A bit of a rant about environmental stuff.

 As another Tory defects to the Labour Party, here’s a little comment from Michael Rosen!

“For a variety of reasons, I'm pretty sure that if I said that I wanted to be in the Labour Party, I wouldn't be allowed in. Then I thought, that if I really did want to be in the Labour Party, the best route for me would be to join the Tory Party first, and then announce that I was defecting from the Tories to Labour. I'm pretty sure that would work...”

Temperatures soar in India, we have more rain than we know what to do with (and some nasty stuff in water in some parts of the country) and still governments are most.y keeping quiet about global warming. Just occasionally you come across something like this:

“The slashing of pollution from shipping in 2020 led to a big “termination shock” that is estimated have pushed the rate of global heating to double the long-term average, according to research.

Until 2020, global shipping used dirty, high-sulphur fuels that produced air pollution. The pollution particles blocked sunlight and helped form more clouds, thereby curbing global heating. But new regulations at the start of 2020 slashed the sulphur content of fuels by more than 80%.

The new analysis calculates that the subsequent drop in pollution particles has significantly increased the amount of heat being trapped at the Earth’s surface that drives the climate crisis. The researchers said the sharp ending of decades of shipping pollution was an inadvertent geoengineering experiment, revealing new information about its effectiveness and risks.”,

Here’s a link to the article I got that information from. Sometimes it seems you can’t do right for trying.

Here’s a link to an article about another modern-life problem: ultra-processed foods. The writer decided to spend a week trying not eat any ultra-processed food. It involves doing a lot of home cooking with fresh ingredients rather than heating ready-prepared meals or using pre-prepared ingredients. It’s quite hard to avoid the convenience of prepackaged stuff. According to this article, it’s also a problem in food-aid  parcels as the contents are often ultra-processed and so different from what those starving people might usually eat that they contribute to  problems like obesity.

My generation is quite fortunate to have grown up at a time when there was considerably less ultra-processed stuff around. 

Another problem that wasn’t around in my childhood was the ubiquitous plastic packaging, and plastic getting into everything, including our bodies. Most things came in paper bags or wrapped in grease-proof paper. Here’s a link to an article about someone trying to get rid of forever chemicals (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances - PFAS) from her home. As with avoiding ultra-processed foods, it can be a time-consuming and quite often expensive business. Most of us don‘t have the time (or the patience, or the willpower) to read through the ingredients of everything we buy. The forever chemicals eradicator had this to say about PFAS-free sports wear:

“During my experiment, I wear a PFAS-free sports bra from M&S and a T-shirt and leggings from Uniqlo to a gym class. The clothes are indistinguishable from other workout gear, which makes me wonder why the PFAS are necessary at all. For another class, I experiment with premium activewear from Sheep Inc, a UK-based company producing sustainable clothing from merino wool. The T-shirt and hoodie are beautifully soft and comfortable, as befits the price tag of around £250 a pop. The company says wool will do “exactly what it does on a sheep” and regulate your temperature during exercise (I’ve never seen a sheep at Fitness First). But as my face turns puce, I’m unconvinced that wool and Hiit go together. Outside the gym, however, these clothes are delightful – and, in general, natural fibres are a good bet for avoiding PFAS.”

But really - £250 for a hoodie!!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!