This is a deep rabbit hole to go down. There are multiple ingredients found in laundry detergents for a range of reasons and with a range of impacts, i.e. this eco-tip is going to be a long one. Ingredients by function: Ingredients by impact: To do a perfect wash, you’d want to add the right…
Category: Action
Keep Peat in Bogs not Bags
Mushrooms, for peat’s sake? It seems Britain and Ireland’s mushroom growers use nothing but peat from our extensive CO2-storing peat bogs, adding to the continued decimation and massive CO2 emissions caused by the gardening trade. As part of its campaign to save our heritage from the effects of climate change, the National Trust has removed…
Love and Rage, Outrage and Optimism – July 2 Fresk Workshop Follow-up
It was a sunny Tuesday evening and great for doing a climate fresk, with the sun coming in through the big front windows of the climate centre. I was joined by Chris Heaton to co-facilitate and Anna who runs the Islington Climate Centre where we were hosting the fresk. Here is the resulting fresk, not…
Insulation and Central Heating
Together pollution reductions from government targets for home insulation and central heating would make up 18% of UK emissions by 2032, i.e. a big deal. Not everyone is going to be able or willing to afford this, so we have to hope the next government will take appropriate action. A lot of politicians and mainstream…
World Refugee Day Raises Justice Concerns
On World Refugee Day, June 20th, the United Nations asks us to celebrate the right to seek safety, which refugees seek to exercise. Whether we welcome refugees in empathy or worry about the huge numbers predicted from the climate crisis, there is one ethical and practical dilemma we must never but frequently do ignore: do…
Library of Things
Borrowing makes sense: save the investment in money and the CO2 emissions simultaneously at a London Library of Things. Our local LoTs: There was a LoT in Islington on Seven Sisters Road but alas no more. You can “vote” for a LoT in Haringey: https://www.libraryofthings.co.uk/heatmap/harringay Find out more about the “circular economy” and what it…
Keeping your Home Cool in Heatwaves
Following up on a previous post, there are quite a few things you can do to keep your home cool during a heatwave. Of course if you have fans or air conditioning, you can turn that on. The irony of that though is that the climate change-induced heatwaves cause us to emit more climate change-inducing…
Exciting Ecological Economics
The dismal science no more! With an election coming up here in the UK, we should bear in mind how many voices are saying that mainstream economic theory is horrendously flawed. The major political parties in the UK base their economic policies on mainstream economics. It might seem iconoclastic to say it, but a good…
Palm Oil
Analysis paralysis in the palm oil industry. Palm oil is grown in the Tropics on land cleared from the rainforests. It is contained in 50% of all products consumed in the industrialised world, including everything from soap to jet fuel. Most efforts to contain the expansion of the industry and save rainforests have failed. The…
Some of the Better Headlines
Negative news headlines have dominated over the last few weeks and the usual doses of “stubborn optimism” and “reasons to be cheerful” didn’t exactly hit the spot last week, so here’s an EcoCounts version: