Sol-Mate
Hard on the heels of my worm farming success, our house now runs off solar energy, generated from our newly installed panels. Before you know it, I’ll be converting the front garden into a veggie patch fed with my very own worm compost.
We still use some fossil fuelled energy (after dark) but it’s a start. I’m not about to put greenwashing boasting signs outside the house.
Sometimes I wonder what this period of history will be known as. The Age of Annihilation? Will our obsession with digging up millennia-old fossils and choking our atmosphere with greenhouse gases seem absurdly abhorrent to future generations? In a sort of, they didn’t know any better/ that’s how things were then, kind of way? Meanwhile we continue to learn, creating new and progressive ways to live. Bitcoin, only invented in 2009, already encompasses a carbon emissions footprint bigger than Norway.
In our household, however, it’s all about thinking global and acting local. Our new solar app shows us the exact moment we start to generate energy – when the sun comes up, around six o’clock. It’s a giddy shift from not thinking about your energy consumption to obsessing with it. As long as you dodge the screen-wielding person pointing to the daily peaks and troughs (‘there’s a storm coming over at three, don’t use the washing machine then!’) - you’re fine.
I mentioned our new panels to work colleagues. We all know that politics and religion are taboo areas for small talk (you never know where you might uncover a secret Trump fan) but it seems we still need to add climate sceptics to the list.
‘I’m still not sure about all that solar stuff, it’s so expensive and a bit of a rort’ declared my colleague Val.
I assured her that the panel costs were offset by the reduced bill. So, no upfront payment or out of pocket. This only seemed to fuel her argument.
Val: ‘Aha! So, you DO have to pay for the panels!’
Me: ‘Well yes, but your new bill is a quarter of what it was, so…’
Val: (armed folded, nodding triumphantly) ‘See, there’s always a trap. They get you somewhere, somehow!’
Me: (glancing round the table at several pairs of eyes watching the discussion) ????
Val: ‘You can’t win me over; I’m still not convinced.’
Me: ‘Mother Earth is the winner!’
(Relieved laughter round the table)
Global efforts to find consensus and set deliverable targets beyond many of our lifetimes and well exceeding any span of political power are simply meaningless. Satirical website The Shovel posted the below article prior to the Glasgow COP26 last year.
Man announced he will quit drinking by 2050.
The programme will see Greg Taylor, 73, continue to drink as normal for the foreseeable future, before reducing consumption in 2049 when he turns 101. He has assured friends it will not affect his drinking plans in the short or medium term.
‘It’s not realistic to transition to zero alcohol overnight. This requires a steady, phased approach where nothing changes for at least two decades,’ Taylor said, adding that he may need to make additional investments in beer consumption in the short term, to make sure no night out is worse off.
My own household solar sceptic has vanished overnight in a final puff of CO2. It might not be realistic to reach zero emissions, but everyone can get pretty close pretty quickly. If we want future generations to remember us well, let alone live well, we have no choice. It’s on us to remake our world and sow our own seeds to change our culture of consumption.