Disabling the stop/start system on your car should be banned.
I’ve just bought some plant based sellotape
Hasn’t it always been plant-based? Sello => cello => cellulose.
Fixed the "Vax" hoover - very nearly binned it - a very important plastic 'tab' cracked off months ago, and we've taped the collection bin on - fills up each use due to having animals. Had a good look at the broken area, drilled two pilot holes, and popped in two button head screws. Works a treat, and is no doubt stronger than before.
Fix and make do.
Gribs – everything makes a difference . Team SKY used to win lots of races, because Dave Brailsford and his secret squirrels were making incremental gains with tiny changes.
Team Sky would claim they were already doing everything they could right and then finding little performance improvements on top. We haven’t even mandated domestic insulation minimum standards, maintained the fuel duty escalator, or banned private jets. I love the sentiment, but for the marginal gains analogy we really need to start by eating, training, and sleeping properly first.
In the meantime I try to avoid unnecessary car journeys and lobby others to do the same, try my best to keep my ***** English house safe and comfortable with minimum energy use, avoid buying new and avoid consumerism, and when I do buy things I try to buy things I need that will last well.
"Our heating has been set to 17.5C for 2 winters now".
I'm going to be quoting you to my Mrs. Ours is typically on 18 or 18.5 when it's on. If I come in and the heating is at 19.5 or even a ludicrous 20, I feel like my face is going to melt - blast furnaces operate at lower temps.
Being serious... getting a properly adjustable (and ideally app based) thermostat in the house.
When we got this house, it had one of those mechanical timers with 2 segments on a rotating dialfor turning the heating on and off. Same for the hot water tank. No thermostat on the heating. It was atrocious really. It could be baking hot some times if we'd been out for hours and not having changed the settings before we went out.
When we got a new boiler we got a Hive controller. It definitely helps us not heating when not needed; re-set or turn off remotely when not going to be in etc. And controllable in 0.5C increments.
^ to add to that, get an external temperature sensor on your boiler.
I fitted ours a year after our new boiler was installed without one as the plumber 'didn't believe' in them.
It took nearly 10% off our gas usage, and evened the inside temperature out.
Ours cost £20, a bit of cable and about 20mins to fit.
I shower nearly every day, but I don't use deodorant, and when I saw something telling me to limit showers to 4 minutes I set a timer and it turns out to spend 4 minutes in the shower i'd need to take a book so I don't feel too bad.
I shower nearly every day, but I don’t use deodorant, and when I saw something telling me to limit showers to 4 minutes I set a timer and it turns out to spend 4 minutes in the shower i’d need to take a book so I don’t feel too bad.
Yep. That's me too.
Team Sky would claim they were already doing everything they could right and then finding little performance improvements on top. We haven’t even mandated domestic insulation minimum standards, maintained the fuel duty escalator, or banned private jets. I love the sentiment, but for the marginal gains analogy we really need to start by eating, training, and sleeping properly first.
It's still marginal gains. Marginal gains doesn't say anything about getting the basics right first, although it would be very sensible to but more difficult. The Team Sky parallel though doesn't fit.
I agree with your overall take though. People may be distracted by and feel satisfied by making these tiny gains that are within their gift, whereas the big progress needs campaigning, organising, writing etc.
Our heating has been set to 17.5C for 2 winters now, it sounds cold but after we had the cavity walls insulated the house is just a nice even temperature. It’s just the default to wear a jumper rather than take it off when getting home.
You're an amateur - my Mum has had it set at 15C for as long as I can remember.
Whereas i don't even have heating (different climate so don't need it).
Never seen a decent explanation of how a new electric car every few years is better than an old one every 20 years.
Not wishing to derail the thread but absolutely noone at all is suggesting that you need a new electric car every few years. What on earth are you on about?
People who change their car frequently do so regardless of the fuel type; same for people who keep them a long time.
I'd get a couple of independent honest opinions on whether not showering every day and wearing nylon t shirts doesn't result in a degree of 'agricultural' aroma. 😬
My experience is the exact opposite, you'd have to be a biological outlier, which may explain how you're burning through cotton tbh. 😉
Whereas i don’t even have heating (different climate so don’t need it).
But do you have air con? Australian homes are generally energy pits, the cars are energy pits and Australia manages to be well up there amongst the highest CO2 per capita countries slightly ahead of the UK.
