Thoughts on the day the planet tips into Ecological Overdraft, 2006

9th October 2006: We've already used up the year's supply of the Earth's resources - now we're in ecological overdraft until the end of 2006, with almost 12 weeks still to go. See articles in The Independent and The Guardian today, Monday 9 October.
 
Why not use the remaining 83 days of the year to make yourself aware of your contribution to the planet's ecological overdraft and to work out how well you'd get on if you had to improvise and live on reduced resources. There are some ideas below.  

NB: Many of the ideas may sound extreme, perhaps leading to a boring life, if you read them one after the other as shown below. However, there is no way of escaping it: we must find simpler ways of living, even if it means giving up our current sophisticated, fast-paced lifestyles, because modern life in industrialised countries uses too many of the planet's resources.

1. Make an inventory of everything you own. Can't do it? List the contents of the room where you keep your financial information, plus a bedroom and a shed, garage or storeroom. Include any vehicles which you have.

2. Split the list of things you own into two parts: 
a) things which need input from someone or somewhere else (eg. electricity, internet access, petrol/diesel, spare parts from the manufacturer etc) before they will work and 
b) things which are useful without external input (eg. spades and hoes, blankets and bedding, paper and pencils, candles and matches, cash and jewellery, clothes and shoes, bicycles and pushcarts etc)

3. Spend one day each week using only things which require no external input (eg. putting more clothes on instead of turning on the central heating, going to bed when it gets too dark and cold, cycling or walking everywhere, not using the microwave, freezer, internet or TV etc).  

4. Encourage your neighbours or friends to do the same - swap or share things you need which you don't have in your own home.

5. Hold a Makeover and Mend Day, dealing with items in your home which are no longer useful but which could be used if mended or adapted in some way. Make a list of items which are too complex to mend but for which more straightforward versions are (or used to be) available. 

6. Hold a Plastic Awareness Day - put a coloured sticker on every piece of plastic which you touch or use during the course of the day. Analyse the results: what? how many? which could be avoided?

7. Hold a Food Miles Day, working out how far your food has travelled to reach you. Repeat the exercise a couple of times to see if you can reduce the total each time.

8. Make a note of all the meat you eat during a week. Try and reduce the amount of meat each week, eating no meat at all during one or more of the weeks before Christmas.

9. If you celebrate Christmas, have a One Planet Christmas using as few external resources as possible for your food, presents, travelling arrangements and entertainment.

10. If you have a car, sell it and don't buy a new one till the planet can afford it....

Cathy Aitchison