Social Services and The Rest - What Do They Know?

No doubt those of you in the UK will have heard about the James Hughes case, the severely disabled man whose body was found in a suitcase in the garden after his mother hanged herself. Once again a finger is being pointed at social services for not noticing that he’d lost huge amounts of weight, and at his GP for not having seen him for three years.

Well let me tell you something. Paul, my 30 year old son, also has profound learning difficulties (as did James) and in the eleven years we’ve been living in this country, social services have seen him once! Yes, that’s right, once! ONE TIME IN ELLEVEN YEARS! And that wasn’t in this town but while we were living in Manchester. And what’s more, they weren’t particularly interested in him either. I was told there was no work available for him and no respite care other than a weekend in a house shared with drug addicts. Yepp… that’s the God’s honest truth!

During the seven years we’ve lived here, they haven’t seen him at all. NOT ONCE!! They know of him, but they haven’t bothered to visit him, enquire about him, or anything else. For all they know, Paul could be dead and they wouldn’t even notice!

His GP has seen him maybe twice during those seven years and certainly not for the past three years. For all he knows, Paul could be dead.

A few years ago he had an appointment with the hospital that I cancelled. Nobody asked why and when I said he didn’t need a new appointment that was accepted without question. Paul could be dead.

Paul receives disability living allowance but nobody has asked to see him since he was first awarded the benefit. It just goes into the bank but Paul could be dead.

The neighbours haven’t seen him for a couple of years - not since he came home from my Mum’s two summers ago to come on holiday with us. Nobody has asked about him. He could be dead.

The point I’m trying to make is that anything could happen to Paul and nobody would notice. It’s just assumed that all is well. But how do they know that? How do they know that taking care of Paul didn’t become too much for me and that one day I snapped and…. well…. did the unthinkable?

I can assure you that Paul is very much alive and well and still helping my mum care for my dad but you really only have my word for that. Some of you will know it’s the truth because you know me personally and have seen Paul, but most of you don’t. I could be covering up something sinister, couldn’t I? How would you know? How would anybody know when nobody follows him up? I don't even have a recent photo of him to post here to prove he's alive and well (he is though, honestly. I'd hate to think you really think I might have... !)

Paul is just one of hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people in this country and I’m sure he’s not the only one who hasn’t been followed up properly. Who knows what might be going on behind closed doors? It’s hard being the parent of a disabled child and it doesn’t get easier when they become adults - sometimes a person’s patience can only stretch so far and when they’re not getting help….

It’s a scary situation.

Once Paul comes home for good I shall contact social services and ask why he hasn’t been assessed regularly. I wonder what they’ll say.

Sharon J xx

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Throw Away Food

My daughter used to work at a petrol garage but as it was recently bought up by Tesco, she’s had to go work in one of their Express shops while the garage is knocked down and rebuilt to suit Tesco’s needs. What she has told me about the amount of food that goes to waste there EVERY DAY is appalling.

It’s not as if I didn’t know it happened - I’ve heard all about Freegans and their dumpster diving - but to hear about it straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, kind of brings it home just that little bit more.

Tesco Express shops are small. Anybody who’s ever been in one will know that you couldn’t possibly do your weekly shop there; they’re more like a chain of what was once independently run corner shops only a bit bigger. And yet still they fill at least one, often two large skip sized containers EVERY DAY with food that can’t be sold. Food that’s perfectly ok for human consumption and that could be donated to soup kitchens, refuge centres, hostels and the likes. But no, it’s thrown away. It ends up on the landfill to rot away.

What one of the commenters on my post about Home Baked Bread said something about supermarket bread being more environmentally friendly than that which we bake at home but just how environmentally friendly it is to throw away a large number of loaves, rolls, cakes and the likes every day is highly debatable. Personally, I can’t see how it can be more sound than baking your own because not only are the products ending up on the landfill, the wrappings are too!

Why on earth do they produce so much when they know that so much is going to go to waste every day? Wouldn’t it be better if the shop was simply allowed to run out? I mean, that’s what used to happen when I was a kid. If you went to get your bread too late and they didn’t have any, tough luck. Nowadays we want everything available 24/7 though, but at what price?

I remember when me and my kids had barely a crumb to eat and how grateful I would have been for just a small amount of the food one Tesco store throws away! But it won't change while people keep shopping there. The power ultimately lies with us, but we rarely use it.

Sharon J

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Image Credit: Danny McL

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The Porch Door And Energy Saved

About 18 months ago I had new doors fitted in the living room. One leads to the kitchen, the other to the front porch. They’re pine doors but because they’re extra wide, they had to be ordered and cost a good deal more than their slim counterparts (rather like clothes for the fuller figure costing more than those for skinny chicks - a problem I had for years!).

Anyway, the door to the porch has never been right. To start with it closed but was clearly warped. The guy who fitted it assured me it would go back once it settled though and I believed him. It didn’t. It got worse. It got so bad that the door wouldn’t even shut anymore. And what’s more, he hadn’t even used the right number of screws in the hinges. Talk about cowboy!

