I’m not entirely sure that I feel that a ‘buy nothing day’ really has much worth. I mean, what’s the point? It’s not like that thing you might have bought on that day isn’t just going to purchased by you the day after is it? But the thinking behind it isn’t a bad idea and maybe that’s the point.

I think we’re all guilty of short term thinking. We pick up a product from the shelf with little or no thought as to where it came from, who made it, how it’s packaged, what happens to that packaging, and what will happen to the product once we’re done with it.

A tiny proportion of the world are using most of its resources, and we should probably all take a moment to ponder that for a while I guess.

Sushi has to be my favorite kind of food. I dared to try it only a few years ago and I’ve been hooked (no pun intended) ever since. But according to a recent scientific study our sushi loving days could well be numbered.

According to the recently published report commercial fishing will have to be halted if seafood and fish stocks continues to dwindle at the present rate. With less than 1% of the world’s ocean surface protected from overfishing the study warns that if urgent action to curb overfishing and destruction of the ocean’s habitat isn’t taken now global fish and seafood stocks will collapse by 2048.

Analysing historical and scientific data, researchers discovered that marine biodiversity – the variety of ocean fish, shellfish, birds, plants and micro-organisms – has dramatically declined in recent years. Extending this pattern to the future researchers estimate that within fifty years the damage to all seafood and fish stock could be devastating.

“Whether we looked at tide pools or studies over the entire world’s ocean, we saw the same picture emerging. In losing species we lose the productivity and stability of entire ecosystems. I was shocked and disturbed by how consistent these trends are, beyond anything we suspected.” Said Boris Worm of Dalhousie University, Canada.

Dr. Worm, lead author of the study published in Science Journal, went on to say that pollution, habitat destruction and climate change have also had an affect but that the potential collapse can be avoided if immediate action is taken to let ecosytems recover.

I’m not the only person who has started to eat more fish in recent time though. According to statistics developed countries like the United States are now consuming higher volumes of fish because of the documented health benefits. But there is some hope for those who love sushi and other fish foods. Land-based fish farming is being suggested as a viable alternative in meeting fish demands.

“We’re in a very dangerous situation with the twin forces working against each other; rising demand linked with falling supply because of overfishing,” Warns Robert Sewell, Chairman of Cell Aquaculture Limited, a company that is develops land-based systems for growing fish in a controlled, environmentally sustainable environment.

According to Mr Sewell, “We need to do three things to ensure the long term viability of fish stocks. Firstly educate consumers about the environmental benefits of buying farmed fish; secondly encourage more investment in aquaculture; and thirdly, manage commercial fishing in order to allow stocks to recover so wildcaught fisheries can return to healthy levels.”

However, just as with the issue of global warming, some people aren’t convinced that the gloomy predictions are right. Mike Jackson, who runs a fish stall in Widnes Market here in England, said he has seen little evidence of the fish shortages scientists are warning of.

“They told us the world would end ten years ago but we’re still here,” Said Jackson. “There are more fish at the market at the moment than ever.”

It’s probably too much to expect a man who believes that ten years ago scientists were predicting the end of the world, to see how ironic his last sentence was. But while Widnes market may be full of fish, the old adage of there being ‘plenty more fish in the sea’ may very well not be the case for much longer.

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Scientists warn of fish stocks collapse
Fish stocks ‘will collapse in 50 years’
Fish stock collapse explained on Australian radio (MP3)
Fishermen, facing declining stocks, turn to sharks
Groups sue to end Gulf of Mexico Bluefin fishing
Western bluefin tuna nearly extinct

With gas in the UK costing anywhere between eight to twelve dollars a gallon it’s hard to understand why anyone would choose to drive an SUV, but they do. This British commercial asks a simple question. What does your car say about you?

According to British newspaper, The Independent, one out of every seven cars sold in London is a 4×4 off-road vehicle, and that number looks set to rise as the 4×4 is the most desired vehicle of status-conscious parents who are more likely to use the vehicle for a school run rather than a off-road adventure.

