Extinction Rebellion, Loving the farm (the future )

[Gnomicide]

I have clothes that are older than my children that I still wear.

Given one is 21, I'm not sure if that makes me environmentally conscious or just tight.

[babyblade41]

5 hours ago, shuttlep said:

you are living the dream , except you need a pond

 

woudl love to have my own chickens for eggs and when they get too old I would have no problem eating them

We do have a pond but ducks are so messy it's easy to have paddling pools dotted around  and not all my ducks are water proof some are blind or disabled and can't swim... the factory they came from is not a lot different than ex bat hens 

Not so much living a dream as it's very restrictive and sometimes would love a weeks holiday but with 6 dogs as well , 2 being Great Danes it's just too much hassle to get anyone to look after such a mixed bunch but it's all very therapeutic ..sadly we have lost half the menagerie and no longer taking on anymore rescues... we have a South African leopard tortoise who has the use of two rooms upstairs who has to be under heat lamps 12 hours a day so I've had to put him in my will as he will probably out live me 

 

We don't eat those that die mainly because they invariably have had AB's which  isn't ideal so they get either cremated or buried very deep down..depending how hard the ground is.

 

If they die without AB's I normally take into the neighbouring  field and leave for the foxes 

[gigpusher]

2 hours ago, Gnomicide said:

I have clothes that are older than my children that I still wear.

Given one is 21, I'm not sure if that makes me environmentally conscious or just tight.

Well this depends on how often you've worn them. If it's something you wear rarely then you could wear it less than something you have only owned a year. For my birthday we went out for a meal and my husband posted a photo on Facebook and someone asked me where I got my top. I told them but told them it was more than a decade ago so they may not be able to get it. It got me thinking though and it may have been over a decade old but as it was a going out top I'd probably only worn it about 10 times at most. 

[mashedonmud]

Waste Bin  collection day tomorrow. Just looked into bin and there's not a single thing in there. Been a fabulous fortnight of recycling and non wastage. A small pleasure but a worthwhile one. Feeling good. ?

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

 

Me and my wife are trying to become vegetarians, but aren't dong so well at it. That aside, these two clips (from the same film) will always be dear to my heart;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mashedonmud]

15 minutes ago, Yoghurt on a Stick said:

 

Me and my wife are trying to become vegetarians, but aren't dong so well at it. That aside, these two clips (from the same film) will always be dear to my heart;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good luck with the veg diet. I am not fully veg but 90% meat free. Absolute classic film. My favourite all time cult movie. I might just have to open a cider and watch that now. Withnail and I plus Me for the evening. Excellent. ?

[MrHew]

No one seems to have mentioned (unless I've missed it) but switching to a green energy company is one of the best things you can do. A proper one like Ecotricity or Good Energy that actually invest in new renewable energy, not the likes of Bulb or Octopus who aren't really driving change. It costs more but worth it I think. Ecotricity also have a mobile phone offering, Ecotalk, who invest their profits into buying land to return to nature.

We're pretty good at home but our meat intake is where we're falling down. Also, Mrs Hew is half German so we fly over to see the family at least once a year.

[Reckoner]

16 hours ago, Matt87 said:

I've heard about these and read mixed reviews - some say that the beeswax scent overpowers whatever you wrap, and they're hard to clean - scrub too hard and you remove the wax, not hard enough and they don't come clean? 

I'm probably going to order some and see for myself, but interested in your experience. 

I find them good for covering bowls as a subsitutue for cling wrap which they do a great job. I don't generally use them for plates where they will touch the food, although i do use them to wrap half onions/lemons/limes etc and don't notice. For washing i just use soapy hot water and haven't had an issue yet although the original batch are starting to lose hardness. 

[bamber]

6 hours ago, Yoghurt on a Stick said:

 

Me and my wife are trying to become vegetarians, but aren't dong so well at it. That aside, these two clips (from the same film) will always be dear to my heart;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Dear to my heart" only begins to describe it. 

I've been a vegetarian for 30 years, I ride my bike to work every day and to the festival every year.

I fly to Barbados, Costa Rica and the Mentawai Islands for fun though.

I offset and justify it to myself.

Am I a karnt?

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

2 hours ago, bamber said:

"Dear to my heart" only begins to describe it. 

I've been a vegetarian for 30 years, I ride my bike to work every day and to the festival every year.

I fly to Barbados, Costa Rica and the Mentawai Islands for fun though.

