Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could extend these practices into our future?
Slow Down, Smell The Roses, Grow Your Own
Gardening At Home
The slowing of life has given people consistent time with nature most haven’t experienced before, a real opportunity to follow the natural seasonal cycle much more closely. There are many more people in their gardens, appreciating nature and growing their own food. Seed shops online and supermarkets have been literally unable to cope with the demand for seeds. There were 1/2 opened packets of spinach selling for 10x times the amount on eBay! Growing our own food locally is not only more nutritious and delicious but it has no co2 miles, no packaging, no gas to keep it “fresh”, no wax to keep it shiny, no chemicals to keep it plump. Just natural, wholesome food.
Those of us fortunate to live in or near the countryside have found joy in our daily exercise routine, discovering new local walking routes and finding the amazing mental health benefits that nature brings.
Cooking Skills!
With a lack of key ingredients and no eating out, this has proven to be the perfect time to get more inventive in the kitchen! Cooking from scratch isn’t the default for many families and this time has allowed many people to try new recipes and broaden their skills. It’s better for health, wealth and the environment. Much less packaging, additives, a CO2 from food processing when we cook our own!
Giving Nature a Chance
Heavens Above!
Sharing Locally
There have been so many instances of people sharing resources within the local community, hard to find ingredients, homegrown herbs, seeds, surplus seedlings, books, toys, furniture, bikes and clothes. This sharing mindset is great for the environment as there is no production or co2 overhead in shared items! Taking care of what we have, sharing or upcycling not only feels wonderful it has no environmental impact.
Working From Home
Yeah! It’s actually true! You can work effectively, sometimes even more effectively from home! Absolutely delighted to see that working from home has been an easy transition for so many people across the world. As a bit of a veteran in this area, I’m not at all surprised, I’ve been disappointed by the reluctance shown by most companies to allow this on a more consistent basis. Now that we can see that it DOES work for so many, then the environmental arguments suddenly become a lot stronger. So what are the pros? Well running an office is expensive in terms of resources, and individuals will be saving their commute CO2 as well as more eating at home than buying prepackaged convenience foods which are more costly for the planet.
It’s Oh So Quiet
Keep Your Carbon In The Soil!
Clean Energy
Stopping The Wheels In Motion
Changing Our Ways
It stands to reason that something eternally increasing (our economic model) will eventually run out of the resources it consumes. This is a great opportunity to rethink our structures and transform our way of life to something which will work going forward. Out with the old, and in with the new. Let the practices of another time pass way peacefully, and make green jobs benefitting our planet in place in their stead. I understand it will be difficult for some, and this is why environmental campaigners call for a just transition. A Just transition is written into the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement. Lockdown has already shown us that we can support people financially through tough times and this needs to extend into our future as we tackle the issues around climate change.
With our economy already partially broken, this is a perfect time to rebuild it in a new way which is fair for the planet, our home, our provider.