Greenpeace believe that parents who drive 4x4s for the “safety” of their children are contributing to the likelihood that those children will face a dire global emergency while they are in their twenties.

Personally I would like to see SUV’s and other similar gas guzzlers hit particularly hard by taxes and higher rates on roads like the M6 toll. Inner city parking lots could also impose height restrictions making it difficult to park one of these so called ‘Chelsea tractors.’ Clearly the only way to stem the desire for SUV’s is to start making life difficult for people who choose to buy one.

According to some reports the UK government may well be on the verge of introducing a raft of eco-taxes that are sure to be unpopular with a public that are still largely unconverned about the effects of climate change. However the taxes will hit owners of SUV’s with road tax being trebled from the annual figure of £210 ($397.23) to £630 ($1,153.87). As yet similar tactics do not seem to be on the cards for driver of SUV’s in the United States, the worlds biggest market for such vehicles.

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What does your car say about you?
About ‘Gaz Guzzler’
Offroad cars, Onroad menace
Baby on board
SUV’s are spreading
Stop Urban 4×4’s
Print spoof parking tickets (UK)

We’ve been enjoying some great weather in the UK over the last few weeks. Long hot sunny days with hardly any rain, great for all those who love the summer like myself, but not so good for the water companies that are having to deal with the fact that there is a rising demand for water being made on a slowly declining supply here in the UK.

It took going to India for me to truly appreciate the luxury we take for granted with clean water on tap. An estimated 1.1 billion people in the world don’t have access to clean drinking water putting them at grave risk from diseases like cholera, typhoid, shigella, polio, meningitis, and hepatitis A and E. Every year 1.6 million people die from drinking contaminated water, and 90% of them are children under five.

According to the World Health Organization in 20 years 48 countries will face water shortages affecting up to 2.8 billion people. Furthermore, the United National Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) predicts that by 2025 the global demand for clean water will increase 20% for agriculture, 50% for industry and a staggering 80% for domestic consumption.

With that in mind I’ve made an effort to become more aware of the amount of water I use, not because it will save anyone in a developing country, but because I can no longer, in good conscience, be wasteful of this simple yet essential resource. Environmental factors have also played a major role in making me consider just how I use water and how I might be more responsible in that use.

As a part of this last week I installed a water butt on one of the down-pipes from the guttering on my roof. It wasn’t an expensive thing to install. All in all the whole set up came to around £30. The water from the 155 litre tank will now be used to water my many house plants as well as the trees and stuff that I’m growing in the garden too.

I’ve long thought that a water butt would be a good idea because the rain water must surely be better for the house plants than tap water. I’m not on a water meter here, but if I was I think that there would possibly be a cost benefit involved too.

With all the concerns over environmental issues and water shortages, I’m surprised new homes don’t come pre-built with water saving devices that could be used to supply the home with non-drinking water. I suppose it comes down to a cost issue. Companies that are building homes want to maximize their profits as much as possible so while the idea of rainwater harvesting might be a good one, an underwater storage tank is not as visible a selling point as say a hot tub or big whirlpool bath.

According to the UK Environment Agency we each use somewhere in the region of around 150 litres of water every single day (that’s nearly 40 gallons!). Imagine how different our lives would be if we had to walk to a well to collect that amount of water. The women I met in Tamil Nadu made two or three journeys a day to a well that was 6 miles away. Watching them carrying giant containers of water on their heads and across their shoulders while often walking barefoot gave me a new appreciation of water and the luxury we enjoy with this essential resources being readily available on tap.

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No butts
Water saving tips
Stop throwing money down the drain
Rainwater harvesting
Water Situation for England and Wales
World Health Organization
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
Water war between Canada and the United States possible
Striking peace on troubled Waters – conflicts over water supply
Water Aid – A charity bringing water to the world

It sounds like a spam email doesn’t it, but that’s apparently the deal according to a website run by the inconvenient Christians.