With my gas bill going through the roof, the knowledge that using up resources unnecessarily and me being a proper little frozen fish finger who shivers at the slightest draught, I knew that I had to have something done about it. Cold air was coming in and warm air was going out and that just ain’t good. I lived through last winter like it but I certainly didn’t want to live through another with all that heat being wasted. It would be waste of both money and resources, not to mention how much it hurts me to freeze!

Enter Kyle.

During dinner on Tuesday I mentioned the door and how something needed to be done about it. Actually, I more than mentioned it. Fed up with the draught that was blowing through and after trying unsuccessfully to shut it (I always try even though I know it’s a no go) I kicked the damn thing and called it a few unsavoury names. Kyle, my daughter’s ‘gentleman friend’, decided at that point that he was going to fix it. And fix it he did.

As soon as dinner was over, he had the toolbox out, the door off and was fixing the dodgy hinges. Then he started chiselling away at the door itself, determined that no matter what, that door was gonna shut!

The result isn’t particularly pretty. There’s are bits missing along the lower side edge where he’s had to chisel them away (I don’t have a plane) but it shuts and that’s what matters. And it saved me a lot of money buying a new one and having somebody fit it, and what’s more, the wood will be used for a good few years more before it eventually becomes firewood.

Things don’t have to be perfect to be good. The door has character now and it does the job it was intended to do. All is well :)

Sharon J

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Saving The Rainforest

Every day I go on Facebook. Yes, I know some of you probably think that’s a pretty lame thing to do but there’s a reason that doesn’t include throwing food at friends or sending them virtual gifts that mean nothing (although when I first started using it a year or so ago, I did do those things, admittedly).

The reason I use Facebook regularly now is because there are two applications that I feel I need to use as often as I can: (lil) Green Patch and (lil) Blue Cove.

Basically, you grow a garden or look after a fish tank type thing (or both). Every time you send a plant or fish to a friend and they accept, a little bit of rainforest is saved. To buy plants and fish you need green bucks but you get 50 of those just for logging in every day (100 if you log into both applications) and there are various other ways of gathering bucks too. I won’t go into all the details here as it’s all explained in the FAQ attached to the application.

So far I’ve saved 29sqft of rainforest and I haven’t been using it that long. In fact, LM, who’s only been using it for a week or two, has already saved 15sqft. Some people have saved hundreds of square feet though so I've a way to go yet.

How? Well there are sponsors who put money into saving the rainforest for every square foot that Facebook users ‘save’. Again, that’s all explained when you look at the application.

If you want to save some rainforest and have a bit of fun while doing it, why not join? If you’re already a member of Facebook then adding either or both of the applications is simple. Just do a search for either Green Patch or Blue Cove for more information about them. If you’re not a member, signing up is dead easy. All you need to do then is find your friends, add them, add one or both of the applications and if they have one too you can start sending them plants and fish.

If you already have either or both of the applications but need more people to swap with (or if you decide to add them), feel free to email me at dioritt @ yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk and let me know. I won’t mind adding you :)

Sharon J

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Image Credit: Steve Lacy

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Twelve Ways to Stay Warm This Winter That Won't Cost A Fortune

Image: nortinirt

Brr... it's starting to get chilly.

If you're anything like me, you'll be looking for ways to stay warm this winter without increasing those ever rising fuel bills or wasting unnecessary resources. If that's the case, you might be interested in these tips for eco-friendly, cheap ways to ward off the cold.

1. Don’t let drawn curtains hang in front of radiators. If yours do, either shorten them or tuck them behind it.
   
   
2. If you have water fired radiators, consider fitting Radiator Boosters. They work by sucking air up and blasting it into the room eliminating the loss of heat through walls. I have a sofa in front of my main living room radiator but since fitting the booster, the warmth in the room has increased dramatically. Fitting aluminium foil behind radiators (shiny side towards the radiator) will also help reflect heat back into the room rather than straight through the wall.
   
   
3. Buy or make draught excluders to keep the cold from creeping in under your doors (and the heat from creeping out).
   
   
4. Don’t worry about becoming a size zero (or anything even close). Humans were designed to have a layer of fat on their bodies because it both bolsters us against bumps, protecting our bones, and insulates against the cold. Believe me, when I became positively skeletal (through no choice of my own, I hasten to add) I felt the cold far more than when I have a decent fat layer around me. Of course, being obese isn’t good for you either so try to strike a balance.
   
   
5. Have a bowl of soup. If you’re feeling peckish, heat up a bowl of soup instead of grabbing the biscuit barrel. It’ll warm the cockles of your heart.
   
   
6. Get physical. As long as your using energy you’ll feel warmer so get up off your bum and do some housework, dance or play chase with the kids instead. Of course, there is another way of getting physical which leads me to my next point...
   
   
7. Have a cuddle. That way you’ll be sharing your body heat with somebody else and you’ll feel so much warmer for it.
   
   
8. When you sit still, pull a blanket around you or slip on an extra woolie. You might even consider taking up knitting and making them yourself.
   
   
9. Wear a beanie. Yes, I know you might think that’s gonna feel pretty strange indoors but as 20-40% of body heat is lost through the head, it really will help you stay warm and it doesn’t have to be chunky. If possible, choose one made from lightweight wool rather than man-made fibres because not only will they keep you warmer, they’re more environmentally friendly too.
   
