This is awesome, bravo Sir 😱😱😱😱
Current problems regarding the overproduction of meat, sugar, salt, alcohol, cars, pharmaceuticals, etc are due to the govts attempt to channel revenue in preparation for the next big thing.
Whats the next big thing?
Space/ the moon.
The big money will be in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and artificial hips, etc, in zero gravity environments.
But you need a significant investment to achieve escape velocity.
So your supermarkets and utility companies are trying to skim as much cash out of you as possible.
The sheer quantity of meat, they’re trying to foist on us is quite staggering.
It would have been simpler just to offer ‘space bonds’.
Likewise, you could argue that the whole covid debacle was an attempt to see if we could manufacture and deploy antivirals sufficiently quickly enough to counter anything that’s been harbouring in the moons rocks for the past billion years.
The best environmental strategy at the moment would be to petition the govt to legalise the use of cannabis.
Widespread use would make it easier for the public to change their current bad habits.
I guess that the good news is that, globally, they’ll release the chokehold on the environment in favour of astronomical financial returns from near-earth industries.
So your supermarkets and utility companies are trying to skim as much cash out of you as possible.
This comment ties in quite nicely (nicely not really being an apt word) with the false inflation we've had forced upon us over the past three years under the guise of COVID and Ukraine. It was plain to see that whilst yes these events may have had an effect on some prices, ultimately suppliers ended up artificially increasing inflation in a whirlwind of greed
Government channeling revenue, COVID being an experiment? Don't, you'll be accused of being a conspiracy theorist.....
The tip I gave earlier was a bit weird - 'taking a tupperware to the butcher etc, but, myself and many others will have tupperware containers that are decades old and continue to use them.
I think (but will check later at the re-fill shop) that the re-usable wet wipes are biodegradable, that's why they can only be used around 4/5 times.
Our WI is having a 'green dot' day on Wednesday. Meaning that every WI group in the country has to earn a green dot on the UK map to prove they are making changes to the good of the local environment . To gain this (and we can be a bit competitive) means each and every member needs to become greener in a few ways. There are 3 of us running this. It'll be a challenge but we need to get the ladies to change 'some' habits of a lifetime.
There are three types of people (massive generalisation alert)
1 People who say there isn’t a problem
2 People who say there is a problem, but it’s too big a problem for individuals to be able to fix.
3 People who say there is a problem, and if individuals do all they can individually, it can be fixed.
or 4 - those4 who know individual action is not enough but still do what they can anyway.
It doesn't count if your doing completely the wrong thing though. Penny pinching will not work, your holding up progress.
...I see other folk who don’t give a shit and sometimes wonder why I bother at all.
In my more cynical times I wonder if some of these well-known massive users of CO2 - the F1 or TdF circus, the private jet celebs or the reports on how awful China is (true or not is another matter) - they're encouraged, justified somehow or publicity-bumped as a helpful way of making the average person care less and not bother. Everyone likes an excuse to not have to change themselves. Whether the news on these high users is critical or not it all chips away at our resolves. Because the economy is a beast that must be fed.
Marginal gains overall though.. I guess anything is better than nothing as much of this is about our mentality overall but I think doing the big things first has more impact. If I don't do or have some more significant things I'd like because the impact seems unreasonable, I'm more inclined to think about the small stuff too. I don't want to undermine any larger loss/'sacrifice' I've made by not also paying attention to the smaller stuff. In the end it's a sort of efficiency thing.
1 People who say there isn’t a problem
2 People who say there is a problem, but it’s too big a problem for individuals to be able to fix.
3 People who say there is a problem, and if individuals do all they can individually, it can be fixed.
4 People who say there is a problem, and if both individuals and governments do all they can, it may be less of a bad thing than it already is and our children may not live in a wasteland or shacks on stilts among the floods. These people probably despair at the lack of GAS shown generally but it doesn't stop them doing what is ethically right.
Government channeling revenue, COVID being an experiment? Don’t, you’ll be accused of being a conspiracy theorist
Those things are literally conspiracy theories.
What parellel universe is this you speak of? The one I inhabit works the other way round.
A lot of the money poor people receive ends up with rich people but it often comes from other rich people in the first place - they are ones who tend to run the big businesses on which we depend. It's a lot more complex than you seem to realise.
I visited the local 'refill shop', their reusable wet wipes (you wet them from a small ball shape) are biodegradable.
FWIW, all the various 'Group 4' things above fall into my original groups 2 or 3.
I visited the local ‘refill shop’, their reusable wet wipes (you wet them from a small ball shape) are biodegradable.
But still, the original reusable wet wipe was, and still is, a wet cloth. Reusable biodegradable wet wipes are not as bad as 'normal' wet wipes, but are still really stupid.
There's a wide range of plastic free sustainable wet wipes these days. The prices have come down loads too. We just replaced like for like.
