Environment Round-up: Energy & climate change

Like many bloggers I’m passionate about the environment, both preserving and improving where we live for ourselves and our children. However, it is a very broad topic covering many complex issues with a certain amount of uncertainty; my view is nicely summed up in this cartoon by Joel Pett.

Energy & Climate change

Over the last couple of months the environment has been mentioned in the news a lot, particularly climate change with the Paris agreement to keep the increase in global average temperature below 2C, flooding across many parts of the UK due to unusually high volumes of rain and the announcement that 2015 was the hottest year since records began. If you want to know more about why climate change is important I recommend looking at these BBC graphics.

To reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere we need to reduce our use of fossil fuels. One alternative option is nuclear which has been in the news because of delays to a new power station at Hinkley Point; which is likely to please Jessica at Babbi a Fi as she has written 5 reasons to say no to Hinkley C.

As well as the source of the energy we use, we need to consider embedded energy, that is the energy used to produce and transport items before we purchase them. I wouldn’t usually consider linking to a post written in 2007, but the points are still valid in Climate change, its more than energy usage (and I admit I wanted to include one of my posts).

Ethical shopping

This links nicely into the point Eco-Gites makes that too much of what we “buy is at best unnecessary, often unsustainable and at worst downright harmful to our future.” You can read more including suggestions on how to shop ethically in 2016 – the year to shop ethically.

In fact lots of you have been talking about ethical shopping.

The Goriami family highlight that making ethical purchases isn’t always straight forward in Buying Lego, the dilemma. #GoingGreenIn2016.

My sister lives in Malaysia and sent me several pictures of the daily smog she was experiencing last year. The smog was blamed on fires in Indonesia started by palm oil companies so I was interested to read Plutonium Sox’s post On palm oil: what if we said no?

Have you ever thought much about your exfoliant and its impact once it goes down the drain? If not go and read What are microbeads? on Greener Life Us to find out, particularly watch the included video and decide if you think it is necessary to use little bits of plastic in cosmetic products.

Sustainable actions by companies

And while we’re talking about drains have you considered how much water goes down it when you’re washing? I’ve been involved in water efficiency for years so this is a topic I’m very keen to promote and was delighted to read Becky’s post Saving water, and maybe some money about the free support provided by her local water company Anglian Water. Something to rememberis if you reduce hot water you will save on both your water and energy bills – double savings! Many water companies offer similar services so have a look on your local water company’s website (if you don’t know who it is check the Ofwat website). If you want to encourage your children to reduce water the Water Family game Becky mentions is also available as an online version.

Another company who is helping to improve our environmental knowledge and actions is IKEA. And I admit with a whole house renovation project coming up I’m feeling just a little jealous after reading Becky’s post about working with IKEA on a sustainable living project New Year’s resolutions: #livelagom where she explains “it’s not about depriving yourself of the nice things in life. It’s about taking care not to waste resources, and not taking what we don’t need.”

Reuse

Which ties very nicely on to the final two links about reusing items, meaning we throw less away. Remember it is always better to reuse than recycle. Wendy has written the Ultimate guide to using up your leftover food and there are an abundance of ideas on how to reuse materials such as cereal boxes, bubble wrap and corks on Red Ted Art. 

Thank you to everyone who sent me posts, I’ve enjoyed reading and compiling them into this round-up. Please send me links to your recent environmental posts for the next round-up via my blog or tweet me @katedavis. Alternatively, let me know if you have any questions about the environment and I’ll try and answer them in future posts.