Today is the International Day of Climate Action.  I’ve written in the past the quandaries that I often find myself in as a modern citizen of the world.  I like to consume but realise the impact of what I like doing contributes to more ppm CO2 in our precious atmosphere.

I like to travel all over the world for pleasure (Australia for three weeks next year) and  I have to travel all over the world for work (Hong Kong in a week or so – very exciting).  However these airplane based activities are really terrible for my dirty black (carbon) footprint.

It’s such a difficult thing to sort out in my head.

If I recycle all our household waste (which we do) but I then take one return flight to Paris then that flight totally outstrips my recycling for probably more than a year (I haven’t done the exact sums by the way).  So you could think – what’s the point then?  I have to admit that five years ago I did think like this. Thankfully Chad is a lot wiser (and younger) than me on this, and he has re-educated me on the need to do our little bit and put in some effort.

My little olive roll up bag (the fabulous envirosax) has become a permanent feature in my life – it lives in my man-bag and I reckon I have, in the last nine months, used it nearly every day (often a couple of times a day).  I estimate that I have used 400 fewer plastic carrier bags that would by now be attempting to rot down for the next couple of hundred years in a land fill somewhere in this green and pleasant land.
Overall I think that it is just really important to think about what we are doing

  • Is there an alternative?
  • Could we reduce waste?
  • Could we be less wasteful in our actions?

Some recent examples in the world of Crump:

  • Can I travel to Paris from London on a train rather than fly – yes – CHECK (and the Eurostar is so much more civilised than Heathrow / BA hell)
  • Could I cycle to work rather than take my car – yes – CHECK (although when it’s raining the spirit wavers)
  • Could I turn off lights in a room that I’m not in – yes – CHECKISH (I’m in high performance training on this one)

So every little helps – we cannot be ostriches on this one – it’s too important.

Now where is my passport.  D’oh…  See what I mean!

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