Living the Good Life

Kate Evans

In August the New Economics Foundation combined current greenhouse gas concentrations, their estimated growth rates, maximum concentration allowable to forestall potentially irreversible changes to the climate system, and the effect of those environmental feedbacks to predict that we had only 100 months until we reach the beginning of irreversible climate change. Due to ironically titled “positive feedback” mechanisms, once a critical greenhouse concentration threshold is passed, global warming will continue even if we stop releasing additional greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. If that happens, the climate will move into a more volatile state, with different ocean circulations, wind and rainfall patterns - the implications of which would be catastrophic for life on Earth.

Given all of this, why isn’t everyone acting to prevent this? Mainly because people are unwilling to change their lifestyles to the extent that is needed to adequately reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and politicians don’t want to impose measures on people that they believe will be unpopular, for obvious reasons.

Part of the blame has to lie with the environmental movement itself. The opening paragraph to this piece is testimony to the kind of doom that we all to often preach. But while the consequences of inaction should be kept in mind, not enough attention is given to the positive effects that leading a sustainable life would bring. We need to use our imaginations to inspire the majority into taking positive steps to change their lives. Or, as Caroline Lucas has put it - Martin Luther King did not have a nightmare: he had a dream. (I know, I cringed to.)

At the moment, cutting down your carbon footprint sounds like a bit of a chore. Public transport, for example, is not always a pleasant experience – expensive, crowded, very often late. Compared with the alternative of a nice warm car with your own choice of music and company and it’s easier to see why people don’t always pick the greenest way to travel.

But lets follow the car alternative through, for example, on a trip to the supermarket.
1. You get stuck in a traffic jam. Tapping impatiently on the steering wheel indicates a growing irritation.
2. You have trouble parking. Blood pressure continues to rise as you drive round and around the car park. Somebody sneaks into a space in front of you; you make a rude gesture out the window.
3. You eventually get into the supermarket; it’s crowded, you can’t find what you want, you start getting inexplicably angry at the people in front of you in the queue.

Now think about the alternatives.
1. You walk to the greengrocers along the street, who is someone you know because you go there all the time. Vegetable buying is combined with gossiping and you come home not only with food, but having experienced both exercise and human interaction.
2. You cycle (more exercise, plus it’s fun to freewheel down the big hill) to your allotment to harvest produce and do a spot of weeding. The food is cheap, plus you get that satisfied feeling of having grown it yourself.
3. You stay in bed watching Scrubs while a local organic farm delivers a box of vegetables to your house.

Taken a step further, cutting down on carbon could involve producing your own electricity, using what you need and selling the rest back to the grid, ending the arrival of big bills on your doorstep. Eating no meat and less dairy is healthier, cheaper and forces you to be more adventurous with food. Instead of letting consumerism drive your free time, have friends round to cook for. Play bored games, mess about, go on picnics, climb trees – anything other than ‘going into town’ for the day. Spending less money could also mean you don’t have to work as much, reducing the need to spend money in the pub/club to ‘unwind.’

So there you are, lead a more environmental lifestyle and save time and money, be less stressed and live a healthier life. That is, if I haven’t made you nauseous with these romanticised ideals of sustainable living.

[The author has been in no way influenced by a personal hatred of supermarket shopping]