 In these days you can do a lot of things for free. Legally . No need to buy a newspaper- you can read it for free (some papers are changing to subscriptions only , but often you can still get some free articles - or choose a different one). No need to pay for a cinema ticket : movies are cheap and if you subscribe for very little you can get many films for a very small price . You can also find plenty of free entertainment online on platforms such as YouTube , Vimeo .. no need to buy cds : Spotify has all the music you want , for free . You can also just listen to very informative stories or fun chats on various podcasts platforms . You can get workouts for free and yoga classes for free, on YouTube or on the many apps which have a free version. If you buy something online , for much cheaper than in shop , you get free deliveries and free returns .
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 Outdoors adventures. If you know me even a little bit, you may know I am not shy of outdoors adventures. Hiking, running, sailing, swimming, rowing, surfing, climbing.. anything that makes you be in the great outdoors. You will find me there . There is something magical about being there , you become aware not only about the beauty of the surroundings but also about the power that nature has. You learn it the hard way too, when a wave crashes on your head and you end up in a washing machine trying not to hit your head while hoping you will get to breathe soon, or while you have too much sail surface on, making hard to impossible to steer, or while you are atop a mountain and you see a storm coming and the path in front of you looks so hard and rugged but going back isn’t an option.
I wrote before about the importance of respecting nature and being careful about planning adventures . I also made a list of sports and how to ensure to make these really sustainable (e.g. sustainable scuba, sup). Today I want to focus on the idea that maybe outdoorsy people are more likely to want to protect it too.  Living waste free is often only associated with the avoidance of packaging , single use plastic and the swap to reusable everything . But it’s a limiting vision. Being waste free means being mindful of how much we buy, because inevitably the more we buy the more we end up throwing away. This goes for items, buying new shoes and throwing away old ones when maybe we could just fix or wash the older ones, just as an example. But if nobody buys shoes, and companies keep on producing them , there will be waste. So the key is to reduce the demand . The ‘fast - economy' (fast food, fast fashion ...) is the number one enemy of sustainability. But this also goes for more ‘basic’ needs - like food .  ‘Arm race’ stand for a pattern of competitive acquisition of military capability between two or more countries.
The term is also used in evolutionary biology, preceded by the word ‘evolutionary’ to describe the struggle between competing sets of co-evolving genes, traits, or species, that develop adaptations and counter-adaptations against each other, that resembles this competitive arms race.  Today’s post is inspired by some recent reading.
Please bear with me, it may sound ‘difficult’ but i hope it will make sense in the end. I want to talk about the idea of putting a price on carbon emissions, a carbon tax. I already wrote in a previous post about the carbon market and carbon credits and how they work. But how really is the price of carbon calculated?  The Cruise industry may be over. It surely took a big blow with the pandemic (if anything, something to see some good amongst a lot of terrible things).
In order to celebrate some victories sometimes, albeit small, here is one: the cruise sector has cancelled all cruises passing in Venice for 2020. Considering that there was the idea of having one arriving on August 15th, the fact that none will pass for the rest of the season seems like grand news. I know that I am biased , and likely ships not coming here means that they will go somewhere else. And I know , that it came more as a ‘sudden’ shift , for which people were not prepared (although, really, they should have been!! It was a long time coming..) and that a lot of people have lost their jobs as a result . I know that. But one has sometimes got to hit rock bottom to lift back up. This is our opportunity for change  Ok. The moment that I was dreading arrived.
I am playing with the idea of getting a car. Well, it's not that I am playing with the idea, it's just that I realised I kind of need one for doing certain things that make my life better. I am an adventurous kind, and well, sometimes the buses don't allow you to have adventures. Plus, really, is riding 5 buses for a total of 6 hours more sustainable than driving just 2? The most serious sustainable heads out there will say 'change your lifestyle', but as you know I am one for sustainability within a good life worth living. I am not expecting others make massive sacrifices, and that's why i started this blog - to show that one can just be more mindful in everyday life choices without having to become a full-on 'hippie without a phone'. So, I need a car. And I have been wondering to myself: can I go with my idea of a used car or would i be better buying a new car that would be 'greener' ?  Sustainability. Seems to be so hip to be ‘sustainable’ and ‘zero waste’ nowadays.
When I say ‘no thanks’ to some single use item , I get some praises in response such as ‘well done , we should all do that’ . I may say thanks, or act polite but all I am saying in my head is ‘then why the heck are you still giving those out !? Rant over But will sustainability be the next trend destined for failure or will it be really something ? I mean , what’s been happening in recent years and what’s been happening in this crazy 2020 should have woken us up. Has it ?  Plastic plastic plastic . Yet again I am back talking about this topic...
Even if the zero waste movement has taken over a bit , and more and more we hear talking about reusables or bring your own at parties (even better now with COVID , I have my spoon fork knife all in one tool which has become a loyal companion). It really is not enough... Even worse , I have met recently an 'around the world sailor' and she told me that the plastic soup is nothing like what I imagined, it’s really more like an actual soup, made of tiny bits rather than big items. And well , it goes without saying that a lot gets ingested by us - apparently something like a credit card worth a week . A week . Can’t be healthy . Or who knows . It will be the next fad diet ? This long pre amble to say that plastic is still a big issue. But what can be done?  If you have followed a sustainable lifestyle for a while , you may be familiar with the ‘ no-poo’ methods. And if you followed me , you know that I have been shampoo free for just over 4 years now..
But why ? |
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Photos used under Creative Commons from marcoverch, Pascal Volk
