Navigating your Greenity

How do we make choices that are more green? Choices that will help the planet or at least not damage it? How do we reduce our carbon footprint?!

There's so much information out there and I've discussed some of it before. Suggestions that most would agree with include walking whenever possible, buying organic, driving a hybrid automobile, and of course always using paper and not plastic.

This morning I came across some 'facts' excerpted from a new book by Chris Goodall titled How to Live a Low-Carbon Life. NOTE: I call them 'facts' as statistics can be tweaked to serve almost any end goal so as such take this with a grain of salt.

Shattering the great green myths

— Traditional nappies are as bad as disposables, a study by the Environment Agency found. While throwaway nappies make up 0.1 per cent of landfill waste, the cloth variety are a waste of energy, clean water and detergent

— Paper bags cause more global warming than plastic. They need much more space to store so require extra energy to transport them from manufacturers to shops

— Diesel trains in rural Britain are more polluting than 4x4 vehicles. Douglas Alexander, when Transport Secretary, said: “If ten or fewer people travel in a Sprinter [train], it would be less environmentally damaging to give them each a Land Rover Freelander and tell them to drive”

— Burning wood for fuel is better for the environment than recycling it, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs discovered

— Organic dairy cows are worse for the climate. They produce less milk so their methane emissions per litre are higher

— Someone who installs a “green” light bulb undoes a year’s worth of energy-saving by buying two bags of imported veg, as so much carbon is wasted flying the food to Britain

— Trees, regarded as shields against global warming because they absorb carbon, were found by German scientists to be major producers of methane, a much more harmful greenhouse gas

Sources: Defra; How to Live a Low-Carbon Life, by Chris Goodall; Absorbent Hygiene Products Manufacturers Association; The Times; BBC

Article Link.