This is not my... Week 26
06/07/07 - Love a good protest
05/07/07 - The answer to everything?
This Section; Background; The point
06/07/07 - Love a good protest
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But - well - with the weather so tempramental and all... |
this is definitely the way forward.
Yes - the on-line Big Ask march.
It may not have quite the impact of a million people outside Number 10 but you can do it whilst having a cup of tea which can be quite appealing!
To ask for a strong climate bill, all you need to do is, get to the Big Ask site and make a little person with a placard.
No getting trampled, queueing for Portaloo's or trying to figure out what people could be chanting that rhymes with criminal (iminal, minimal, seminal... I just don't get what it could have been£>*@£>£>£?)
Lovely.
And it leaves the whole rest of the day to get up to all sorts of fun and games. Afterall, it is FRIDAY!
Woo hoo.
Have a badassed time whatever you are up to this weekend, enjoy the Live Earth gig and don't take sweets from strangers.
x
05/07/07 - The answer to everything?
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Or wishful thinking... |
A year or so ago Steorn claimed that they have created 'free energy' and invited independent scientists to test it out. Those tests are still underway but a demonstration of the energy is now on display in Spitalfields Kinetica Museum.
Very intriguing.
Will have to get down there.
After yesterdays devastating news on toilet roll (still a little shocked and teary) it would be good to get some good.
And the creation of free energy would be pretty darnded good.
So - on the assumption that it works perfectly - I shall spend the day worrying about the much more important problem of getting a hair cut.
I'm thinking beehive...
x
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It leaves a bitter taste... |
I can't believe it.
How can life be so cruel!?
All these years I have been resisting the lure of double thick velvet for my bottom only to find that it has all been in vain.
So unfair.
So wrong.
So disappointing.
Yesterday it was almost too much.
It was all I could do not to make a drastic purchase of the fattest loo roll I could find just for spite.
Yes, it has been reported that.... Nouvelle 100% recycled toilet tissue does - in fact - belong to the brand voted worst for sustainability by the World Wildlife Fund.
Sigh.
The brilliant Ethiscore site has started a couple of consumer boycotts and that - shockingly - is one of them.
I feel bad at having to share the news in case you too have been living a lie... but know that it is for the best.
Sniff.
Check out their page for details of alternatives.
I am too despondent to write them all out and may avoid the whole issue by using leaves*.
Oh the world can be a hard place sometimes.
A small tear drops.
I had best go...
x
*This is a lie. Primarily as I only have a rose bush (could be a tad uncomfortable) and or the leaves of the plants at work (might get awkward round the office).
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but so shiny...! |
Got a new phone.
Very very overexcited.
Not because I am that fussed about it being new but because it is not my old phone.
(One of those ones that liked to turn itself off at random times only notable by their extreme inconvenience.)
But it is shiny too which is kind of nice. And it has speakers which means I can counter anyone playing music on the bus with an assorted collection of Belinda Carlisle classics.
But it does leave the question of what to do with the old one.
Phones are pretty toxic.
Recycling Appeal notes that:
"Mobile phones contain numerous substances which need to be disposed of in safe and efficient manner:
The Cadmium in the battery from a single old phone could seriously contaminate 600,000 litres of water, enough to fill a third of an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Cadmium is being phased out of new batteries.
Lead - which affects the immune, endocrine and central nervous systems, and causes serious damage to children's brains - is used to solder components to the printed wiring boards.
Brominated flame retardants, used in wiring boards and plastic cases, have been associated with cancer, liver damage and problems with the neurological, immune and endocrine systems.
Beryllium, which can cause serious lung damage, is used in contacts and springs and highly toxic dioxins can be emitted if the phones are incinerated in waste plants."
So it is good to get rid of them properly.
Plus - there is money in doing so.
Oxfam gets £5 for each old mobile phone it recycles and various other charities have similar schemes. (Your favourite charity probably does or you can find other schemes really easily with a google search.)
Apparently:
"Estimates state that close to 90 million phones are hiding in drawers and cupboards across the UK (11250 tonnes) - these weigh almost six times as much as the London Eye!"
Which is, by my astounding calculations, £450 million.
Will be sending mine off with haste. (And the one I have kept for years as it has an amusing picture of my friend dressed as a spaceman.)
Well - just as soon as i get all of the numbers off it.... why oh why do I never save them to SIM!
Damnations.
Have a lovely day x
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Good or bad...? |
Very cute story at the end of last week about hundreds of rubber ducks that fell off a container ship 15 years ago and are still getting washed around the world.
