In the spring issue of Barrow Voice, we investigated how some of the community groups, institutions and businesses in Barrow have started to put the climate crisis on their agenda.
In preparation for the summer issue, we have turned out attention to actions being taken by individuals and families in Barrow. It has been calculated that over half of carbon emission cuts needed in order to reach net zero by 2050 will rely on decisions made at a local and family level. We can’t just assume that organisations, big business and government will do it all for us. And we certainly do need to make changes in Barrow. The following bar charts show that Barrow is doing rather worse with its carbon footprint than elsewhere in Charnwood:
We asked people on the High Street if they would tell us how they were making changes to reduce their own carbon footprint. This resulted in a list of ideas that any of us could take up. What also emerged was that people are concerned. There is the general feeling that our national government is good at talking but not good at initiating action. And most of us are unaware of what, if anything, our County Council and Borough Council are doing about the Climate Crisis.
The most frequently mentioned eco–move concerned single-use plastics although too many people were merely satisfied with recycling what they had used. We actually need to avoid their use altogether. It generates carbon to make plastics; it generates even more to get rid of them by whatever means.
Next most commonly mentioned was cutting back on eating meat. The link between rearing animals, especially cattle, for consumption and carbon generation seems to be well known. “I’ve already cut back on meat eating. I haven’t eaten beef for over a year now. But it suddenly dawned on me that I should be using different kind of milk than cows. I really like oat milk.”
Here are other comments we noted:
| “I’ve cut down on plastic bottles by using soap, shampoo and conditioner bars. I haven’t noticed any difference in my hair, but I don’t throw so many bottles into recycling anymore”. |
| “I make much more use of charity shops, partly to get my new clothes but also to give up old ones.” |
| “I’ve bought a jug shaped thermos flask. When I boil too much water, I put the spare in the jug to use later. It saves a lot of energy but it has also made me better aware of how much water I need to heat.” |
| “We’ve banned T-shirt living in our house. Mum put the thermostat down by 3oC and we live in warm jumpers and even coats when the weather is cold.” |
| “We’re trying not to buy so much ‘stuff’. I saw this bar chart that showed how much carbon is made when anything is manufactured, even little things like a packet of wet wipes.” |
| “I tried doing last week’s wash at 30oC last week instead of 60oC. I couldn’t see any difference in how clean things were so I’m going to stick to 30oC in future.” |
| “We’ve started making sure that the oven is used to cook several things at once. It takes some organizing but we’re getting used to it.” |
Judith Rodgers