Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi,
Is anyone else attending a strike event today? It's essentially my worst nightmare but I feel so strongly about the issue that I have to at least try.
I have to confess, I knew nothing about it until I saw this thread - living under a rock as usual; I am a troglodyte after all!
However, I second the sentiment that it's good to see so many young people getting involved in trying to shape a better world. I do my little bit by modelling my lifestyle on the Wombles to some extent, but I do wish I had more stamina for being out in public and joining in with the activism.
I suspect, as most of the UK media is owned by very wealthy people with a lot of shares in non-renewables, it wasn't widely talked about. I mostly hear about the climate crisis from Twitter but it does seem to be slowly changing (not fast enough).
If we all followed the example of the wombles we wouldn't be in this mess! :) Companies are constantly coming up with ideas to be more eco, whilst still encouraging us to buy buy buy, but actually just re-using things, not buying things we don't need, would be better for the planet.
To be honest, I deliberately exclude news media from my life for the most part - to some extent because I realise the biases which you mentioned. I also find that most modern news outlets contain very little actual news at all - just lots of idle speculation and sensationalism sourced from people who can't possibly know the full facts yet, and who's bona fides as "experts" are often extremely dubious. I read Private Eye once a fortnight to get an overview of what's been going on (the investigative journalism is good; the 6th-form humour less so), but other than that, I only know whatever I stumble across during my usual online activities. I've rarely found that people who know lots of detailed "facts" about the news have any better understanding of the wider picture - and there has even been some research done which seems to confirm this.
And I agree, there's a lot of "greenwashing" going on these days - buying no product at all will always trump buying a "green" one. Ultimately, I think we're going to make little progress until the oxymoronic (or just moronic) idea of "sustainable growth" is finally put to bed (or at least that "growth" is defined in terms other than financial ones).
When I was a kid, milk was delivered to your door from an electric vehicle in a bottle which was washed and reused (not even smashed up for "recycling".) The local greengrocer sold your veggies in a brown paper bag. There were enough local shops that you didn't need a car, or to take a bus journey, to do your shopping. It was expected and accepted that some foods were seasonal. The responsibility has been unfairly pushed onto individual consumers, and then co-opted as another "unique selling point" for yet more useless junk that nobody really needs - or at least, these "needs" have been manufactured every bit as much as the products.
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