   
10. Dress in layers. Animals that live in cold environments generally have two layers to their fur so take a tip from nature - several thin layers of clothing insulate far better than one thick one. Again, natural fibres are better than man-made alternatives.
    
    
11. Wear socks or slippers. If your feet are cold, you’ll feel cold all over. If you can knit, try making some home-knitted socks out of wool sock yarn as they keep your feet lovely and toastie. If not, buy yourself some comfy slippers and wear cotton socks (acrylic doesn't keep you warm as it retains the moisture between your skin and the fabric whereas cotton breathes).
    
    
12. Don’t sweat. If you find yourself sweating, take off some clothes or take a rest because sweating will ultimately make you feel cold. Pace yourself and layer your clothing according to your activities instead.
    

Having lived in Norway – a country where winter's so cold that my duvet once froze to the wall – I do know a thing or two about keeping warm. My trouble is, since coming back to the UK, I haven’t been too good at taking my own advice. That’s going to change this winter, though. I’m on an energy and money saving drive so anything that’ll help use less while I stay warm gets a big tick in my book.

Sharon J

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Bottle & Can Deposit Schemes

Image: Chris_J

A lot of countries in Europe (and probably elsewhere for all I know) have a deposit scheme in place when it comes to plastic and glass bottles and aluminium cans. You pay a couple of pence extra on top of the normal price but when you take them back to the bottle and can banks you get that money back.

I first moved to Norway in 1980 where the system was already in place. Every large supermarket had an automated collection system that issued a payment slip that could either be exchange at the check out as payment for part of your shopping or as cash and the smaller supermarkets and grocery stores had manual systems. It worked. Far fewer bottles and cans are found littering the streets and countryside there (although that could also have something to do with a difference in mentality too) and they few that do get thrown away are foraged by those looking to earn themselves a few bob extra. Kids especially can generally be seen hunting through the litter bins at zoos, outdoor swimming pools, lakes, picnic areas and the likes, looking for discarded bottles and cans that they can get a themselves a bit of extra pocket money from. Sounds gross I guess but there isn’t usually any dangerous litter in the bins in those places.

When I was a kid we had a deposit system on glass bottles (I can’t remember plastic bottles being used at all then and cans still weren’t anywhere near as commonplace as they are now). I’m not sure when that disappeared but I imagine it was when plastic bottles and cans took over. But why not bring the deposit system back? Surely that would increase the number of bottles and cans that are recycled which in turn would lower the cost of production and, obviously, leave less of a footprint on the planet.

It seems odd to me that the UK - a place that likes to think of itself as one of the world leaders - isn’t doing something that simple.

Sharon J

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Getting Rid of Electrical Equipment

Image: rwfuend

I’ve noticed a trend on Freecycle recently: more people are offering electric gadgets.

It seems to me that this can only mean one thing, that an increasing number of members are opening their eyes to the amount of energy these gadgets use and that they can actually live perfectly well without them. Of course, I don’t know how many takers there have been as only a handful ever post ‘taken’ messages; it could be that these energy using gadgets are simply changing hands and will continue to suck up electricity unnecessarily but whole it isn’t good that they end up on the landfill either, I’m kind of hoping that a lot of them are being ignored.

During the past few days there have been:

An electric coffee grinder
A smoothie maker
An espresso maker
An electric warm plate
Hair straighteners
An electric blanket
A toaster
A trouser press


Of the above I have to admit to having a toaster and LM has hair straighteners. I can kind of understand why she’d want the hair straighteners - at 19 it’s important that you look the part and even though she’s my daughter, I have to say she looks beautiful when her shiny dark hair is perfectly straight. Mind you, whereas she used to use them every day, she only uses them when she’s dressing up now, otherwise the hair tends to go up in a pony tail. As for the toaster, I’d get rid of it tomorrow and use the grill - it’s just a waste of space as far as I’m concerned - but LM insists on keeping it because it’s quick and I guess she doesn’t have much time to make breakfast when she’s on a 7am start.

Sharon J

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More Heat in Winter for Just 50p a Year?

With the dark evenings starting to draw in now and Autumn in the air, I've started thinking about getting my house ready for winter. One product I've recently stumbled across is a Radiator Booster. It seems to me like a really clever, eco-friendly product, and as such I just had to let you all know about it.

Apparently it’s a ‘Dragon’s Den’ product that’s designed to circulate warm air from water fired rads making them up to 50% more efficient whilst also reducing warm up times. It plugs into the mains but is said to cost an average of just 50p a year to run, which is dead cheap. Ok, so you have an initial outlay of £14.99 per booster but if it helps heat up your home more efficiently, it'll not only pay for itself relatively quickly but by eliminating cold spots, which it supposedly does, it'll help make life more comfortable too. If it works, I'm all for it.

It works by blasting warm air that would usually disappear into walls out of the sides of the rads instead. Sounds excellent, don’t ya fink?

It just sits on top of your rads, doing it’s thing and is such a simple idea that you can only wonder why nobody ever thought of it before. But you know how it is, the simple ideas are usually the best.

I haven’t bought one yet but I’ll definitely be ordering one this month before the cold really starts to set in again. If it works as well as it I'm hoping it will, I'll get more.

