Why I’m trying to do my eco best

I decided to start this blog as a way to deal with the ever-growing guilt I’ve been feeling about how, simply by being alive, I am damaging the earth.

That paragraph sounds like something maudling 15 year old me would have written. But now I’m 37 and I have a house, a car, two children and a life that seems to endlessly produce plastic, poopy nappies, car journies and dead bees who have drowned in our paddling pool.

At 15, my biggest impact on the environment was probably khol eyeliner sharpenings and chemicals from home tie-dye attempts. Now though, 22 years on, I feel like everything I do has an impact and I am choosing to take responsibility for this.

It started with a quote

A few years ago I read an article (or it may have just been a quote) that talked about how everything that exists on earth has been made by materials from the earth and when it’s no longer used, it will stay on the earth.

I don’t know why, as what this sentence is saying is so obvious, but this blew my mind and I’ve never forgotten it. Sadly, I have forgotten where I read it and when I tried to Google it, all I got was lyrics to a Kendrick Lamar song.

The idea that everything that has ever been on the earth has stayed on the earth (apart from some space exploration bits) really made me think about what I buy, what I use, what I throw away.

Reducing my consumption

If I buy a plastic bottle of water at a supermarket and chuck it in the recycling bin when I’ve finished with it – what happens to that bottle?

It might get recycled into another bottle or something else, but this takes energy to do, as does making another bottle to replace the one I bought. And what if it doesn’t get recycled? It might end up in the gutter, in a river or in the sea where it slowly chokes a seal to death.

Taking responsibility

I see it as my responsibility to not buy that bottle in the first place, even if it means having to wait until I get home to have a drink, I think that’s a very small price to pay.

So this blog is a place for me to record my attempts at being a better environmentalist.

I am not a scientist, I don’t know facts and figures about global warming beyond what I can read online, but I do know things are bad. And if I can do as much as I can to make them a little better or lessen my impact, then I will.

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