Those who want to do more of the right things often find they can’t
I went to an eco-fair held in Lancaster on Saturday, and while it was at least a start, I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t that much to see. I also felt the return of a familiar and unfocussed annoyance at being reminded of the sad fact that those of us most keen to take big steps to reduce our carbon footprints and dependency upon fossil fuels are least able to afford to implement them.
In our household we do what we can, which, according to statistics and our own experience and observations, is more than the majority, but we’d love to do more besides recycling, washing at lower temperatures, composting, and keeping hens for eggs. We buy Fair Trade and organic produce when we can afford to, which isn’t anywhere near as often as we’d like that to be, and one of us is a vegetarian, the other only eating meat rarely. We know a fair bit about wood-burning stoves, solar panels, and wind turbines—but there’s no way we can splash out on these in the foreseeable future. We can’t even afford to redecorate, or turn the garage into the extra room we crave.
tags: depression, eco-fair, environment, recession, sustainability
