A few years ago now there was a government advert aimed at getting people to save energy, in particular turning off lights when not in use. It featured a girl bemoaning her father exclaiming "its only one light", at which point the camera zooms out slowly showing one light left on in every house on the street, town, county etc until the whole country is shown lit brightly with these 'single' lights. The message of the advert was clear, lots of single lights adds up to lots of energy use. So in fact your light isn't 'only one' but one of potentially many.
We all want to live in a better world, and most of us in the developed west acknowledge that our current way of life is damaging to the environment, to people and to local economies. But how much do we do to bring about those changes, and how often so we shrug and throw our hands in the air at our inability to change the status quo? Because what difference will it make if you stop shopping at Amazon, or avoid Primark, or refuse Apple?
Too often I think that ethical lifestyle magazines and guides seem unachievable for most of us. Too much composting toilets knitting your own underwear and making your own paper. However, that is just one end of the scale. To use the the light analogy, that is the person making their own electricity. But it doesn't mean we can't make a difference. There are many small actions we can make, actions for which we may not see the immediate impact, but do make a difference when you zoom out the camera. Lots of single actions make a whole load.
And this is what this blog is going to be about. I am trying to live by more ethical principles, making informed decisions in shopping, recycling and travelling. I want for record these attempts, as well as things that are happening in the ethical lifestyle world. I am not purporting a perfect green life, we're on a tight budget for a start, both work and have two small children. But I want to show and give hope to those that want to make small changes.
In the words of Mahatma Gandhi:
"It's the action, not the fruit of the action, that's important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there'll be any fruit. But that doesn't mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result."
