Fight Climate Change

Sometime back we mentioned that you could pick up some rather nice Recycled Juice Bags, well just in time for Christmas there’s a new addition to the recycled fashion range and that’s the Cambodian Rice Purse. There are two sizes, small and large, and they cost £12.95 and £14.95 respectively at Firebox.com.

The purses are made from a recycled rice bag skilfully crafted by an organisation providing shelter, education and employment to vulnerable women. So not only are they eco-friendly, they also help provide work and shelter, ethically, in places where it’s needed most. There are also Recycled Rice Bags to match the purses too.

Green and ethical Christmas gifts will no doubt be popular this year, shortly we’ll be listing out top 10 gift ideas, but in the mean time you can find some green gift ideas at Xmastime.

The fight against climate change has attracted the interest of Google in the form of their Carbon Footprint Project. UK surfers (for some reason it’s not available at google.com) can find out how to reduce their carbon footprint and also track their progress as well as other people, provided you’re registered to iGoogle.

First of all you need to calculate your carbon footprint – this is the usual stuff you see on other “green sites” for example type pf property, do you have cavity insulation, size of your electricity bill etc. Given Google’s desire to “know” about their users it’ll be interesting how this data (if retained) is used to advertise climate change products.

When you’ve calculated your footprint, Google then suggests some of the ways you can reduce your carbon emissions including:

Following TheOffsetShop another new shopping site has emerged offering consumers the chance to earn cashback when they shop online and then offset their CO2 activity to help save the environment. The name of this site is Smartlygreen. It works in pretty much the same way as other cashback sites run! You shop via these sites, the sites earn a commission, and that commission is then divided up between you and the site.

In this case “50% of smartlygreen.com’s net commission for your purchases is credited to your loyalty scheme account. Of this 80% is donated to PURE, the Clean Planet Trust, with the balance being returned to you in the form of cash. Once you have met your personal carbon offset target for the year, then 20% continues to be paid to Pure and the 80% is returned to you as cash”.

To take part you need to register and then remember to regularly shop via the site in order to accumulate the rewards and offset your own CO2. Whilst obviously there’s merit in this kind of thing and the site is well designed, Fight Climate Change is a little bit sceptical. Firstly there are many other sites offering cashback, some offer 100%, and when it comes to “giving money to offset CO2″ versus getting a “few extra quid in your pocket when you shop online”, sadly CO2 is going to come second.

Also, the more environmentally concious may think “hang on” – I can get more cashback in my pocket from say Free Fivers or Greasy Palm and use that extra money to buy a water butt, compost bin, energy saving lightbulbs etc which can help benefit the climate as opposed to giving it to offset CO2. Remember 50% of the commission is going to Smartlygreen!

And this leads to FCC’s biggest bugbear – CO2 offsetting!

Do the majority of people actually understand CO2 offsetting?

Offsetting CO2 is just a marketing offshoot of people wanting to be seen to be pro-active environmentally. Whilst no doubt the money goes to good causes somewhere, people would be far better being educated about personal sustainability, energy conservation, water conservation and what they physically can do to help climate change.

It’s great that shopping sites are sprouting up trying to put across the message of climate change to a wider audience, but using CO2 offsetting as a hook for me just doesn’t seem the right approach.

In a perhaps unsurprising decision this year’s Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded jointly to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for their work on promoting climate issues (The BBC). The award carries with it a $1.5million reward and Gore has already announced that he will donate his share to the Alliance for Climate Protection. The award was given to recognise the fact that climate change and it’s implications (e.g. famine, flooding, loss of territory, population displacement, scarcity of resources) is a seriously potential threat to world peace. Reactions to the award can be found at The BBC.

However, not everyone is a big fan of Gore – or more specifically his Oscar winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Stuart Dimmock, a parent from Dover, had requested that the film was banned from being shown in schools. However a high court judge has ruled that the film can be shown, with added guidelines, as the film “promotes partisan political views but it is not unlawful to show to students.

So Gore has picked up another accolade for his attempts to raise awareness of climate change. There’s no doubt that there is a political angle in his views, and there’s now even calls for Gore to stand for President 2008. However, he has managed to keep climate change in the news and public domain (although Live Earth was a pretty poor show) and perhaps for that reason the award is well deserved.

News reaches us that Nigel’s Eco Stores have just added the world’s first dimmable low energy light bulb to their store. The bulbs made by Digiflux, come in 2 varieties – one that works with a dimmer switch, and one that works with a normal light switch. They are 20 watt bulbs are cost from £10.99. They’ll save energy and also save you money, so well worth investing in too!

As well as the Digiflux Dimmable Light Bulb, Nigel’s Eco Store stock Megaman low energy lightbulbs. They are available in all sorts of shapes and sizes (see below) so you should be able to find a bulb that suits your light fitting – so you have no excuse not to use them.

Ping Pong Bulb: A breakthrough in size and durability. They’re small (about the size of a ping pong ball, hence the name) but give out plenty of light. Available in bayonet and screw fittings. From £6.99

Candle Bulbs: Specially designed to replace incandescent candles. Their elegant sleek shape demonstrates the beauty of your decorative fittings. Available in bayonet, screw and small bayonet
and small screw fittings. From £6.99.

Par30 Reflectors: A low energy PAR 30 reflector lightbulb which really does the job: bright, reliable and with the longest life of any CFL (compact flourescent) bulb yet – an astonishing 15,000 hours! From £9.99.

GU10 Replacements: For your halogen spotlights – a 7 watt or 11 watt warm white light that will last for 15,000 hours – the 7 watt is only 65mm long. From £9.99.