Not only is it helpful for understanding tidal patterns but also... well it's loads of cute rubber ducks being washed around the world!
Anyhow - I was talking to a friend who insisted that it would be a great thing to write about.
I tried to point out that - in general - things from container ships falling in the sea isn't brilliant from an environmental view point:
"Plastic in the oceans is responsible for the deaths of millions of sea animals. Plastic bottles floating on the surface of the oceans can look like food to larger sea life—often with fatal consequences. In addition, fish, sea birds, and other ocean creatures often get caught in plastic rings that strangle them or constrict their throats so that they cannot swallow.
Plastic takes a long time to degrade. Nobody is quite sure how long it takes for plastic to biodegrade—it hasn’t been around long enough, and the first plastics made are still around today. Scientists believe, however, that plastics will take hundreds of years to degrade fully—if not longer. Plastics as we know them have only been around a hundred years, and they are already a problem. Imagine five hundred years’ worth of plastics in our landfills.
Plastics contain harmful chemicals. These include cadmium, lead, PVC, and other pollutants in the form of artificial coloring, plasticizers, and stabilizers. Some of these have been discovered to be harmful and are not in currently-manufactured plastics, but the older, more toxic plastics are still filling up our landfills and floating around in our oceans, releasing pollutants into the environment. These can seep into groundwater from landfill runoff and cause health risks for both wildlife and humans." - Professors House
(In particular, the plastic acts as a sponge for estrogenic chemicals which are changing the sex of sea life.)
but this was deemed a feeble excuse in light of the benefits of the ducks oceanic meanderings.
(He's secretly quite excited about the sex change thing as it's something he's been thinking about.)
So we had to agree to disagree.
Making the moral of the story...
Don't throw plastic in the sea unless it happens to be a consignment of rubber ducks.
Easy.
Have a lovely start to the week x
This section will be a daily, well - Monday to Friday daily, editorial. (Have to keep some time aside to keep up the ritual wine drinking / dancing as if being chased by bees.)
I promise to make it my mission to investigate something each day on exciting forays to find new stuff, fun stuff, ethical stuff and anything involving break dancing men with extremely toned physiques.
Let me know if you think of something I should go and visit or if you have any great ideas or information. (Any dodgy suggestions will be politely declined... or not so politely, depending entirely on what they are!)
For today, though, please just have a look below to find out how this whole thing came about. I hope that you are having a lovely morning.
See you tomorrow,
Susie x
Background to This is not my...
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What is this site all about?
Well, as all good ventures do, it started in the pub with the ominous words "I know, why don't we...?" |
What was different, though, was that it still seemed like a good plan in the morning (and somewhat less injurious than trying out extreme ironing, the other suggestion...)
Anyway - once again we had been supping beers and putting the world to rights when someone mentioned the unmentionable, despite our disaffection with the state of the world, none of us was actually doing anything positive to change it.
Whether this was complacency or apathy, who knows - but we were definitely leaving it to others to make decisions and take action for us on issues about which we felt strongly.
We live in a free society, but often things seem to happen as a fait accompli. The war in Iraq, ID cards, the fact that we will eventually succumb to watching some of Big Brother no matter how hard we try...
And we just go along with it. But that is ok, right? I mean, we aren't exactly encouraging the abuse of others - are we?
Ok - so maybe my new top might have been made under less-than-perfect conditions and I suppose that means I am supporting those conditions, but - I have to buy something to wear, so what other choice do I have?
And that was the problem. What - and where - are the choices?
So we decided to investigate. Surely in this free society we have other options; we just need to know how to find them.
So we went online. There are some great directories already for ethical and/or environmentally friendly products, but for us these didn't go far enough. We were on a bit of a roll and decided that these products deserved more active promotion.
We wanted to make as many people as possible aware of the practical things they can do to live life in a better way.
So on this site we will provide information about easy, positive and ethical consumer choices. These are choices that won’t necessarily cost you more, either.
In our directories you will find environmentally friendly and ethical companies and products across the following categories:
Clothes
Energy
Food and Drink
Health and Beauty
Home and Garden
Office
Recycling
Restaurants
You will also find plenty more to lure you back to the site on a regular basis. So come back to have a wee look.
Plus we will be working on video's, events and curious antics to keep important issues in the public eye – and provide us with much entertainment and amusement at the same time.
Give us a shout if you want to get involved!
Anyhow - take a look. Explore… investigate… probe away.
We hope you like it; we hope you use it.