Marginal gains aren't what we need, we need a complete change of mindset in which people eliminate fossil fules from their lifestyles by one means or another.
Don’t have children.
Nonsense. We need more young people not fewer. How about we remove health care from the over 80s and make euthanisa much easier?
Almost mid-year, and I have still not used a single disposable cup.
I haven't used one in probably 20 years...
This is controversial, but I’m going to say don’t wear cotton t-shirts. Synthetic ones last many many years, far longer than the cotton ones I have,
And synthetic ones start to smell after a few uses, i haven't bought a synthetic T (excepting sports wear) in decades. Much like not showering daily, you can't smell yourself. And your biome might adjust, mine certainly doesn't.
I am currently wearing a cotton t shirt from the 1996 National MTB champs. It’s indestructable! Most of my cotton t’s are 10-15 years old.
I moved mine into the rag bag a couple of years ago, along with half a dozen of my sponsors (of the time) cotton T's. They've been through half a dozen moves and probably a thousand washes each.
But do you have air con? Australian homes are generally energy pits, the cars are energy pits and Australia manages to be well up there amongst the highest CO2 per capita countries slightly ahead of the UK.
No. We have an extremely well insulated house.
I believe we're tenth highest emitter per capita. 30+% of energy produced here is from renewables now (as it should be). Really high rates of solar panels but a legacy of cheap coal.
Because we have too much shade at our place (we grow trees!) we buy our electricity from renewable sources.
How about we remove health care from the over 80s and make euthanisa much easier?
Posted 2 minutes ago
I hope you're not serious. I'm sick of old people bashing atm.
Anyway back to the Op.
Reuse, recycle, mend, buy from charity shops, buy secondhand. If buying new then buy the very best you can afford, it will last so much longer.
Disabling the stop/start system on your car should be banned.
I took the decision and did the work to delete it from an entire range of cars about 4-5 years ago. Customers went absolutely mental, they didn't like the lack of control. So some markets it's been put back in. Against my wishes.
Madness.
(It's not even like the cars have a starter motor or ring gear to "wear out". They have a continually connected, and continually running integrated starter generator.)
I hope you’re not serious. I’m sick of old people bashing atm.
About as serious as the suggestion that not having kids is a solution to anything. To be honest this whole thread is a waste of time. The only people who can 'save the planet' are politicians and governments and all you need to do is vote for the right ones and put pressure on them in any way you can to do the right thing. Anything else is just virtue signalling, and I say that as a veggie/vegan of 30+ years.
Well said.
Well there's an honest debate to be had about the pros and cons of keeping people alive as long as possible at all costs but it's not really the subject of this thread. In terms of carbon though I reckon young people probably produce much less than their elderly relatives.
the average 80+ year old probably has a fairly small carbon footprint as they just don't do much. Better get rid of the boomers who are flying around everywhere, living in big houses and driving fancy cars 😉
I'd actually be interested to see footprint by age - does it just go directly in line with income?
I don't know what 'saving the planet' means? Save it from what.. humans?
We look at things a bit different to bunnyhop, we buy as much if not more crap we just try to buy greener crap. The world is built with money, want a greener world then spend as much as you can afford on green crap.
Edukator
...Australia manages to be well up there amongst the highest CO2 per capita countries slightly ahead of the UK.
If by slightly ahead you mean "triple" ? Even looking at consumption based emissions (i.e. including imports), Australia is roughly double the UK.
Or am I missing something?
I’d get a couple of independent honest opinions on whether not showering every day and wearing nylon t shirts doesn’t result in a degree of ‘agricultural’ aroma.
I don't wear nylon t-shirts, these are polyester being what are loosely termed 'technical t-shirts' now.
And as for the allegations that I smell - cheers, but I'm not so ignorant that I'd be unaware of it. The fact I complain that cotton t-shirts smell in hot weather (not all the time) shows I am quite aware of it. Maybe it's because I don't shower every day and I don't use sticky traditional deodorant that messes up your skin biome and needs reapplying every day.
And synthetic ones start to smell after a few uses
These don't.
Much like not showering daily, you can’t smell yourself.
I can assure you I most certainly can and I'm very self conscious of it. It happens when I use normal deodorant or wear cotton t-shirts in hot weather. It's not just me, by the way - there's a lot of discussion about over-washing and skin micro-biome, which is what I wanted to draw attention to given the thread.