We do use a wide range of washable flannels too but a wet wipe is very handy on occasion💩
Which bike companies are leading the way on this?
That's a point, what's the carbon footprint of STW, what reductions have been made and what's the plan for Singletrack? Why no link to your environmental goals?
By the way, what's all this fascination with wet wipes? The only time I've used them at home was over 25 years ago when my daughter was in nappies 😂
Yeah, like I said, wet wipes for wiping a baby's arse, fine. Otherwise, no need.
There’s a wide range of plastic free sustainable wet wipes these days.
Ah, 'sustainable'. That old chestnut is a word that does a lot of heavy lifting these days...
Wet wipes are very handy, I keep a stash at home, a pack in the car, a pack in the shed, normally take a pack on a day trip. Lovely little things. We have our reasons and they work well for us.
IHN, be careful, you're heading down the reductionism route, fairytale perfection doesn't exist.
Has anyone asked how the coconuts get here yet?
IHN, Define your version of environmental sustainability and there will always be somebody come along to say 'oh, but it's not perfect', because most things purchased we can survive without. It's just a game of fairy tale perfectionism.
My wet wipes are very sustainable in comparison to a gazillion items in the world, biodegradable, compostable, free from plastic, 100% plant fibres, recycled packaging, no chemicals, signed up to sustainability projects, contributing to the world economy, etc etc. They make our life a tiny bit more luxurious and I would recommend them to many who have a similar life to me.
Many of our parents are going to wear more nappies than any baby so you thinking wet wipes are only 'okay' for babies kinda shows you're in a different phase of life to many. What about the people who have other problems, is it 'okay' for them.
Stop the wet wipe hate, it's a success story👍
I work for a company that makes the 'spongy' bits that go into cars. We make 12k tons of it each year and have done for at least the 21years I've worked there. It's not recyclable as it's laminated to other materials.
Stop buying cars.
Haha^^, a slightly more realistic and achievable goal might be to find a different material or a way to attach said spongy stuff to cars so it can be recycled 🤔
needs to give their head a wobble.
Ablist bingo!
I'm guessing that's a typo, or you've got the wrong word there, sirromj??
Do you have data on the carbon footprint of STW, what are the plans to reduce, how have you reduced. Long term aims etc. could we get a dedicated page in the pull down menu
Anyone mentioned temperature kettles yet?
Who needs actual boiling water? And it seems to boil for about 2 mins on most kettles before flipping off. Ours has 70, 80, 90 and 100. 80 makes a great aeropress that's ready to drink, even if you are boiling pasta etc 90 is grand. Ours was cheap and is 7 years old (we got it when we moved house)
For anyone interested in numbers here's a plug for this again:
There’s a wide range of plastic free sustainable wet wipes these days.
We used washable baby wipes, they were far more effective for wiping up poo by virtue of being Terry cloth, and they still are as we still have them a decade later.
Thanks for the link pigyn. Will give it a browse later as it looks interesting.
Molgrips, it's great to have alternatives for different people's needs. I find flannels great too , but you cannot beat a wet wipe for some of our daily situations. I imagine you don't have the same needs as us.
Nobody here concerned about STWs plan but people who don't use or need wet wipes complaining about wet wipes.
Dare I mention hippos?
Email singletrack and find out what they are doing to reduce their carbon footprint, we don't want to reduce our clicks or give it up we want a carbon neutral website and mag. Force them to improve or we could listen to the 'give everything up' brigade.
No clicks today frinstance??
Tj. Already done,
No clicks today frinstance??
Go ahead, lead by example, and don't stop at a day.
*not a wet wipe user*
Some of the stuff on this thread is mad.
"There's nothing we can do, it's all down to the governments and big companies".
But WE elect the government's and WE buy from the big companies.
Electing the right politicians and buying the things we NEED from the right companies will do far more than not washing your towels and recycling your wet wipes.
The planet will be fine. It's ability to support human life in the next few decades is the problem.
Nobody is willing to make the necessary changes. We've known about this for what, 40 years and still global CO2 emissions are increasing year on year. Ten years ago 1.5' was seen as the disaster point. We've already hit that and our governments in Westminster and Holyrood have reacted to this by ditching their climate targets. These are governments WE voted for. Labour won't fix this, Farrage denys its even happening.
In three weeks we have a choice. Voting for anyone but Green is condoning climate destruction and no amount of electric cars or veganism changes that.
Nobody is willing to make the necessary changes.
The necessary changes are for the world's governments to collectively come up with an alternative to consumer capitalism. I can't make that change. I can buy less stuff, sure, but I can't affect that many other people.
This is a job for governments - don't let them off the hook.
These are governments WE voted for.