Christians aren’t well known for being big into environmental issues. It’s perhaps not totally unfair to suggest that a ‘God will save us’ attitude is often apparent when environmental concerns are raised in Christian circles. But one group of believers are keen to put the issue in the foreground of Christian life in America, so much so that they’ll give you a pair of free tickets to go and see the movie ‘An Inconvenient Truth‘ which tackles the subject of global warming.

Like many free deals there are of course conditions, in this case to qualify for the tickets you must profess to be a committed Bible-believing Christian, agree to attend the movie ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ using the tickets provided, and agree to return to their website after seeing the film so as to offer an opinion.

Apparently many ‘inconvenient Christians’ have already taken up the offer of something for nothing and you can see their responses on the website.

The film has thus far been successful in getting people to talk more about the subject of global warming regardless of whether they agree or disagree with the rather over-dramatized predictions of doom and gloom forecast by the movie. Of course any such movie would tend to try and push emotional buttons rather than intellectual ones as this will clearly get a far better short term response.

So grab your free pair of movie tickets today. If you’re not a “Bible believing Christian” then just lie about that and tick the checkbox because it will make little difference in the end as according to the Christian faith you’re going to hell anyway!

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inconvenient Christians
An Inconvenient Truth – Website
Video interview: Al Gore explains how you can fight global warming
Christianity Today article by Editor David Neff.

Do you ever look at the volume of junk mail you get in a week and think to yourself how utterly wasteful it is. You don’t read it, you didn’t ask for it, yet somehow they got your address and sent you this letter which you’re about to get rid of. What a waste.

earlier this year I was getting vast amounts of junk email. It was mainly made up of credit card companies sending me ‘pre-approved’ applications. I had no idea there were so many cards out there. But unlike junk email the mail that came via the postman didn’t really bother me too much. I’d just put it straight in the recycling.

I then started to get a little concerned that just chucking my ‘pre-approved’ credit card applications in a public recycle bin was maybe not that wise so I invested in a shredder. It was then when I came to understand just how much junk mail I was receiving – and moreover, just how much paper was being wasted trying to get me to sign up for this, or buy that. I thought to myself that while I wasn’t responsible for sending the mail, if I am to try to live in an environmentally responsible way then maybe I should find out how I can prevent such vast amounts of paper being wasted on me.

A quick Google found the UK’s mailing preference service. A rather cool service that will stop or at least dramatically reduce the amount of junk mail you get. Minutes later I’d signed up online and was assured that the service would be in full effect after about a month. They weren’t kidding either. It’s been some three months or so since I put my name on the mailing preference service and I get pretty much no junk mail at all.

I was chatting with a friend in California last night and they complained about the amount of junk mail they receive which reminded me of the UK’s preference service and made me wonder if there is such a service available in the United States, and sure enough there is.

Removing your name and address from junk mail lists

According to the blog of a couple living in DC a great way reduce the amount of junk mail you get is to use a service from Equifax called the Opt-Out Prescreen.

According to the Opt-Out Prescreen website “Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Consumer Credit Reporting Companies, are permitted to include your name on lists used by creditors or insurers to make firm offers of credit or insurance. The FCRA also provides you the right to “Opt-Out”, which prevents Consumer Credit Reporting Companies from providing your credit file information for firm offers of credit or insurance that are not initiated by you.”

“This sucker stopped all our personal credit card applications dead in their tracks. I can practically hear the trees thanking us.” Wrote Laura from Oak Park, Illinois. She does mention that the Opt-Out Prescreen service hasn’t stopped her from receiving catalogs but for this she suggests checking out the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse website.

In general it would seem that it’s a little harder to get off mailing lists in the United States, but there are things you can do if you feel strongly enough about the issue. The Direct Marketing Association give details on their website of how to get off mailing lists, plus there is a useful website out there devoted to the issue at junkbusters.com.

For me the difference is quite amazing. I used to fill my paper recycling box very quickly. I put it down to the fact that I work from home. But since the junk mail has been stopped it now takes me weeks to fill the paper recycling box. If I turned my music down then maybe I too would hear the trees thanking me.

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UK mailing preference list
Equifax Opt-Out Prescreen
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
junkbusters.com