Sharon J

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This Green and Fertile Land

Image: WouterKvG

A friend’s neighbour recently gave his garden a bit of a revamp, like you do from time to time. The new design has now left the garden mostly covered in slate chippings where there was once lawn and while I personally preferred it how it was, I can understand his choice. Lawns demand water, fertilizer and a lot of TLC if they’re to look half decent, whereas the slated area is very low-maintenance. There was one thing I had a problem with though; he removed and DUMPED a lot of top soil.

Good soil is actually a precious commodity. This beautiful planet of ours is actually losing fertile soil at a rate of somewhere between 10 and 20 times faster than its able to replenish itself. Think about that. For every square meter of top soil we dig over, up to 20 square meters are disappearing somewhere in the world - soil that is vital for the production of food. And then some people go and dump it amongst hardcore and other stuff where it won’t be of much use to us at all.

Soil takes a long time to develop into the kind of stuff that plants like to grow in. Weeds and other less fussy plants, insects and worms all need to do their bit by living in or near the soil, dying and then rotting down in it before the nutrients can develop enough for most food plants, whether food for us humans or for the wildlife share the planet with. And we’re not just talking ten, twenty or even a hundred years here - we talking tens of thousands of years just to make about 6 inches of good topsoil.

During the time it takes to develop decent soil, a lot gets washed away and the sun’s parching effect depletes it of nutrients, slowing down the process. In some parts of the world, soil just doesn’t get the chance to develop and although there’s plenty of unused ground around, it just isn’t able to support plant life.

Apparently, soil has been disappearing at an increased rate during the past 50 years, and there are no signs of it slowing down. This isn’t just through natural causes either - man has left his mark through hundreds of years of poor soil management and now we’re paying the price.

Greed has been the cause of much of the problem. We wanted as much as possible from as little as possible so mono-culture became ‘the thing’. Year after year, the same crops were planted on the same land - cotton, corn, tea, opium poppies, potatoes, etc - while we sat back and enjoyed the profits of the bounty. When the ground became so depleted that it no longer produced a decent yield, we simply moved on to other areas leaving the barren wasteland behind us and did the same thing all over again. What’s more - it’s still happening, only now we’re running out of ‘new areas’ to cultivate. Corn, especially, is still being mono-cultivated in order to produce animal feed and fuel (ethanol).

And then some people go and dump top soil!

It’s all very well and good to say “we don’t have a problem here - what’s the difference whether it’s under my lawn or on the landfill?” but the WORLD has a problem. If we don’t stop abusing our resources we WILL have a food crisis, and I don’t just mean food costing a few pence more in the shops either! There are enough starving people in this world as it is, mostly thanks to the greed of the prosperous, and without enough fertile land to support food production, the problem will only increase.

Sure, we can say “bung fertilizer on it”, but that’s too easy an answer. Natural fertilizers won’t be plentiful enough to improve the amount of soil we’d need and we just don’t know enough about the long-term use of chemical fertilizers (by long-term I mean longer than we’re able to test them for). What we do know is that the Mexican Gulf already has a ‘dead zone’ thanks to fertilizers being washed into it and anyway, chemical fertilizer’s made from natural gas, and that’s not going to last forever either.

My garden is full of clay and ‘builder’s rubble’, making it incredibly difficult to cultivate. I’d love to plant fruit and vegetables and lots of pretty, nectar rich flowers but to get it into the condition it’d need to be in first would mean far too much work for me. And top soil’s expensive.

I felt like crying when my friends told me about the ‘soil dumping’ episode. If only he'd 'chucked it' my way instead but I can only assume that he didn't know better.

Sharon J

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Other posts that may be of interest:

• Boiling Frogs
• I’ll Have Mine Medium Rare - Sod The Greenhouse Gases
• Would You Miss The Buzz?
• Plenty More Fish In The Sea?
• Houseplants & Clean Air

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BBQs - An Eco Friendly Way of Preparing Food?

Image: FredArmitage

Now that we’ve actually been able to enjoy some real summer weather, people all over the country have been flocking to the shops to buy stuff for their barbeque. Meat, salads, charcoal, fire lighters, dousing liquids, throw-away one-time-use barbeques and more. A year ago I would have been amongst them and wouldn’t have given a thought to the environmental impact.

I love a good barbie as much as the next person, especially as I spent so long in a country where BBQ-ing is almost a summer sport, but this time I’ve stopped and given some thought to what I’m doing (it's amazing how often I've done that since starting to train my brain to actually think first!).

For one, I don’t have an outdoor grill and as I can’t afford a decent one at the moment, I thought I’d just buy a couple of throw-away ones so that we could at least have a taste of outdoor cooking this year. But hold on…. Stop there, Sharon! Throw-away? You don’t do ‘throw away’ anymore! Forget that one. Right, off I went in search of a cheap ‘proper’ grill. I found one for around 12 quid but on closer inspection of the box, discovered that it was made somewhere in Asia. Hmm… loads of carbon miles and no doubt made available to us through exploitating cheap labour. No thanks, I'll just put that one back. Further perusal of the aisles of several shops turned up one that was produced in Germany and selling at around £50 but that, I’m afraid, was well outside of my budget. Oh well… I’ll just have to wait until next year. I'll survive.