Yeah, we voted for them, but that doesn't mean they'll do whatever we want. You're grossly over-simplifying the situation we find ourselves in. What we need is governments to create programmes to address this properly and competently. It's all well and good criticising us for not voting Green, but that ignores the actual real world in which we live. Governments need to do this - Labour, Tory, all of them.
^^On the one hand you want people to be realistic about the world we live in, on the other, you're hoping governments are going to get together and come up with a new world economy model asap🤪
The consumerist world economy is the only game in town, it will be the only game in town in 25 years, continue spending but pressure your favourite businesses to improve. Just look at the change in the wet wipe industry😁
Now, why is no one concerned with the STW plan? We all use the site,, we can make a marginal gain right here without switching anything off.
In peak ridiculousness I bought sustainable dental floss. It's silk not plastic but is super white, I suspect bleaching. Mind you normal plastic stuff may have TiO2. Also it's a bit wide for my little toothy peg gaps.
I'm very conflicting with my own beliefs, mostly because doing anything means travelling in a car. But I do try to reduce impact. I've changed jobs so my sole focus is on reducing the companies carbon footprint, and that doesn't mean offsetting fortunately. We are genuinely working towards doing better (despite making big parts for big planes).
For riding, there isn't much I enjoy without being able to drive. I also would like to build and race my little Peugeot 205 in some hillclimbs.
Hence the self conflict.
on the other, you’re hoping governments are going to get together and come up with a new world economy model asap
I'm not expecting them to. I'm just saying that's what's needed! That said, a lot of governments are pressing ahead with renewable generation on a large scale. Pretty sure that's not due to consumer demand. But we need to do better -we need storage, and that needs research and investment. That's what we need governments for.
Pressuring companies to make their tat slightly less damaging isn't going to make any meaningful difference. We need them to stop selling us tat, which they can't do because they won't put themselves out of business.
That said, a lot of governments are pressing ahead with renewable generation on a large scale.
Probably one reason for that, and it's more likely to do with saving their wallets than saving the earth. Dunno why people feel obliged to make excuses for governments and corporations.
We used washable baby wipes, they were far more effective for wiping up poo by virtue of being Terry cloth, and they still are as we still have them a decade later.
Same. And i think they were all inherited from my sister, so they're 20+ years old and worked on five kids!
Well (local)governments are starting. We are about to have a no/low impact secondary school built. There are no bunsens in the science labs, in fact no gas.
Unfortunately I've been through this before so started asking questions. Yeah architects are a bit shit at practicallity.
Do you have data on the carbon footprint of STW, what are the plans to reduce, how have you reduced. Long term aims etc. could we get a dedicated page in the pull down menu
Probably the biggest single impact would be to fix the janky code that causes everyone's phones / laptops to massively overheat. Bearing in mind how long people spend with STW just burning away - multiplied by number of users...
Controversial suggestion - marginal gains actually make the situation worse?
paper straws, 5p plastic bags, an eco branded toilet paper, separating the recycling etc etc...
These things all have tiny, probably immeasurable impact on the world, but my in-laws (and I think a large part of the populations) think if they are doing those things (and not even all those things) they are doing their bit and so its OK that to fly on holiday 4x a year, including one 2 week cruise on a massive floating dinosaur burning hotel EVERY year.
One of the best decisions we made was getting rid of the Singletrack branded diesel van some years ago. It was one of those things we convinced ourselves we really needed but haven’t missed.
We swapped out all our lights in the office (two floors) for LED lights years ago. Then installed a 4kw solar system on the roof. The mag has been printed as environmentally as we could make it for some time. Renewable sources of paper, printer with strong environmental credentials and the like. Current printer is 100% powered by green sourced energy (Manson).
the janky laptop heating code is entirely the fault of the ad system with animated ads pumped in by ad networks, mostly Google. I’m trying my best to get the business to a point where I can get rid of them. I guess subscribing and going ad free is an environmental option in that case (joking - not serious) 🙂
in short we are conscious of our impact and we try our best to make good choices.
Oh and we just signed up with Octopus Energy for our office supply.
Controversial suggestion – marginal gains actually make the situation worse?
paper straws, 5p plastic bags, an eco branded toilet paper, separating the recycling etc etc…
These things all have tiny, probably immeasurable impact on the world, but my in-laws (and I think a large part of the populations) think if they are doing those things (and not even all those things) they are doing their bit and so its OK that to fly on holiday 4x a year, including one 2 week cruise on a massive floating dinosaur burning hotel EVERY year.
I agree, I think this is an issue. Also an issue is that the key to greenness is, basically, 'use less stuff', but the much stronger forces of marketing and convenience have turned it into 'buy this stuff to increase your greenness'. So we have things like an enormous selection of aluminium drinking bottles in every gift shop and outdoorsy shop in the country, 'plant based' fabric conditioners and, dare I say it again, 'sustainable' wet wipes.
