I was listening to some radio programme this morning before going to work, the subject was how to improve the carbon footprint and reduce the ecological consequences of our post-capitalist ways of life. I was wondering about where to begin and with what. The main problem in my case would be to stop taking flights. Living abroad, the airport has become my train station, I go there as often as a person living on the continent would take the bus. I have a sea to cross, two even, and I am still wondering about how to reconcile my taste for travelling and my pseudo political consciousness. I went on wondering about those things the whole day long. My way of transport is not the accused one: I cycle all the time, I have never driven a car in my life, I have my driving licence for a motorbike but I've never owned one. Then, my way of eating: I eat less and less meat, try to privilege the organically grown vegetables, produced locally (even though the locally produced in Ireland are quite limited). I do produce too much waste though, and I am trying to reduce the amount of plastic bags.. Not an easy thing to do either, the slightest banana is wrapped in a plastic envelope in this country.
The most difficult matter for me is to know which is the most ecologically responsible way of drying my hands after going to the bathroom (I like using the word "bathroom", it is so bloody stupid not to use the word "toilets" anymore just because you kinda admit you're going for a pee this way). Anyway, once those hands are washed, let's say in the office, how the hell do you dry them? If you use the papers provided, you produce a lot of waste, and this paper is generally treated with a lot of chlore. Otherwise you can use the electric hand dryer. But this uses electricity, and electricity in Ireland is produced almost exclusively from fossil energies. Then you can still carry your own handkerchief and use it again and again, but this handkerchief will have to be washed at some point, which uses electricity + detergent. The debate's still open...
If you want to know what your carbon footprint is per year, and how to reduce it, you can go to
We would need 2 planets like the Earth if everyone was living the way I do..
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