It doesn’t stop there though. While browsing the many barbeques on offer, I wondered why so many people are still buying the gas fired types. Haven’t they read the newspapers? Don’t they know that gas isn’t going to last forever and that a charcoal grill has to be a better alternative? Or is it, I wondered.

Apparently, using charcoal isn’t as great as it sounds either, because a whopping 97 percent of the grilling charcoal consumed in Britain comes from NON-sustainable forests, a lot of which is from our rain forests and is contributing to the deforestation problem. Not good. Not good at all.

On top of that, briquettes, which are the most popular form of grilling charcoal, are often doused in petroleum solvents. I know that probably won’t make a humungous difference to the oil problem but it certainly isn’t good for us to be breathing in the fumes. When I think back at how many times I’ve sat coughing because of the smoke I’ve breathed in, smoke that tastes of petrol! Not only is it bad for our respiratory system, it also irritates the eyes and can apparently cause some long term damage to them. And if the briquettes aren’t ready doused, people buy petroleum based firelighters or squirt lighter fluid all over them instead.

So what’s a girl to do? Am I doomed to never enjoy a BBQ again?

The best solution, it seems, is to buy a grill that’s been manufactured in a country as close to the UK as possible and then use only British charcoal that’s made from properly managed native woodland doused in as little lighter fluid as possible. Eco charcoal may well cost a bit more than the cheap and nasty stuff, but frugality and simplicity aren’t about cutting costs at all costs, they’re about cutting costs where we can and should. This is one area where we shouldn’t.

Eco-charcoal’s available at Tesco, Sainsbury’s, B&Q and some Co-Op stores. You may well find it elsewhere and there may be some branches of the above that don’t carry it, but at least that gives you something to be working on.

Next year I shall have my BBQ ready in spring because it’s going to be a beautiful summer. I can feel it in my water. Please don’t disillusion me… dreams are important :)

Sharon J

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If Paper Waste Were a Person, Mine Would Be Obese

Image: Wim

I really must stop being so fastidious about perfect hand-written copy.

If I make a list and the margin’s too wonky, I tear it up and start again.

If I copy down a recipe and the page doesn’t tear neatly from the pad, I tear it up and start again.

If I jot down notes, I’ll re-write them ‘tidily’ before I file them.

I can’t re-use the paper because I hate writing on something that’s already been written on. And all those loose pages just seem like clutter to me.

And woe betide if I make a spelling mistake!

I guess it’s the autism in me kicking in. They say we all have it to some degree. It all seems a bit OCD-ish to me and it actually gets on my nerves. I get fed-up rewriting stuff.

What’s more, I actually think a folder full of quickly jotted down recipes on the back of an old envelope and the likes is far more interesting to look through than one where every page is neatly written on the same size paper and with the same style of heading, etc. How totally lacking in personality!

I really want to try changing this. I think about the trees that have been chopped down just to satisfy my need to bin page after page of writing paper. I think about how I could be spending that time doing something either more productive or more enjoyable. Sometimes I could read a whole chapter of a book in the time it takes me to write out a recipe!

Once my daughter leaves in September, I’ll be able to take over her printer, which will definitely save paper and hopefully some time, although I do tend to re-arrange the page a few times before I’m happy with it. But what do I do in the meantime? Keep nagging her to print stuff out for me (every shopping list, to-do list, reminder list, menu plan, etc etc) or do I bite the bullet and try to accept imperfection?

If I can accept it in other areas of my life, surely it can’t be too difficult to adjust this one little bit of my life?

I’m gonna give it a try.

Sharon J

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Switching To Renewable Energy Is Soooo Easy

Image by lant_70

Yesterday I decided to do something about switching my electricity supplier. I’d already decided to keep the prepayment meter because while I’m still struggling to pay off my debts, I’d rather not receive any more surprise bills and with the cost or energy rising quickly these days, that could well happen. It would have been nice if I’d been able to save a bit by switching too but my main concern was that I wanted to be supplied with green energy – the renewable stuff that comes from the myriad wind farms that have popped up around the country – and not the stuff that British Gas supply me with.

First I went to moneysavingexpert.com to see which of the comparison sites Martin Lewis recommended. I followed the link and landed on Energy Helpline. Now this is an incredibly easy site to use, it shows you exactly how much you can save by switching to any of the companies that supply gas or electricity in your area and you make your application to switch online. Really, believe me... I do not like filling out forms but this one was dead simple.

I chose to switch to The National Trust Green Energy Scheme even though it would actually cost me an estimated £6 per year more at the current rate. Ok, so I’m hard up and trying to save money but it’s important to me that I have green energy and the difference isn't enough to lose sleep over.

Apparently I’ll receive a confirmation letter from nPower (who The National Trust are partnering with on this project) within 14 days and the switch will go live within two months. I thought the process would be quicker than that but ok, I can live with it.

Also, by choosing The National Trust instead of signing up with nPower directly, nPower will donate £15 a year to the trust to invest in low and zero carbon initiatives. I don't see wind farms as the final solution (is anything ever?) but they're what we have now and are better, in my opinion, than the alternatives. If everybody signed up then I doubt there would be enough to go round but it's a useful solution while we look for other ways of producing clean electricity.

