It’s all very well having organic produce delivered direct from the farm, but what you gain in healthy bowels and soil-nurturing brownie points is traded for convenience. By the time I’ve washed the spinach, scrubbed the beetroots, trimmed the carrots – and made pesto from the leaves – my morning’s gone. Then there’s the extra cost – though by then I’m feeling too virtuous to be making mingy price comparisons with Aldi.
Of course, only those with sufficient time and money can easily transition from the fast lane of a consumerist lifestyle to the slow lane of mindful eco-preservation: which gives a clue to my situation. Yes, I’m a Boomer, which is to say that I am of that immediate post WWII generation, you know, the one that benefitted from full employment, free healthcare, free education, free love and – most importantly – soaring house prices. No one feels sorry for us, nor should they. Which is why I take care to avoid whining at young shop assistants when they are unable to accommodate (or even comprehend) my special needs. A case in point was my recent search for winter-weight woollen trousers. Unless you seek out a specialist outlet, clothing retail is driven by fashion. And it is not currently fashionable, apparently, to wear warm, winter-weight trousers. It’s just as well I have some long-johns in the drawer.
Not that I’m always shopping. I’ve developed a sense of dutiful thrift when it comes to the planet’s finite resources, though it’s true that it’s easier to shun unnecessary consumption when you’ve already spent years buying and discarding heaps of stuff and you know that the next pair of trousers you buy will probably out-live you. Still, the temptations of mammon are constant. I went this week with my Other Half to help her choose some new specs – the old ones having been irreparably damaged when they were inadvertently kicked across the room – and she was offered a buy-one-get-a-second-at-half-price-and-a-third-free deal. It seemed like a great idea. The first pair would be polarised for general use, the second for driving and the third unpolarised and held in reserve for emergencies. So, now she will have three pairs of specs to misplace and is suffering remorse at having over-bought.
“Fear not”, I said, “Cop28 is about to convene in Dubai where, presided over by the head of an oil company, the Good and Great will save the planet for us”. She looked askance. Scientific evidence may point to imminent disaster, but fossil-fuel extractors are busy re-arranging the deckchairs on our sinking ship in an effort to distract attention from our fate. In fact, in a master stroke of diversionary tactics, it was very clever of BP if, as has been averred*, they deliberately nurtured the idea of individual ‘carbon footprints’ for everyone on the planet. By doing so, they offloaded the responsibility for reducing emissions on to us, while continuing to ply their trade as before. If the thought of an oil-rich sheikh fighting for carbon reduction is too ludicrous to bear, look out for your local Cop28 event: activists around the country will be shining a light on this anomaly.
On a more optimistic note, it turns out that there is a secret weapon with which to confound the ambitions of polluting industries: Boomer power! We are diminishing in number, it’s true, but we still hold most of the world’s wealth and if we were to move our money to ‘green’ banks and pension funds, we would deprive them of investment and put a stop to their game. Now there’s something to make you feel extra-righteous while you chew on your gritty spinach.
*Am I Too Old to Save the Planet? A Boomers Guide to Climate Action. Lawrence MacDonald
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