Eighteen months ago I knew little about the environment. Sure, I’d heard about global warming but to me it was a global problem. My life was lived at a local level in a South Cumbrian village with three young children providing the challenges of daily life. But my husband had begun to read books on climate change and pay more attention to the news. He talked about the state of the planet as much as he talked about his kids, he got frustrated, he got angry, and then he got to work. Action begins in the home and that’s where he started his campaign to make us a greener family. From being a carbon guzzler like the rest of us, he slowly became Carbonlite, and began to change our household habits in small, at first almost imperceptible ways. Water butts and compost bins started appearing on the patio, he would weigh and catalogue our rubbish, measure gas and electricity on a spreadsheet, log every car mile and question any unnecessary journeys. I put all this down to being one of his Projects. Just as I had been the shed widow, the cycling widow, and the DIY widow at various points of our married life, I was now the green widow. It wouldn’t last.
But it did, and through his efforts and obsessions, I was dragged kicking and screaming into the reality of what it means to be on this planet at this time in history.
He transformed our children into Carboncopies of himself; eco worrying Carbonlite miniatures who hassle me as relentlessly as their Dad continues to do. Around here, you don’t necessarily need to leave the room to have the light or computer switched off, and putting on the heating requires a family conference.
Making our lives and our home more environmentally sound has been a long, and at times difficult process. We live in an old and draughty former village post office, with thick walls and thin, crumbling windows. We don’t have a garden to house all the necessary compost heaps, recycling crates and water butts that being environmentally conscious requires. We are both self employed and money is often tight. At first I offered endless resistance to my husbands plans, clinging onto the notion that I should prioritise the needs of my own family above those of our ailing planet. Even now I stumble at some of the major hurdles. Where Carbonlite would happily do without a car, I argue that we live in a village five miles from the nearest town and our children need to be shepherded to swimming lessons, football practice, cubs and nursery. Where Carbonlite would do away with the boiler and central heating for eleven months of the year, I hate to be cold in my own home, and love to relax in a bath. Where Carbonlite would live on left over scraps and home grown tomatoes, I worry about my children having a balanced diet. All this provides the same tensions and conflicts in our house as it must do in many homes around the UK.
Some things have changed. I now call myself a cyclist, enjoy using human powered transport, and despair of those who drive the school run. We eat organic and local. We wear extra jumpers around the house. I’ve even managed to tackle my addiction to the washing basket, wearing the same clothes for more than one day, and using the washing line instead of the tumble dryer….most of the time. On the bigger issues like the car, the house, and wasting energy and resources, we still bicker and fight, and try to convince each other of our arguments. But then that’s all part of bringing the global down to a local level isn’t it? We aren’t environmentalists, just a Cumbrian family trying to be more aware, and paint ourselves a deeper shade of green. The blog entries here and now on the Westmorland Gazette site are part of a blogging project we’ve been working intermittently on for 18 months, part of our attempt to understand each other, to grapple with the everyday demands of juggling family and an environmental conscience, and to wade through the barrage of information that’s published every day about our changing world. And while it won’t save the planet, it might help save our marriage when faced with some of the tough decisions we’re all going to have to make as our climate hurtles towards chaos.
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