If you’ve been thinking of switching suppliers but haven’t got around to it yet, I highly recommend Energy Helpline because it’s so easy and if Martin says it's good, it has to be good :-)

Sharon J

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Plenty More Fish in the Sea?

Photo: f10n4

We’re partial to a portion of fish n’ chips in our house but about a month ago, Richard went off to get what was once our weekly treat only to come home with haddock instead of cod. Cod, he’d been told, had become increasingly difficult to get hold of leading to prices sky rocketing so our local chippie was no longer using it.

What? No more cod and chips? What’s going on?

I had to look into this and what I discovered wasn’t nice.

Our seas have been so badly over-fished that many of the food species that we once took for granted are now struggling to sustain their populations to the point where they’re becoming increasingly scarce.

Apparently, in order for us to continue following the Government’s guidelines regarding eating more fish for health reasons, it’s important we buy only fish that’s caught in a less wasteful manner than has, until now, been the case.

Fishing with nets leads to the loss of way too many young, unusable fish that are already dead by the time they’re thrown back in. It also causes the death of other marine creatures that aren’t used for food but that are important in upholding the balance beneath the waves. In fact, net fishing is considered the biggest and most indiscriminate killer on the planet! Long-line fishing isn’t innocent either.

So what can we do?

It’s suggested that in order to put a stop to this wasteful method of fishing and allow growth in our natural fish supplies we shop only from reputable fish mongers and always ask the questions: “where does this fish come from?” and “how was it caught?”. Better still, learn to fish and catch your own ;-)

Preferably we should choose locally caught fish and rather than sticking with one variety, we should vary our choices to include less popular fish such as Saithe and Pollack while steering well clear of vulnerable species . Take a look at this list from Greenpeace to find out what you should and shouldn’t be buying and why.

photo: yomi955

No more tropical (tiger) prawns for me. With 10kgs of by-catch being killed for every 1kg of prawns caught, the cost is just far too high. Not to mention the human rights issues surrounding these prawns. According to the Greenpeace list, violence and intimidation is part of the picture. Even farmed prawns are far from innocent. Nope... just give me some plain old fresh local prawns, please. Fresh because the frozen ones are often shipped to Asia first for peeling and freezing and then shipped back again. That's some carbon footprint just for a few prawns!

It’s all really quite shocking, don't ya fink?

Sharon J xx

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Rising Prices

Photo: Iocto

I’ve had enough!

I’m sick of hearing people whinge about the rising cost of fuel, food and a variety of other products and then laying the blame on the government, expecting them to do something. As much as some like to believe it, the truth is, in this case anyway, the government do not have us by the bollocks.

In fact, more than anybody else, the blame belong with us.

We’ve long been warned that oil supplies won’t last forever yet far too few did anything to curb their usage. Now that we’re close to using peak supplies, we’re fast heading up the creek without the proverbial paddle.

What really gets my goat, though, is that EVEN THOUGH WE’VE BEEN TOLD CLEARLY WHAT THE PROBLEM IS, people are still consuming far too much oil. Just yesterday, as I drove around town doing some necessary errands, I passed several huge 4x4s that guzzle fuel at a horrendous rate. Talk about “sod you, Jack”. While many of us are switching to smaller, more energy efficient cars and driving less, these people are adding to the problem by using more than their fair share. They’re contributing to the coming oil crisis and polluting the atmosphere but they just don’t seem to care. How you can need a car like that in a town like Crewe is beyond me.

Then there was the person who complained about the price of food these days and wondered how on earth she’d ever manage to survive on her meagre income and yet she’ll happily admit that she prefers plastic articles (bowls, buckets, garden pots etc) over more traditional materials because they’re cheap and lightweight. I tried to explain that oil is used in the production of polymers and that the more oil we use the more food and fuel costs will rise, but she wasn’t having any of it. “The government ought to step in and do something about it then”.

And, of course, there are those who simply don’t or won’t ‘get it’. Those who just can’t see how the price of food, that isn’t made from oil, can be affected by this. Do they think that food just magically appears on the supermarket shelves? Or that it’s transported by air fuelled trailers, airplanes etc? Buying local produce and supporting local traders will help more than any amount of whinging.

Surely now is the time for everyone to start realising that this IS a problem and it isn’t going to go away. If the only way to encourage people to use less oil so as to give researchers more time to develop viable alternatives is by increasing the price, then so be it. We have to learn to start tightening the belt and become more self-sufficient because soon, there probably won’t be any choice in the matter. Simple living will be something everybody but the very rich will be forced into.

The trouble is, we humans are generally very ignorant, even to our own needs. Even though we know that our actions are harmful, as long as they’re not actually affecting us too much, we just carry on as usual because that’s the most comfortable way. And then when the roof falls in, we wonder why. It must be somebody else’s fault, though - couldn’t possibly be our own. It’s the government, the oil producing nations, the oil refineries, the Chinese and Indians for wanting their share of oil too… anybody but US.

