An eco and ethical way of life?

Wow ! What a topic to embark on eh?

Well, Liz and I have been doing a bit of naval gazing and have decided that we need to re-address our way of living.

Ahead of us are some major issues affecting some major issues of our lifestyle. Such as -

Christmas - try buying a present which hasn't come half way round the globe! And what far-flung countries should we continue to support? Some country's clearly need trade with western countries to maintain their economy and without which their people would be in even worse plight. But we MUST reduce the airmiles of much of what we buy - buy locally!

Energy - like all homes we guzzle on non-renewable energy. In our case electricity and LPG. All regular bulbs have already been replaced with low energy bulbs (John Lewis currently have 8w and 11w (60w and 100w equivalents) for only 99p!! see here - they make cracking stocking fillers for xmas!).

Building - having bought the cottage, we are about to embark on a major building project converting the two cottages into one home. And we want to do it eco-style! FSC timber, lime mortar, the works. But will we be able to afford it?

Holidays and travel - the big one! Just how often do we fly? We both fly occasionally for work, and to some extent we've kinda agreed that this is a necessary eveil of our respective livelihoods. However, can flying for pleasure, i.e. to simply go birding abroad, ever be justified? Well, until recently I thought not. But then someone laid the developing country argument on me. The main thrust is that apart from some countries needing tourism for their economy to survive, some countries also need eco-tourism for their environment to survive. Without eco-tourists some wild habitats of many countries will simply be destroyed as their will be no local value or need for them. Geeeze - what a lose-lose situation! We are buggered if we fly there and the place is buggered if no of us bother! So, perhaps we simply reduce the amount of air travel we do. Make fewer journeys and perhaps stay in each destination longer to make up for fewer holidays? At least it will be a compromise that will see us reducing our overall travel and carbon emissions.

Well, lets se how we get on!