Rosher.Net

Is there some kind of backlash in progress, against all the proactive green initiatives of recent times? It felt so over this last 24 hours, although perhaps because I allowed the media more than normal access to me. I’ve been in Nottingham, lecturing, and therefore was stuck in front of the hotel telly far longer than is usual when at home.

I watched some Richard and Judy, and this whining minnie (not Punch, the other one) sat there and riled interminably against low-energy lamps. Apparently they cause her headaches, give a ‘flat’ light and don’t ‘look nice’. Bless. The simple fact that they give a light equivalent with 10-15% of the power requirement seemed too feeble a balance against her assertion of consumerist rights. I bet she leaves her telly on standby…

Then, in the low brow morning news, there was a piece about bin collections, and how a fortnightly general waste collection was causing frightful annoyance to the interviewed pensioner (who could smell her own bin from right up the other end of her long, leafy driveway). This seemed to gel quite appropriately with the news story that the UK throws away 15% of the food it buys (which in itself actually does feel wholly obscene!) because it was likely her own wasted food that was causing the stink. Our own fortnightly black bin goes out pretty much half empty each time, and with very little food waste. Our green recycling bin is itself often not filled too, although the four compost bins in the chicken run usually are.

I think, now I’m home again, I’ll leave daytime telly alone once more. It seems a depressing place.

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