Of course, other knock on effects of the oil crisis are also affecting us now. Small businesses, from the local grocer to haulage companies, are starting to struggle as prices increase and their chances of competing with the market giants are even further reduced; interest rates are increasing as lenders fear our inability to repay loans; property prices are falling as general spending power decreases and an increasing number of potential buyers fear even higher increases in interest so are keeping their backsides firmly on the fence; the demand for social housing is rising as more and more homeowners realise they can no longer afford their mortgages and associated outgoings; the cost of public transport is increasing; and that’s just the start of things. If we don’t curb our usage on a global basis, things are only going to get worse.

Isn’t it about time we stopped laying the blame at somebody else’s doorstep, expecting them to sort it out and accept that we have responsibilities ourselves?

• Buy British to avoid unnecessary transportation, preferably locally produced goods.
  
• Grow your own food as much as possible.
• Avoid oil based packaging & products (plastic and polystyrene are the main offenders).
• Switch to a smaller, more fuel efficient car and drive less.
• Cook double portions when the oven’s in use.
• Turn the heating down by a couple of degrees.
• Mend and make do.
• Reduce, reuse and recycle.
• Spend within your means to avoid becoming yet another victim of the credit crunch.

It’s no more than 50 years ago that all of the above were the norm. My grandparents grew fruit and veg in their garden (organic and they didn’t even know it), used very little plastic, had no car while my dad, who was from the same generation, always studied fuel efficiency before replacing his car, they were thrifty with the heating, used the cooker sensibly, mended and made do, and had no idea what a credit card was. If they could do it then, surely we can do it now?

Sharon J

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Three Point One Planet Earths

Photo: Woodleywonderworks

I’ve just tried this carbon calculator for kids. It’s easier to use than the adult versions because you don’t need to know exact figures but I suppose, for that reason, it isn’t as accurate either. It does give a pretty good picture of where you stand on doing your bit for the environment though.

What I found interesting - assuming the figures can be trusted - is that if everybody were to live like Brits, we'd need 3.2 earths in order to support the average person’s lifestyle. And despite my efforts, we’d still need 2.2 earths if everybody did the same as I do.

I suppose it shouldn’t really come as a surprise; I’ve known for a long time that we Brits, along with the rest of the industrialised west, are inconsiderate of the needs of the rest of those sharing the planet with us. We want what we consider a decent standard of living while much of the world struggles to find fresh water, adequate clothing and food. Hopping in the car to nip to the supermarket is something much of the world can't even imagine, as is sticking the washing machine on, turning over land to the luxury of growing flowers, etc etc etc.

But, according to the carbon footprint calculator, we’re far from the worse offenders. The average Australian needs 3.6 planet earths but Americans need 5.3!! That I really found shocking. Yes, we all know that the average American jumps in his car at every opportunity and that they have huge fridges but five point three???

Just because we’re not the worse doesn’t mean we can rest on our laurels though. Our German neighbours only need 2.5 so are outdoing us considerably on the green front; the Japanese are slightly lower at 2.4; and Mexicans are at 1.4. Not that any of those figures are good enough - we do only have 1.0 to 'play with', after all.

People in India and China are both below needing one planet but that could be because there’s such a large percentage of poor there, who aren’t contributing much to environmental problems simply because they can’t.

It's clear that if the human race is going to survive on this planet, we must learn to lower our own consumption and start sharing more.

I predict the following:

• Food and fossil fuel prices will sky rocket, forcing us to lower our consumption (what we're experiencing now will be nothing compared to future prices)
• We'll have to start growing more of our own produce whether we like it or not and re-learn to cook from scratch
  
• When we do plant flowers, they'll need to be native species in order to support important insect life
• Meat production will cease and the land used for arable crops instead
• 'Mend and make do' will once again become the norm

Although there are some things I can’t do to reduce my footprint, like walking or even using public transport instead of using the car, and growing my own veg would just be too physical for me, I’ll continue to do as much as I can, and hope that one planet will prove enough for all 6.8 billion of us (and that figure's rising by the second).

Sharon J xx

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Freeganism

Photo: coreyu

Kikimonkey over at Monkey See, Monkey Do recently posted about an Oprah show she’d been watching, where freeganism was highlighted. The post really grabbed my attention, not because I’m a fan of Oprah or intend to become a Freegan but because the philosophy behind the Freegan movement really made me sit and think.

It’s not that I didn’t already know that we’re living in a society fuelled by materialism, greed and a never ending desire to impress our peers but Freegans are really doing what their heart tells them is right. They’ve completely jumped off of the consumer band-wagon to the point where even their food is obtained by rummaging through dumpsters.

Yes, I know that sounds pretty gross and it’s not something I’d do but when you consider that about half of all food in the US is wasted, there’s a lot to be reclaimed. And we’re not talking slops, either. The situation here in the UK is no better.

They also believe that housing should be a right rather than a privilege, that all forms of transport should be eco friendly and that we should stop using animals as production “machines” – all of which I agree with.

I do think they take things a bit too far when they say that we should go back to the way we were intended to live – foraging for food, for example. It just isn’t feasible for everybody to do that. If we all went dumpster diving, who’d produce the products in the first place when there would be nobody to sell them to? And foraging for natural food wouldn’t work either; we’ve already destroyed too much of the planet’s resources for that.

It’s worth taking a look at their website though; it does highlight a lot of important issues that might get you thinking and the links section has some very interesting stuff on it. And even if what’s there is information you already know, there’s value in being reminded.

