packaging toy; and finally v) transporting toy around the globe. Only for it to fall to pieces five minutes after purchase. The amount of toy wastage shocks me more than leaving a lamp burning in the bedroom. And believe me the VC-G’s are no stranger to toy overdose. In fact with Christmas and St Nicholas just around the corner I’m already getting ready to clear the decks of toys accumulated in 2006 to make way for the new horde of toys about to land on us. Whilst some can be given to charity shops for re-use there is still an enormous amount of “broken bits” and “incomplete puzzles” or “dated” toys where the only option is to bin them.
Limiting the amount of new office blocks being built. I am convinced that in the not too distant future we will simply not need all this office space. Our city council is a big offender. They have a perfectly good, distinguished and beautiful town hall in the middle of town. Yet still, they are building an enormous new town hall for more “spacious” offices next to the station. Why? Concrete, I gather, is one of the worst producers of greenhouse gases. I can imagine it. Try mixing the amount of quantities needed to build “spacious”, fifteen storied offices, by hand or by horse or by ox. It would take probably three times as long. But, hey with oil to burn who needs hands, hooves or ropes. Down by the station the great grey bones of a soon to be completed office block is already hovering over the skyline where only two months ago there was open space.The old town hall took over a hundred years to build; has been in constant use for almost four hundred years; has miraculously survived numerous attempts to bomb it out of existence and is perfectly fine.
Prohibiting the use of diesel-fired machines to blow autumn leaves into a pile. Why waste fuel on this? Although I admit that mixing concrete by hand is a tough challenge brushing up leaves is not. Again by comparison my single lamp burning on the landing seems like a very mild offender when compared to these combustion machines that look like outdated lawn mowers attached to a shoulder.
Closing down parts of public buildings. Such as huge 1970’s faculty libraries. The one opposite us is eight stories high, looks empty most of the day yet is heated to full capacity throughout the winter. Most students use the internet and do not sit in the library to study. The few that do could all be congregated on the first floor, leaving the remaining seven floors unheated.
Everywhere, it is evident to everyone, that there are ways in which to stop the world from overheating and yet everywhere, everyone kids themselves into thinking that “turning off the lights” will help save the planet.
And come to think about it - G. and I are hardly environmental saints. We bought our house because we were seduced by the charm of the high ceilings; we have churned out our fair share of concrete for renovation projects; of course we are going to put in a second bathroom as soon as we have saved enough money; we use a hoover instead of a dustpan and personally I (though not G.) am prone to buying cheap IKEA bits and bobs that I probably won't use for the rest of my life. Conclusion: plus ca change. So I guess we'll just have sit back, continue producing, consuming and wasting until the water levels reach our front door and deal with it then.
In the meantime I am enjoying our glowing autumn and mild temperatures…and seemingly so is the rest of the family.
posted by Kathleen at 4:03 AM
1 comments
