Lockdown to Save Our Planet

 We are staring at the extinction of the humanoid species. Our actions have set in motion a series of positive feedback loops. The Arctic water are warming, Greenland icecap is imminently melting, the Gulf Stream is on the brink of shutting down and extreme weather events are now the new norm, be it fire, heat, rain, tornadoes or even cold. Extreme rising sea levels, no longer modest rises, will displace tens of millions from low lying areas, many coastal cities will become uninhabitable, extreme events will destroy food production for hundreds of millions dependant on their yearly crop. To make matters worse we are dumping increasing amounts of waste and pollutants that leach out threatening the health and reproductive success of the wildlife we rely on. As a consequence biodiversity is under such an onslaught that it unable to respond to such rapid climate changes. Added to which we are cutting down the heart and lungs of the planet that might absorb or at least abate some of these extreme events. We in the rich West have plundered the Planet for stuff to feed our insatiable appetite for novelty whilst two thirds of the Worlds population, living a subsistence life, have no hope of ever improving their lot to even a fraction of what we in the West take as our inalienable birthright. Our Planet just does not have the capacity to let them achieve even a modicum improvement to their subsistence living. Yet meeting the Wests insatiable demand for yet more brighter, glossier, snappier, trendier must haves, the rich west are so close to exhausting the supply of the rarer elements. Extraction continues unabated in yet ever more fragile environments. This relentless thirst for more yet more consumer consumption is exhausting out Planet. It is not just the extraction of course but the energy required to then turn these raw materials into the so desirable baubles We have to stop consuming.  The wheels of the financial systems which support our civilisation are about to fall off. We have so abused this Planet that the very environment we depend on is changing in ways that may well be unsupportable to human life. If, and a big if, we havent previously killed each other in the scramble to retain some of our assumed rights or claiming the last of what might still be habitable or usable.

This is not some far off speculation. At this very moment we are recording such rapid increases in positive feedback loops, within those that are known, whilst there are many other loops still to be discovered. Climate changes are occurring at an accelerated rate which greatly exceeds even the more pessimistic climate change models. We are way past the point where governments prepare policies and discussion papers, way beyond waiting for the international agreements on what climate change limiting measure they might introduce some time soon. We are even beyond the point of implementing an (already?) agreed government action plan. We, that is you and I, need to take action right now. No need to seek permission, as individuals it is up to each of us to change our life style right now. If our children are to have some hope of a survivable future. We each must go into a Lockdown to Save Our Planet today. No more flying, no more driving, no more consuming. We have to go back to living local, self-sufficiency, no more taking out or extracting from the Planet that which cannot be replaced within our lifetime. No more flying novel fruits, out of season storing, warehouse, handling, distributing and selling just to tempt a jaded palate. No more discarding last seasons to buy this years newest twist. No more extracting materials then using huge amounts of energy to convert them into something convenient. Instead we must reconstitute existing products that have already been fashioned, but now abandoned in this changed world, into something lasting and useful. Recycling but big scale, think all the empty factories, aeroplanes, cars. So much material to be creative and technically innovative about without plundering the Planet from yet more new material or requiring yet more energy to convert. Our cyber infrastructure does give me pause for concerns. Huge data stores consume vast amount of energy and the hardware used requires exotic and increasingly rare minerals to make them. Yet this crucial moment is when we need to be in a joined up world, sharing problems, seeking clever answers and checking that all are benefiting equitably, not being left behind. So an exception? Maybe. One existing resources which we have in abundance is decades of landfill. We have to get smart and learn how to extract from our past landfill those scarce, non-renewable resources rather than plunder anew. We have to get back to limiting our living to that which our Planet can afford to offer, without detriment to its essential wild spaces, without compromising the health of all our flora and fauna nor denying other populations their right to comparable standards.  That is how our ancestors lived for ten of thousands of years. We have to go back to nurturing our Planet, living within that which it can offer without detriment, when it will then respond and payback in dividends. Act now and we might have a chance as a species to survive, your choice. Live or Consume? We cannot do both.

Managing Waste

Once, not so long ago, your local authority was obliged to weekly collect, free of charge, all your rubbish, baring just large items of furniture. Now what rubbish you can put out and when is limited, often subject to challenge and other categories of waste are not collected at all and have to be taken, by you, to your local re-cycling tip where it may not or may be accepted or is subject to a charge. 

This issue of re-cycling of our waste has somehow got itself aligned with saving our planet and the climate change agenda. Apart from, a proportionally small, discharge of methane, re-cycling has nothing to do with climate change but has to do with an entirely different issue. Landfill as the only option for getting rid of our waste will run out not too far ahead, we have to change tack. No problem. We all have to re-evaluate what we put out for disposal. No problem. With some two thirds of the world still just surviving hand to mouth and yet to benefit from our assured consumer society. The World's resources cannot furnish ever increasing demands. We have to re-cycle what we have already taken out and not just bury it away, un-useably. No problem. We, the producers of these mountains of rubbish need to be schooled in new ways of sorting it into various  materials which can be re-cycled. No problem.

Having spent time in a third world country I am only too aware of how someone there can make an existence from finding a second use from the most unlikely rubbish we discard here without a thought. Old paper cement bags, bent nails, old beans tins, nothing is discarded, in the third world there is always another secondary use. Back home I am shocked, each time I go to the 're-cycling centre', at the enormous quantity, on a daily basis, of quality rubbish we deem only fit for burying underground. Truly shocked at our profligacy.  So really I am all in favour of re-cycling. I do get the message, loud and clear. What then is my beef?

Every time I go to take my sorted waste to the re-cycle centre I feel intimidated, harassed, insecure, almost threatened by the men on guard duty. Clearly there has to be monitoring of what actually goes into the various separated wastes so the easy option of landfill is not the first choice. Not a nice task standing there all day, all weathers poking into other peoples rubbish. No surprise then that it is largely a male role for those short on academic achievement. Nor that they come to rely on a macho display to enforce their presence. They do of course have to respond to their managers and their managers have to achieve the targets set by their Councils. This is where my problem begins. My Council, but not just mine, you hear stories from around the country, where Councils, taking different tacks, are similarly antagonising their ratepayers. Councils seem to have totally lost sight of the need to encourage and re-educate. Instead their eyes gleam on the huge savings made possible by this government change in policy and the chance to generate even more money. Forgetting the basic principle you have to take your willing users along with you all the way or risk a backlash. Which is right where we are now. 


I really want to co-operate and want to be compliant. I believe in sorting my waste and get a boost when I manage to re-cycle something that previously would be buried. But I also get confused. Why is a bulk oil tin, yes regular valuable tin, with plastic removed and washed out, rejected? Why is paper separate to cardboard and why is this paper ok but not that. Do I really have to remove all the plastic envelope windows, but then what about staples and tapes? That is before we get onto the subject of all the various types and forms of plastics. Some which are, some which are not regardless of whether they are claimed to be recyclable. Why oh why is that paving slab unacceptable and either I have to pay to re-cycle it or put it in with the landfill waste. That is just not right. Then the necessary regular trips the the re-cycle centre to dispose of all that product now deemed to be non-collectable at the kerbside. All those extra car journeys willingly undertaken only to discover the Site is closed. Shut to save money. That really does engender goodwill and co-operation! Fly-tipping in the backwaters of our life is the entirely foreseeable and predictable outcome to all. Apart from those selfsame Councils who maintain the party line. Fly-tipping is routinely monitored and there is no evidence of any increase. How is that for officalise horseshit. Encouragement, information, education and listening are the only routes to succeed in reducing our landfill burden.