Sharon J

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The Story of Stuff

Some of you will no doubt already have seen this entertaining and thought provoking film called The Story of Stuff but if you haven’t, nip over there now and take a look. It’ll only take up about 20 minutes of your time but I can practically guarantee that it’ll give you something to think about.

The Story of Stuff

I thought I was reasonably clued up about ‘stuff’, but seeing things presented this way definitely gave me food for thought.

Sharon

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Junk Mail - What a Bloomin' Nuisance!

Photo: YanivG

If you’re anything like me, you’re probably fed up with the amount of unsolicited mail that’s delivered to you every day, and all those take-away leaflets and such that are regularly pushed through the letterbox.

If I want a credit card, I’ll go online and apply for one. If I want insurance I’ll do the same. I don’t want to enter competitions to win luxury holidays in Tahiti or Brazil or buy a set of useless miniature china teapots. I’ve no intention of changing my bank and I don’t need another loan. I have a couple of take-away menus from places I know deliver decent food (decent as in edible, that is), the rest are of no interest to me. They can just go stuff their junk mail, but the place I'm thinking of having them stuff it most certainly isn't through my front door!

As things stand today, stopping all that junk mail from landing on the mat isn’t easy. You need to sign up with the Mail Preference Service which will stop some of the unsolicited post that arrives (sadly, not all), put a sticker or plaque on the door to tell leaflet delivery people that you don’t want their junk and contact Royal Mail to let them know that you don’t want the leaflets that their postmen deliver along with your general mail, either.

In Holland they have a simple system. You sign up with one organisation that takes care of the whole thing. Apparently any company that intends to make an unsolicited mail shot must register with them, whether they’re sending their mail directly or via the postman in the form of leaflets or “to the occupier”. This is then controlled so as those who have opted out of having paper spam pushed at them won’t be bothered by it anymore. They also send every member a sticker to place on their mailbox, making it clear that they don’t want leaflets from private delivery services either, i.e. pizzas, taxis etc.

There’s a campaign at the moment that’s petitioning government to adopt a similar service in the UK. Why not nip over and sign it, and let them know that you’re also fed up with being bombarded with useless information printed on paper made from trees that have been wastefully killed. The shiny ones can’t even be easily recycled!!

You’ll find the petition here: Go Dutch Petition

Here's the link to the Mailing Preference Service, who you really should sign up with and if you want to contact Royal Mail to stop the postman bringing rubbish with him, contact the Door to Door Opt Out Service by email.

Another thing you should be aware of is whether or not you're on the 'full voting register' or the 'edited voting register'. If you're on the edited version, anybody can gain access to your details and businesses often use this for their mail shots. Next time your fill out your electoral registration form, make sure you tick the right box and at least some of that junk will disappear.

Here's to a clutter free life without masses of unwanted paper floating about!

And here's to a few more trees being left alone to do what nature intended them to do!

Sharon J

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Earth Hour

Photo: Greekchickie

Have you heart about March 29^th? For one hour between 8-9pm, the World Wildlife Fund are asking everybody across the world to turn off all of their lights, including the light from the TV and computer screen.

Our electricity usage has a huge impact on climate change so it’s import we start cutting back. If everybody over the entire planet were to participate in Earth Hour, the impact would be equal to taking tens of thousands of cars off the road for ONE YEAR.

Of course, not everybody is going to take part, either because they won’t know about it, because they don’t believe it really will make any difference, or simply because they’re too selfish to. But if enough of us do – and last year the whole of Sydney turned off its lights for an hour, including such icons as the Opera House – we can make a significant difference. A very significant difference.

It isn’t too much to ask really, is it? It’s just for one measly hour, after all. And just think how nice it could actually be. You could have dinner by candlelight; spend the time talking to the kids about global warming and what impact it’s having on our planet; get an early night; relax in a bath surrounded by candles… the list only really ends when your imagination runs out.

For more information about this, you can visit the Earth Hour website.

I’ll definitely be participating. Will you?

Sharon J

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Energy Saving Light Bulbs – A Conundrum

I have a problem.

Like most, I’ve long since switched to CFLs (compact flourescent lightbulbs) – the energy saving light bulbs that we’re all told we should be using these days. The trouble is, I’ve no idea how I’m supposed to dispose of the used ones.

I’ve phoned the council to ask whether they have any special recycling facilities but apparently they don’t (I say apparently because the person you speak to doesn’t always know the answer, they often just think they do) and I can’t see what other options are open.

I’d heard that US branches of IKEA take back these light bulbs for recycling so I checked with my nearest branch but no, the service isn’t available in the UK. The person I spoke to seemed to be surprised that I’d even asked about such a thing and had no idea why they didn’t. I also checked their website and there’s no mention of it there either, even though they really push how environmentally friendly they are.

So here I am with a few burned out lightbulbs and expecting the rest to start burning out any time now but without the foggiest idea as to what I should do with them. I know they mustn't go in the normal household waste because of the mercury they contain – we don’t want that leaking out and potentially causing more environmental damage than burning extra energy with conventional light bulbs would have done, do we? Mercury really isn’t something to be scoffed at.

Anybody have any ideas on this? What do you do with your old energy saving lightbulbs?

Sharon J

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