Sitting in the dark whilst the planet cooks from our self-indulgence

On Saturday millions of us spent our Saturday night illuminated by candlelight as part of the worldwide earth hour. The event has been heralded a great success as videos of famous landmarks plunged into darkness are being emailed to us by various organisations and news agencies. I however felt rather uncomfortable with the idea of watching TV by candle light. My low energy light bulbs are hardly energy hungry compared to the rest of the electrical equipment in my possession. Surely an all out electricity blackout would have made a more substantial comment on climate change? I thought this would have been a better idea and proceeded to turn off my heating and all electrical appliances that weren’t essential (fridge and freezer stayed on).

Sitting in the dark, trying to read by candle light I realised why my plan was flawed – who in their right mind would sit in the dark with nothing to do? And that is the problem. That is why WWF and the promoters of earth hour didn’t ask people to turn everything off. After the failure of earth day last year when electricity usage was actually higher than expected you can see why they set their sights a little lower. Sadly, it’s because of the trappings of the modern world, where everything we use consumes energy, that we have got to this stage. Even sadder still is that fact that very few people are prepared to face the truth that unless we force a real change in lifestyle, a complete paradigm shift, a change of perspective away from the all consuming, energy hungry lifestyle, to a more frugal, energy efficient one then all the earth hours in the world will not change the inevitable climate change and loss of what we take for granted now.

Having said that, I spent 5 minutes in the candle light trying to work out how to entertain myself before I turned on my laptop and watched a DVD using battery power. If some of the most ecologically minded people can’t cope an hour without electricity, then what hope does the world have?

Manolo Blahniks, hypocrits and pikeys; and not a highstreet in sight

As I sat drinking my decaff fair-trade tea with soya milk this morning, I started to wonder if I was becoming a cliché guardian reader. Then I looked down as my ripped jeans and my brother’s old jumper I was wearing and realised that perception is nine tenths of society’s flaw. The sad truth of the world is that people are judgemental. If I went to work in these ripped jeans the London commuters would probably expect me to ask them for spare change. This saddens me, why should we instantly respect the man in the suit – I’ve seen said men in suits regurgitate their city booze into the train toilets like the rest of us. Posh or pikey, we’re all the same on the inside. Does it really matter if your clothes are from Moss Bross or Mind?

I overheard some girls recently saying how they’d spent £200 in the shops. One said she couldn't wait til she had a job so she could buy loads more stuff. My little brain nearly exploded on receipt of this information. Firstly, £200 of shopping when you don’t have a job? Secondly, surely there’s more to life that shopping? It’s sad that young women today aspire to be like Victoria Beckham or other female celebs who achieve nothing but become style icons and (I use the term loosely) “role models” because they spend money on designer clothes and have famous husbands.

Standing on a busy train out of London, surrounded by the suited and booted is a depressing experience. Silence fills the carriage as everyone, tired from a days work sighs in relief that they are going home. Why do they do it? They all look miserable and overworked and what for? To be able to afford ‘stuff’? This isn’t life, this is self inflicted slavery. These people aren’t free; their chains are made by Cartier, their shackles by Manolo Blahnik. And with falling interest rates there really is no incentive to change this lifestyle. The government wants to encourage spending and borrowing which means these slaves to materialism will keep shopping. I in the meantime will keep my hypocritical judgements in check and stop admiring fellow commuter’s shoes.

Thrifty greeny shopper or time pressed convenience gatherer: Is there a middle ground?

After spending about an hour on the internet on the weekend trying to find somewhere that sells ecover hand wash in bulk I’m starting to see why most other people would just go to the local shop and buy what ever is there. For a start buying 5 litres of anything costs a lot compared to buying it in 500ml bottles. Despite the fact that I know it probably works out cheaper to buy in bulk, even with the delivery charge, it still hits the wallet hard. If I could pay in monthly instalments it wouldn’t be quite so painful! So, the discovery that boots is now selling paraben free ‘eco’ style toiletries should be good news. Well, I bought some shampoo, conditioner and shower gel to test them out and compare them to the other brands that I usually have to hunt for. They work fine, smell good; the usual standard you’d expect from boots but they don’t give me that ‘I’m doing something good for the world’ feeling like the others do. I suppose, if boots can convert people from the chemical ridden products made by pharmaceutical companies and cooperate global giants then all is well but my cynical little mind just thinks they’ve seen a gap in the market and decided to fill it. I still prefer the greener alternatives, although for convenience, I may buy the occasional bottle of shampoo if I happen to walk past boots on my way home!

