Marginal gains to save the planet

Not all bins in the house need bags in, and not all that do need a new bag every time you empty them.

Stop using disposable bikes with fragile transmissions.

Stop driving to ride.

Stop using your mobile. That will save electricity for charging, all that crap to produce them and the poisons resulting from disposal.

Stay at home , not waste resources to holiday.

No imported luxury food. Bloody bananas.

Modern life really needs to stop.

Would banning new things generally help? Never seen a decent explanation of how a new electric car every few years is better than an old one every 20 years.

Alternatively be a hypocrite.

Stopping your wage, savings and pension contributions being used for harm is quick, easy and painless.

there’s interesting figures behind this, but it is not clear cut..

Are E.S.G. Investors Actually Helping the Environment?

Don’t agree with that. Depriving the multi-billion dollar fossil fuel companies of money to transition. I have two word for that and one of them is off. It’s about not investing your hard earned in to companies and practices that cause harm to people or planet. I’ve seen and read more evidence for than against.

I haven’t eaten meat for 30+ years, ride to work (albeit nowadays on a soft e-bike), one car that gets used sparingly, don’t fly to go on holiday and don’t drive to ride.

However, I have 2 kids.

However, I have 2 kids.

Thanks.

Someone’s got to pay my pension.

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.

How about we remove health care from the over 80s and make euthanisa much easier?

What the heck?

I hope you’re not serious. I’m sick of old people bashing atm.

Well said.

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 can also wear them two or three times without smell unlike cotton which goes about 4hrs in hot weather. I haven’t analysed this though.

I’m the exact opposite, anything synthetic & it gets stinky way faster & obnoxious than cotton 🤔

 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.