Calling on the people of Cork to 'Make One Change'... it might have a lasting effect

WHAT are you doing for carbon month? Or do you feel there’s very little point in making small gestures towards energy-saving? But there is a point to taking the bus rather than using your car or making a big pot of soup out of vegetables that are about to pass their use-by date, rather than thoughtlessly throwing them out. Apart from cutting down on emissions and stopping food waste, you will set a good example to your kids if you have some. And small actions will beget bigger ones until your default position will be guided by conservation.

Cork County Council’s ‘Make One Change’ campaign for the month of November is encouraging the people of Cork County (or anywhere, really) to be conscious about climate change and to make small practical changes to their lifestyles in support of climate action.

A series of talks and events is taking place in local libraries around the county. For example, tomorrow, there’s a talk on fast fashion and clothes swapping at Mallow Library.

We should learn to love ‘slow fashion,’ upcycling what we already have or shopping in charity shops where you can occasionally spot a designer item selling for half-nothing.

 Women more than men are guilty of constantly shopping for ‘something new’ to wear for every occasion. It’s totally unsustainable.

The global fashion industry accounts for 10% of global emissions, with the industry emitting 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 per year – more emissions than the shipping and aviation industries combined. It doesn’t help that fashion can be so cheap, encouraging us to keep shopping instead of considering whether we really need to buy yet another pair of jeans. (Denim is one of the most environmentally damaging sectors in the fashion industry because of the extremely high water usage in its production as well as energy consumption and chemical pollution.)

A lot of us were reared to believe that food waste is a sin. How often were you told about the “starving children in Africa” every time you refused to eat the vegetables served on your plate. Yet, obsessed as we are by ‘sell-by-dates,’ we dump food when in fact you could get more mileage out of it. Or perhaps we should just buy less, figuring out the week’s meals in the supermarket and not buying excessively.

Ireland produces around one million tonnes of food waste each year with Irish households generating 250,000 tonnes of this, throwing out 150kg of food each year. It really is sinful.

We’re advised to buy local and seasonal this November. More energy is needed to transport, refrigerate and store food that is imported from other countries. More packaging is needed to keep it fresh. It’s a no-brainer to cut back and also to support local businesses.

Why not pledge to re-use all your leftovers this month with recipes supplied by the council or by composting? If food waste was a country, it would be the third highest emitting country in the world. We’re told to embrace what’s in the fridge. With our imagination, we can produce a meal using that opened tin of tomatoes instead of letting it go off and dumping it.

Cork County Council is advising people to ‘reduce and refill.’ Say NO to disposables. If, for example, you drink two litres of water per day, that’s equal to four plastic bottles. We can save a whopping 1,460 plastic bottles per year by using a reusable bottle instead. Or we could save 365 disposable coffee cups by using a reusable cup.

Reduce your energy at home, pledging to reduce the temperature of your clothes wash and using a clothes line instead of a tumble dryer (weather permitting, though). 

Pledge to turn off the switches for appliances when not in use. Turn off the lights when you’re not in the room. You can also turn down the thermostat at home.

In some ways, we’re too easy on ourselves. We’re quick to turn on the central heating when wearing an extra jumper would do the job. Now that the cost of energy is so high, some of us are turning the heat on and off throughout the day. It’s a bit of a pain but it saves money and cuts down on energy use. However, if you’re an elderly person who really feels the cold, it’s not always feasible to turn off the heat.

There is also the advice to take showers of less than five minutes, to plant a seed or bulb and watch it grow. Don’t leave the tap running while you’re brushing your teeth.

On Friday, there’s a talk on sustainability at Mitchelstown Library. There’s a book swap at Macroom library on Saturday. And you can plant a pot for pollinators at Dunmanway library on Saturday. There’s lots more happening in libraries.

For more on the campaign visit www.corkcoco.ie