I offset and justify it to myself.

Am I a karnt?

Not in my books. you aren't bamber.  I suppose that I could fall in to that category though - on a number of fronts, including my green credentials! I do recycle everything that I can. I also make art out of waste products, rather than they go in to land fill. However, that's pretty much where it ends on the green front. 

[The Clearest Blue]

I consider myself to be fairly 'green', three and a half years ago I went vegetarian for environmental reasons. I has also stopped eating avacados and tofu because the air miles and water consumption involved in the production of these products make them as bad as meat. I have got rid of my car and now cycle to work or take public transport on the really damp days. I also read recently that buying cans of precooked vegetables like sweetcorn, lentils and beans etc is better than buying fresh as the factories achieve better energy efficiencies cooking on a mass scale than can be achieved at home, so I've started using a lot more canned products to bulk out my fresh fruit and veg bought from local suppliers/producers.

It's projects like the green wall in Africa and the younger generations initiatives with using technology to help fix the problem that give me hope.

[shuttlep]

14 hours ago, babyblade41 said:

We do have a pond but ducks are so messy it's easy to have paddling pools dotted around  and not all my ducks are water proof some are blind or disabled and can't swim... the factory they came from is not a lot different than ex bat hens 

Not so much living a dream as it's very restrictive and sometimes would love a weeks holiday but with 6 dogs as well , 2 being Great Danes it's just too much hassle to get anyone to look after such a mixed bunch but it's all very therapeutic ..sadly we have lost half the menagerie and no longer taking on anymore rescues... we have a South African leopard tortoise who has the use of two rooms upstairs who has to be under heat lamps 12 hours a day so I've had to put him in my will as he will probably out live me 

 

We don't eat those that die mainly because they invariably have had AB's which  isn't ideal so they get either cremated or buried very deep down..depending how hard the ground is.

 

If they die without AB's I normally take into the neighbouring  field and leave for the foxes 

you have 6 dogs and they are big, you really are living the dream

 

i just have the three dogs, two cats and two guinnee pigs. would love chickens and ducks , that is the plan once the renovations are done on the house

[maelzoid]

12 hours ago, MrHew said:

No one seems to have mentioned (unless I've missed it) but switching to a green energy company is one of the best things you can do. A proper one like Ecotricity or Good Energy that actually invest in new renewable energy, not the likes of Bulb or Octopus who aren't really driving change.

I'm with Bulb and take their environmental credentials on faith. Am I being hoodwinked? I'd appreciate any enlightenment about the difference between them and Ecotricity / Good energy.

[Matt87]

I'm with Pure Planet for gas and electric, and they are supposed to be 100% renewable-only sources. Not really sure how you can verify their claims though. 

[SouthbanKen]

12 hours ago, MrHew said:

No one seems to have mentioned (unless I've missed it) but switching to a green energy company is one of the best things you can do. A proper one like Ecotricity or Good Energy that actually invest in new renewable energy, not the likes of Bulb or Octopus who aren't really driving change. It costs more but worth it I think. Ecotricity also have a mobile phone offering, Ecotalk, who invest their profits into buying land to return to nature.

We're pretty good at home but our meat intake is where we're falling down. Also, Mrs Hew is half German so we fly over to see the family at least once a year.

Yeah we use Ecotricity - what are the issues with Bulb out of interest - we looked at using them as a positive option? 

In terms of travelling to Germany, is driving over an option. I have driven across a few times to Belgium and Germany - its not too bad a drive (depends where you start from in the UK i suppose).

For those talking about struggling to remove / reduce meat consumption, something i deffo support (went full veggie for a month in Jan and will do so again at some point). My personal suggestion / request is to move to the best welfare meat you can possibly afford. This will naturally reduce your intake as the prices can be much higher, but, this is the true cost of rearing animals in an ethical, sustainable manner, so that is what we should be paying. Cheap meat comes with so many compromises that i think you really have to question the "value" that you are getting and why you are getting it. How can anyone afford to raise, feed, slaughter and distribute a chicken to a supermarket and make a profit for the price of £2.00 - answer they can't without cutting some serious corners. 

[MrHew]

55 minutes ago, maelzoid said:

I'm with Bulb and take their environmental credentials on faith. Am I being hoodwinked? I'd appreciate any enlightenment about the difference between them and Ecotricity / Good energy.

