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Thoughts for the day the World
moves into Ecological Overdraft, 2006We've
already used up the year's supply of the Earth's resources - now we're in
ecological overdraft until the end of 2006. See the new
economics foundation website, plus reports in The
Guardian and The
Independent.
 Why not use the remaining 83 days of the year
to make yourself aware of your contribution to the planet's ecological overdraft and to work out how
well you'd get on if you had to improvise and live on reduced resources.
There are some ideas below.
NB: Many of the ideas may sound extreme, perhaps
leading to a boring life, if you read them one after the other as shown
below. However, there is no way of escaping it: we must find
simpler ways of living, even if it means giving up our current
sophisticated, fast-paced lifestyles, because modern life in
industrialised countries uses too many of the planet's resources.
- Make an inventory of everything you own. Can't
do it? List the contents of the room where you keep your financial
information, plus a bedroom and a shed, garage or storeroom.
Include any vehicles which you have.
- Split the list of things you own into two
parts:
a) things which need input from someone or somewhere else (eg.
electricity, internet access, petrol/diesel, spare parts from the
manufacturer etc) before they will work and
b) things which are useful without external input (eg. spades and
hoes, blankets and bedding, paper and pencils, candles and matches,
cash and jewellery, clothes and shoes, bicycles and pushcarts etc)
- Spend one day each week using only things which
require no external input (eg. putting more clothes on instead
of turning on the central heating, going to bed when it gets too dark
and cold, cycling or walking everywhere, not using the microwave,
freezer, internet or TV
etc).
- Encourage your neighbours or friends to do the same -
swap or share things you need which you don't have in your own home.
- Hold a Makeover and Mend Day, dealing
with items in your home which are no longer useful but which could be
used if mended or adapted in some way. Make a list of items which are
too complex to mend but for which more straightforward versions are
(or used to be) available.
- Hold a Plastic Awareness Day - put a coloured sticker
on every piece of plastic which you touch or use during the course of
the day. Analyse the results: what? how many? which could be avoided?
- Hold a Food Miles Day, working out how far your food
has travelled to reach you. Repeat the exercise a couple of
times to see if you can reduce the total each time.
- Make a note of all the meat you eat
during a week. Try and reduce the amount of meat each week,
eating no meat at all during one or more of the weeks before
Christmas.
- If you celebrate Christmas, have a One Planet
Christmas using as few external resources as possible for
your food, presents, travelling arrangements and entertainment.
- If you have a car, sell it and don't buy another
until the planet can afford it...
Contact us with your ideas and
comments.
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