If I use a normal roll-on then the following day I absolutely stink, and then if I go back to Pit Rock the stink lasts for about a week until it settles down. Pit rock needs a good long rub, not just a wipe, but even then it's marginal after about 10hrs. Wild deodorant is only good for about 6hrs, but in combination with pit rock it works well (sodding expensive though). However my homemade stuff works for days, I only need to apply about twice a week. How do I know if deodorant is working? Because I can smell myself.
does it just go directly in line with income
Essentially, yes. More money tends to equal bigger houses (more heating etc), buying more stuff, travelling more. Even savings in a bank use more and may be invested in 'bad' things. Obviously if you grow your own carrots, keep your cash in a sock under the matress in your sustainably built eco house and never leave your garden, this doesn't apply to you.
The only people who can ‘save the planet’ are politicians and governments and all you need to do is vote for the right ones and put pressure on them in any way you can to do the right thing. Anything else is just virtue signalling
This is true but they aren't going to do anything unless they're perusaded to do so. And a shift in the attitude of the population will do this. It's how women got the vote, how slavery was abolished in the UK etc.
It depends where you look, multi21. Having read a few different figures and how they were calcualted I reckoned that "slightly ahead of the UK" was fairer than "triple". You can do analysis by production versus consumption and consider the embedded carbon on imports and exports, exported potential emissions... I felt the fairest analysis puts the impact of each Australian as only slightly higher than a Brit.
I don’t use sticky traditional deodorant that messes up your skin biome and needs reapplying every day.
TBH I haven't used deodorant since COVID times. I threw away my last stick at christmas, it was completely dried out and rattly.
I have one (very) marginal gain that I can whole (...hole?) heartedly recommend for those of the more hirsute trouser regions.
Wype toilet gel instead of wet wipes. You put a dollop onto toilet paper and it turns it into the equivalent of a wet wipe that can be flushed.
The squirty plastic bit of the bottle is reused each time, and the rest of the packaging is recyclable (aluminium I think). A refill lasts over a month in our house.
Dickyboy
I’m the exact opposite, anything synthetic & it gets stinky way faster & obnoxious than cotton 🤔
I have the same problem with synthetics. And I find it's also harder to get them clean in the wash. They need a hotter wash and a sports detergent otherwise they come out still with a slight scent of eau de onion bhaji.
Edukator
Free Member
It depends where you look, multi21. Having read a few different figures and how they were calcualted I reckoned that “slightly ahead of the UK” was fairer than “triple”. You can do analysis by production versus consumption and consider the embedded carbon on imports and exports, exported potential emissions… I felt the fairest analysis puts the impact of each Australian as only slightly higher than a Brit.
Okay fair enough.
Being a non driver, I reckon im ahead of the game. So if lifestyle and diet are going to play a part in any carbon footprint, I'm not going to be making any difference.
Eat less meat (or give it up altogether) reduce food waste, buy fewer things.
We do a fair bit of stuff, well insulated house, thermostat turned down, bucket water for use flushing the toilet, reasonably economical cars, refillable plastics, buying second-hand and not renewing stuff because it's no longer fashionable but like most we don't do anything actually detrimental to our lifestyle (extended holiday took 10 flights earlier this year - first time in 20yrs to see my sister in Oz). Even my evangelical brother who cycles everywhere & has pledged not to fly - only does so because he loves cycling & has the time as he is retired, plus he's already travelled most of the world in his younger days.
It depends where you look, multi21. Having read a few different figures and how they were calcualted I reckoned that “slightly ahead of the UK” was fairer than “triple”.
IIRC cars, a/c, long distances to transport people and power are an issue. But the lack of nuclear power in Australia is a big impact. It is not viewed favourably at all.
No kids.
Not flown since 2006.
Not driven since 2012.
Immersion heater only on for final ~60mins of cheaper Economy 7 night rate electric.
Food shopping delivered.
Fish tanks only have lights if they contain live plants and limited to ~6 hours daily.
Fish tanks only have heater operating if unusually chilly weather, my oldest fish are 14 years old.
Turbo bike can be ridden outside.
Tiny "garden" is left pretty wild.
Cavity wall insulation and new loft insulation installed around 2010 made a huge difference to our heating expenditure.