Valentine's Day in a financial crisis? I can think of better things to spend my money on

It’s that time of year again when singles run and hide and the cynics start ranting about commercialisation: Valentines Day is here again. The shops started to stock an array of red and pink goods back in January, from the usual cards, bears and chocolates to pink champagne, inflatable lips (why?) and pretty much anything heart shaped. You can usually find the valentines’ day stuff next to the Easter eggs! But when most of the world is in serious financial crisis is it really appropriate to encourage people, many of whom are struggling to pay the bills or have been made redundant to spend what little money they do have on fairly useless junk? I suppose it’s a matter of choice. What if you have no choice? Well, you always have a choice: if you are with someone who demands expensive gifts then I think now is probably a good time to reconsider that relationship! You could argue that by spending the day eating chocolates and drinking from heart shaped champagne flutes and being soppy you can take a day off from worrying about money. There are ways to be romantic without spending any money. You can cook a nice meal at home, bake a cake, give your other half a massage, light lots of candles and stick a Barry White CD – the best things in life are free! And if you really feel the need for some sickly sweet heart shaped item, there is always the pound shop!

Confessions of a Shopaholic, Barefoot in the Park and other inspirational films

As I stood in my garden this evening, in my pyjamas feeling the cold snow under my bare feet, I had a sudden realisation. Why should all the fun things in life costs money? Shopping has become a pastime with magazines dedicated to fashion and even a film about it. Surely there are other things we could be doing with our time instead? For many shopping is a rush, is fun or the items bought make people feel special but there are other ways to feel good. There are the obvious endorphin release activities of sport, exercise and sex but there are other things you can do, real experiences that can break the routine and remind you that you are actually a free thinking entity that doesn’t have to follow the sleep-work-eat-tv-sleep pattern every day. When you’re caught up in the rat race, bombarded with advertising and media telling you what to eat, what to drink, what to buy and to some extent what to think; its hard to take a step back and think of things to do to prevent the monotony of modern life from taking over. When was the last time I went for a walk in the rain, jumped in puddles, admired a landscape and felt part of this big wide world we live in? Too long ago. Perhaps that should be my new year’s resolution: to think of new ways to enjoy life, to feel alive for free. Hopefully the next life affirming idea I have won’t give me frostbite.

David vs Goliath: can one person make a difference?

The other night I watched with interest as despite the impeding recession, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall was still encouraging consumers to spend more on chicken by purchasing free range poultry. This time though was an all out campaign against Tesco which failed. It was a rather ambitious campaign and perhaps one doomed to fail from the onset when they requested £87,000 just to put the idea to the share holders. I won’t be my usual cynical self and suggest that £87,000 could have been better spent elsewhere as it was an admirable campaign. Now the campaign is slowing back to a more realistic pace and asking for clearer labelling which won’t cost consumers at a time when money is tight and won’t put supermarkets on the defensive. It’s clear that lessons have been learnt from the David and Goliath battle with Tesco and a new tactic has come into play. Yes, all out war against a huge corporation can grab the headlines but real change is best achieved by the softly softly approach. Jamie Oliver only managed to make changes in school dinner by working with schools rather than standing against them.

This has got me thinking. Has my all out boycott of everything multinational been the wrong approach? Should I be encouraging the high street stores to clearly label their items with details of where and how they are made? Would it be possible to get the music industry to put how much solvents and metals are used in each CD? If I was a celebrity then it would be possible but can one person without media backing make a difference? Time will tell. In the meantime, its time for me to find out how other people have instigated change and what they did and who they recruited that make the difference between success and failure.

Primark: Fast fashion or guilty pleasure?

So, another year gone and the news is as bleak as ever. I was planning to report that despite a shameful blip at Christmas my ethical shopping is still on track; the staff in my local charity shop are starting to recognise me as I’m in there around three times a week! Christmas is a hard time for ethical spending, especially with the credit crunch coupled with a shortage of time. I’m afraid a couple of high street stores did benefit from my hard earned cash. Oh and there was the guilty pleasure of collecting a few bargains from Woollies. Onto the more important news: the BBC have reported that budget retailer Primark have been using ‘slave labour’ to produce their cut price crap. Well, we kind of all knew that anyway; the actual shocking part is that these garments were made in sweatshops in the UK. With consumer spending slowing as more people feel the effects of the economic downturn, I doubt this news will even dent Primark’s profits. As redundancies continue, food prices remain high and living costs stretch most peoples pay cheques, Primark’s discount products will seem more appealing despite the bad press. It’s a shame really; it wasn’t that long ago that I was hopeful that ethical shopping was a growing trend with organic, free range and fair-trade on the increase. Now it seems that the old phrase is right: when you’re poor you can’t afford morals. Pity.