Welcome to the comfort zone. In this, the inaugural post, I’ll be throwing out fables, unleashing my thoughts and chatting about where to find sustainable duvets made from recycled water bottles.
We all made the bed we lie in.
There’s no way round this, we’re already a few years full tilt into ‘interesting times’. The Amazon’s on fire, the president of the free world has it in for windmills and our best defence is a 16-year-old schoolgirl, aka Greta Thunberg.
That’s no dig at Greta, she’s as good as her anagram suggests. Between you and I, in a fair fight she’d beat Trump tiny hands down. Sadly, this world isn’t fair and to that end, it’s time we all did something about it.
Before you cast your stones, yes, I’m guilty. I’m an imperfect, stubborn, and on occasion stupid, human being with a love of pointless gadgets, 70mph and overseas holidays.
Am I going to give up my EasyJet affliction? No, but I may take it a little easier this year and there’s something else I’m going to do too.
I’m going to take notice and I’m going to act.
I’m not planning on towing any sailboats into the town centre. Neither do I don’t intend swimming off to some Hebridean island to live in a cave and scratch a living from windfall fruit.
That said, I will be making some changes, but before I do, let’s have a fable.
If you haven’t heard the tale of the hummingbird, trust me it’s a doozy. On a self-righteous level, it’s also perfect for shutting down whiny voices on both sides of the fence… so, ecoutez repetez…
The story goes like this...
There’s a huge forest fire (oh how fiction mocks life…). Anyway, amid the flames and confusion the animals gather in a clearing to decide what to do. All except the hummingbird. The hummingbird instead races to the river, fills its tiny beak with water and flies back to pour the mouthful on the fire. While the animals chatter, they eventual stop the hummingbird and ask it what it thinks it’s doing… “All that I can” is the bird’s reply…
In the story, the shame jars the rest of the animals into action and soon, together, they get the fire under control or at least it should. In the film version, The Rock arrives just in time to save the day, not before saving his family first though…
The thing is, Greta, is the hummingbird (and maybe The Rock?) and I can’t sit back and watch her flit across the Atlantic on a dingy to tackle the fire, while I pad about on my iPad Pro.
Like I said, I’m not going to be going vegan, or turning my Audi into an urban greenhouse, but I will eat less meat and walk more.
I recently realised that there’s an eco-friendly version of almost everything out there. This week, I ordered a coconut fibre dish brush and with it I plan to defeat the dishwasher. Last week, I found out that you can get brown paper packing tape backed with natural rubber. Two weeks ago, I picked up a solar charger in a charity shop. Now, I have a permanent solar charging station set up on the kitchen windowsill. The fact that I can still get a full charge as we head into October reminds me every day why I need to use it. It’s not just about buying new stuff either. Did you know just cleaning the coils on the back of your fridge makes it 30% more efficient? I didn’t either, until yesterday.
I’ve made these changes and I will continue to add more because I want to be able to get to sleep at night. I don’t like the idea of being haunted by the guilt of turning our planet into a twisted version of Mad Max Fury Road.
Speaking of sleep, and since this is our dime, did you know we can make duvets made from recycled water bottles? Upcycled and given a second life as a high quality, soft and snuggly duvet. I now sleep under one such eco-friendly duvet, it's one of our Duvet Hog Originals. You may not know this, but since duvets end up in landfill, the chance to take one back out was too good to miss. What's more, you can be sure that somewhere out there in the bleak future, this little mouthful of water will make it easier on our planet.
I have never met Greta Thunberg, I’d like to, but chances are I won’t and that’s fine. Thanks to her though, and like her, I am a hummingbird too.
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