Especially during the winter, the oven door is left ajar after use to warm the kitchen/flat.
In a typical week, my carnivorous urges are quite small (2 tins mackerel, 6 eggs, Hawaiian pizza, pack of 16 fish sticks).
Besides my immediate kettle refilling I posted earlier, that's all I can think of in a sleepy state!
Ah yes the usual :- "I won't/can't/don't do anything until big industries and governments" start acting. These are the words I get every time a little hint is dropped to people who don't care.
My phone is reconditioned second hand mobile, we put lots of things on a thrift group, or sent to charity shops. Almost everything I buy has been purchased with a little bit of consideration. Green products and refills from the local environmentally friendly shop.
I also make a lot of gifts.
It would be interesting to see which generation trashes our planet the most.
Ah yes the usual :- “I won’t/can’t/don’t do anything until big industries and governments” start acting. These are the words I get every time a little hint is dropped to people who don’t care.
But people who do care, care.
There has got to be more legislation because there are still millions who don't GAF, especially the young.
Pretty much all the young members of staff (u25) in any wife's office don't recycle anything. She's always trying to get them to separate things or take stuff home but it's met with a shrug. Bet she's seen as the grumpy old lady of the office.
Despite the years of education they must have had on climate change - it's just not going in with people of that age group.
It would be interesting to see which generation trashes our planet the most.
My parents' generation have done everything within their spending power and will do to the grave. I contributed heavily till age 27 when I first saw numbers for CO2 over time and as a geologist knew what they meant. Junior is really careful in his private life but professionally a disaster (ski instructior and DJ).
Ah yes the usual :- “I won’t/can’t/don’t do anything until big industries and governments” start acting. These are the words I get every time a little hint is dropped to people who don’t care.
No body's mentioned China yet which I'm quite disappointed about as I found two great stats this week.
1) China added more solar capacity in 2023 than the entire rest of the world did in 2022.
2) China added more solar capacity in 2023 than the US has full stop.
Although the other fact was that apparently you can't turn down solar generation like you can wind. If you leave it disconnected in the sun it can burn out (a lesson learnt at a large installation in Saudi Arabia where they weren't connected to the grid for 6 months).
Loads of good ideas.
My litter picking group find new clothes dumped outside the local supermarket, scrotes had nicked the wrong size. Clothes get washed and donated to charity shops.
I won't name the shop, but I was telling the security chap on the door this, and he said it was company policy not to chase thieves if they ran off.
Up thread some one questioned my statement about needing a new electric vehicle every few years. Now adays people buy new cars every few years and electric is the things that is pushed. No modern cars are fixable easily and if they are they are expensive so easier to chuck and buy new. Electric cars add to that . Probably should have said any new car as well.
Importing less would help as it would stop the carbon footprint. We could be self sufficient if people were less greedy.
Whilst I agree with recycling this is really treating the symptoms not the disease. Why the hell do we need so much packaging? I am staring at the packaging of a cheap phone bought for my MiL. An outer box, an inner one, 3 plastic bags, two cable ties, some polystyrene. I arrived in another big box full of bubble wrap. FFS!
No modern cars are fixable easily and if they are they are expensive so easier to chuck and buy new. Electric cars add to that . Probably should have said any new car as well.
No-one scraps recent cars with faults. They sell them, to people who fix them.
The fundamental problem with car buying is the people who buy new cars and condemn fixable old ones to the scrap heap. That said, moving to EVs is a massive emissions saver so if we had to wait 40 years for old car stock to diminish that decarbonisation would take even longer.
Beyond cycling to work daily, and having only one family car for well over ten years...
I decided the regularity of buying plastic bottles of hand soap, body wash, shampoo, etc, was too much so bought 5l bottles of each and refill the regular sized daily use bottles as and when required. Also means don't have to wait for a trip to the shop when something runs out. Store it in shed.
Deoderant is squeezed out of recyclable alu tubes between fingers and rubbed under arms. Tubes lasts a couple of months.
Just remember packaging is another industry that creates jobs for people lower down the chain. All the tat wealthy people buy creates an income for someone, if wealthy people cut back on buying crap then poverty for the majority increases.
Materialistic consumerism is not the enemy here, in truth I think it's the only realistic long term solution. Buy as much environmentally friendly tat you can afford.