 

29 minutes ago, SouthbanKen said:

Yeah we use Ecotricity - what are the issues with Bulb out of interest - we looked at using them as a positive option? 

Definitely not being hoodwinked and it's not an issue as such.

The difference is that Ecotricity and Good Energy are investing in and building new sources of renewable energy, therefore creating more of it. Bulb are just buying green energy that's already been produced then selling it on. You can argue in doing so that it's creating the demand for more renewable energy to be made but, for me, that's not the same as actively creating more of it. 

[incident]

12 minutes ago, MrHew said:

Definitely not being hoodwinked and it's not an issue as such.

The difference is that Ecotricity and Good Energy are investing in and building new sources of renewable energy, therefore creating more of it. Bulb are just buying green energy that's already been produced then selling it on. You can argue in doing so that it's creating the demand for more renewable energy to be made but, for me, that's not the same as actively creating more of it. 

I agree that it's preferable to support companies that actively invest in good things - but in terms of trying to change behaviour it seems like a couple steps beyond where most people are at the moment, and would need a lot more research / education by the consumer than most people are prepared to put in as that level of information isn't usually available in an easily digestible format whereas comparison sites do often have things like fuel mix data.

Considering that most people currently aren't buying renewable to start with, convincing them to do so that has to be the starting point for a discussion - especially as it may (but not always) cost them more or they might not have heard of any of the companies and so there's automatically resistance there. The most important factor for me is that it's a company with a 100% renewable fuel mix and not a "renewable" tariff from the likes of British Gas or OVO as buying from them doesn't change anything - they're going to buy a certain percentage of renewables anyway and on their scale it's unlikely that consumer choices will impact that in any way. So buying one of their renewable tariffs effectively just means you're paying for the supposed environmental option but with no environmental gain.

[maelzoid]

37 minutes ago, MrHew said:

 

Definitely not being hoodwinked and it's not an issue as such.

The difference is that Ecotricity and Good Energy are investing in and building new sources of renewable energy, therefore creating more of it. Bulb are just buying green energy that's already been produced then selling it on. You can argue in doing so that it's creating the demand for more renewable energy to be made but, for me, that's not the same as actively creating more of it. 

Thanks for the clarification.

Tbf Bulb are pretty affordable compared with the fossil suppliers, so maybe a good stepping stone for those who cannot afford Ecotricity or Good Energy.

[maelzoid]

One of my big failings is air travel. I don't want to give up this luxury as I have family in France, but am willing to pay for carbon offset.

Can anyone recommend a company that sells carbon offset, and demonstrably uses it to plant trees.

[Quark]

I can recommend Ethical Consumer magazine & website if you want to dig a bit deeper into the realities of a company's social, environmental & ethical behaviours.

[DeanoL]

I eat meat most days, love dairy and fly a few times a year.

Neither have nor intend to have kids though so probably doing okay relatively.

[babyblade41]

4 hours ago, shuttlep said:

you have 6 dogs and they are big, you really are living the dream

 

i just have the three dogs, two cats and two guinnee pigs. would love chickens and ducks , that is the plan once the renovations are done on the house

I sympathise with the renovations.. we are just embarking on the very last house I am ever going to re-furb.. I seem to have spent my life living in building sites and then once finished move on !!

Thank fully the 2 big dogs are total couch potatoes so as long as a sofa or bed are within reach they are happy 

Ex batt hens and ducks are so lovely and my last lot were featherless with open sores but amazing how these little hens re-cover so quickly with a bit of TLC 

[stuie]

19 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

I eat meat most days, love dairy and fly a few times a year.

Neither have nor intend to have kids though so probably doing okay relatively.

^^ This.

I try and recycle everything I can, minimise my use of everything consumable and buy quality clothes that will last but buy less frequently.

But my meat consumption and flying on holiday occasionally is not something I'm willing to sacrifice.  I believe this is offset by not producing 2.4 children who will further blight the earth!

[Crazyfool01]

Thanks everyone for energy information I switched from British Gas to Octopus because they gave me a much cheaper price but that doesn't seem like its been very accurate as they say ive been underpaying and my price has gone up ... so now its time for a requote and to see how this compares to some of the more ethical producers ....£70 seems too high for both electricity and Gas 

[Crazyfool01]

oh and today I spoke to the cleaning manger at work and we have set up the returning of half a cage of recycling being returned per day to depot so over a year 180 full cages minimum that won't be going into our gorger and directly to landfill  result