Stop Taking Plastic Bags From Shops
Committed to this action for 01 Oct 2005, along with
600 others.
Switch To Good (Green Or Socially Resonsible) Energy
Committed to this action for 01 Oct 2005, along with
143 others.
Sign Up Online To Become An Organ Donor
Committed to this action for 01 Oct 2005, along with
330 others.
Compost Your Leftovers
Committed to this action for 01 Dec 2005, along with
342 others.
Encourage Others To Go Generous
Committed to this action for 01 Jan 2006, along with
160 others.
Put A Save-A-Flush Device In Your Cistern
Committed to this action for 01 Apr 2006, along with
214 others.
See An Inconvenient Truth.
Committed to this action for 01 Nov 2006, along with
59 others.
Get a water butt!
Committed to this action for 01 May 2007, along with
100 others.
Keep The Warmth In Your House
Committed to this action for 13 Sep 2009, along with
27 others.
Stop Taking Plastic Bags From Shops - 04 Oct 2005
First action on my list – coz I want something fairly easy to start with.
My main problem, though, is I’m a bit disorganised, so I’ll find it hard to remember to take a bag whenever I head for the shops. Storing a bag or two in the outside pocket of my backpack would be a good start, though…
Shouldn’t we be writing to MPs etc, demanding a tax on plastic bags, like in Ireland? (Maybe this is already an Action on the list… I’m still finding my way round, here)
Switch To Good (Green Or Socially Resonsible) Energy - 04 Oct 2005
(Actually we changed over to Good Energy some time ago – so putting my name here represents yesterday’s stab at living generously – but I still enjoy a warm green glow of satisfaction)
Karin, I think the point is that we’re demonstrating a consumer demand for green energy.
But now that 100% of my electricity is from renewable sources, I’m not sure what good I’m doing by turning lights off etc! Maybe I’m saving someone else’s carbon emissions? Confusing, eh?
I see that Friends of the Earth have now stopped their league table. (See http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/press_for_change/choose_green_energy/ for the reasons).
I can thoroughly recommend Good Energy (as does Tearfund) – not only is it 100% green, but you also get an inspiring newsletter with your bill! We switched over to them at work as well and I think our bills actually went down a bit. Our church next, I think… Info from www.good-energy.co.uk
Sign Up Online To Become An Organ Donor - 08 Oct 2005
I chose this action because it’s a one-off.
Being able to tick something off Life’s List is quite rare, I find. Eg: doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with my Maker… even if I managed to tick those off my list tomorrow, I’d probably find they were back on the list for the next day. Bummer, eh?
Anyway, I went to the website and signed up … but was a bit horrified to find that I couldn’t specify “everything except my brain” for recycling. Maybe it’s coz I read too much SF, but I just don’t like the idea of some genetically enhanced medical student in a hundred years’ time fishing my head out of the freezer and seeing if the latest technology will allow him/her to bump start my life again.
(Of course, you’re probably thinking that no-one’s likely to give valuable storage space for that sort of a brain, anyway ;)
Let’s hope I don’t live (die?) to regret it…
Compost Your Leftovers - 09 Dec 2005
Ali and I decided to give ourselves some sort of kitchen waste composter this Christmas. Choice boiled down to a can-o-worms (see above) or a Green Cone.
Eventually decided on the Green Cone (http://www.greencone.com) coz (a) it doesn’t seem to need any attention (b) it’s not fussy about what you feed it and© it’s cheaper.
When it’s up and running I’ll try to remember to give some feedback here. It needs to be in a sunny spot, so it’ll be the centre of attention in our 4 metre square front garden: who needs flowers? ; }
Meanwhile, does anyone else have any experience of using one of these things?
Put A Save-A-Flush Device In Your Cistern - 18 Apr 2006
I remembered bringing one of the free hippo things back from GB05, and recently decided to take it to church to tell people about it. I searched high and low but couldn’t find it anywhere.
Eventually the penny dropped – it was hiding in the loo cistern…
See An Inconvenient Truth. - 28 Nov 2006
An excellent follow-up (or alternative if you missed the film) is George Monbiot’s new book “Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning”. Find out more at http://www.turnuptheheat.org
Your favourite ethical snack? - 06 Jun 2010
My favourite snack used to be apricot Geobars – but recently they seem to have changed the formula. And the chocolate one I tried last week was a real disappointment, with a very sawdusty texture.
Whether this is a result of product-fiddling inspired by market research and focus groups or just difficulty in maintaining quality/consistency with small producers, I don’t know – but it’s very disappointing when a winning Fairtrade product goes downhill.
This is Bill Phelps’s profile page.
56-and-threequarters (at time of writing) scruffy, slightly odd white male, married to Ali and living in scruffy, slightly odd terraced house in Chapeltown, Leeds with Ben The Lodger.
Self-employed partner in graphic design business.
Into rickshaws, G8 bike rides, “community” (whatever that means), MPH-type campaigning, Dylan, wondering if Jesus knew that his church would become so – er – churchy, dreaming about becoming truly radical/green/prophetic, avoiding domestic chores and social obligations, insisting that I’m not a Baptist, biting off more than I can chew, sci-fi (Ian M Banks rather than Star Trek) and Greenbelt.
There’s more – but is anyone actually reading all this stuff?
