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The general consensus seems to be that blogging about reducing my carbon footprint would be useful rather than annoying so this is the first post in a series I'll be posting every so often about my attempts to reduce my carbon footprint.
How it all began
How did I come to start making a serious attempt to reduce my carbon footprint? Until a few months ago I was in the position of a lot of people. I believed that man-made climate change was real and posed a serious threat to the world. I knew that the carbon emissions of countries like the UK were unsustainable. I heard on the radio that even if we did mange to keep emissions to targets which we were likely to miss polar bears were still likely to become extinct in the wild. However, I didn't feel that there was much I could do. I lived with the tension and just felt helpless. Occasionally I thought about how any good which I achieved in my life was unlikely to outweigh the harm caused by the emissions produced to support my lifestyle. Short of suicide I couldn't see how to rectify this. I was also faced by conflicting advise on how to reduce my carbon footprint. Walking causing higher emissions than driving. Biofuels do more harm than good. Imported lamb is lower carbon than domestic lamb. I was stuck. I didn't feel that there was anything I could do and I certainly didn't know what it was.
What changed?
As part of my PhD I went on a personal development course. One of the aims of the course was to help us to clarify what our values were and how we could take actions which were in line with our values. The idea was that people are happier when their lifestyle is aligned to their values. I realised that I cared about climate change but wasn't doing anything about it. I also met a woman on the course who was very concerned about climate change and seemed to know a lot about it. So a asked her for advise, hoping for some book recommendations, and she told me about Carbon Conversations. It's a course developed by Cambrige Carbon Footprint. You meet six times at a facilitators home to discuss different aspects of your carbon footprint and how they can be reduced. It's supposed to deal with the psychological aspects of transitioning to a lower carbon lifestyle, but I found it most useful for providing a lot of information and suggestions on what people could do. The aim is to come up with a long term plan for how t achieve significant reductions in one's carbon footprint. The general suggestion is to aim to get ones footprint to about a third of the national average in five years, but obviously different people will be able to achieve different reductions, and you're never expected to 'confess' to what our emissions actually are.
Be the change you want to see in the world
I know that nothing I can do will stop climate change. I can't save the world. However, I can reduce carbon emissions by a certain amount. I can also be living proof that a sustainable lifestyle can be pleasant. Hopefully the more people reduce their carbon footprints, the more people will think that the cost of reducing our carbon emissions are better than the cost of letting climate change happen and that will lead to political will to take national and international action against climate change.
How it all began
How did I come to start making a serious attempt to reduce my carbon footprint? Until a few months ago I was in the position of a lot of people. I believed that man-made climate change was real and posed a serious threat to the world. I knew that the carbon emissions of countries like the UK were unsustainable. I heard on the radio that even if we did mange to keep emissions to targets which we were likely to miss polar bears were still likely to become extinct in the wild. However, I didn't feel that there was much I could do. I lived with the tension and just felt helpless. Occasionally I thought about how any good which I achieved in my life was unlikely to outweigh the harm caused by the emissions produced to support my lifestyle. Short of suicide I couldn't see how to rectify this. I was also faced by conflicting advise on how to reduce my carbon footprint. Walking causing higher emissions than driving. Biofuels do more harm than good. Imported lamb is lower carbon than domestic lamb. I was stuck. I didn't feel that there was anything I could do and I certainly didn't know what it was.
What changed?
As part of my PhD I went on a personal development course. One of the aims of the course was to help us to clarify what our values were and how we could take actions which were in line with our values. The idea was that people are happier when their lifestyle is aligned to their values. I realised that I cared about climate change but wasn't doing anything about it. I also met a woman on the course who was very concerned about climate change and seemed to know a lot about it. So a asked her for advise, hoping for some book recommendations, and she told me about Carbon Conversations. It's a course developed by Cambrige Carbon Footprint. You meet six times at a facilitators home to discuss different aspects of your carbon footprint and how they can be reduced. It's supposed to deal with the psychological aspects of transitioning to a lower carbon lifestyle, but I found it most useful for providing a lot of information and suggestions on what people could do. The aim is to come up with a long term plan for how t achieve significant reductions in one's carbon footprint. The general suggestion is to aim to get ones footprint to about a third of the national average in five years, but obviously different people will be able to achieve different reductions, and you're never expected to 'confess' to what our emissions actually are.
Be the change you want to see in the world
I know that nothing I can do will stop climate change. I can't save the world. However, I can reduce carbon emissions by a certain amount. I can also be living proof that a sustainable lifestyle can be pleasant. Hopefully the more people reduce their carbon footprints, the more people will think that the cost of reducing our carbon emissions are better than the cost of letting climate change happen and that will lead to political will to take national and international action against climate change.