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A very merry, low-carbon Christmas to all my subscribers. Here’s to our growing carbon-lite community. May your festive balloons be any colour but purple!

’Tis the season to be jolly

Christmas can be a time of increased energy use in the home: we’ll be using additional electricity and gas for heating, lighting and cooking, not to mention those decorations! All this means more harmful carbon dioxide emissions contributing to climate change… that’s one gift we DON'T want to give our children!

The climate crisis is a good excuse to experiment with bold new habits, without losing the delight of our December traditions.

No one needs to be plunged into darkness or feel guilty and trapped by the trappings of Christmas. There are plenty of creative things we can all do if we find ourselves dreaming of a green Christmas:

• Sleep easy with plug-in timer switches for Christmas lights: they cost less than a fiver and save even more.
• Finish converting those wasteful old light bulbs with quality energy efficient bulbs: each one costs around £3 and saves £30 over its lifetime. Why not give a few as presents? www.efficientlight.co.uk – mention the Carbon Coach to save 10% off your order.
• Turn that thermostat down! We all know that turning our thermostat down just 1ºC can save 10 per cent on our energy bills, but do we do it? Less talk, more action!
• Ask what’s watt: you don't have to understand electrics to ask the wattage of any appliance you’re thinking of buying: the higher the wattage – plus the longer it’s going to be on – the greater the cost to you and the planet.
• Remember the bigger picture: if you’re lucky enough to be buying a new TV ask yourself how big a screen you really need – bigger screens use more energy – then ask the assistant to tell you the power consumption of each model on display. Peer round the back and read the label if they can’t help: I did. The same TV at the same price can vary plus or minus 20% on energy appetite. Choose efficient and save cash and carbon for life.
• Boycott the traffic jams: why risk getting stuck on the motorway yet again desperately trying to get to Auntie Jane in John o'Groats before dashing back to Grandma in Lands End for a flying visit. They'd love a long, calm phone call instead.
• Cold turkey: there’s no need to give up the beloved bird, just consider that the less meat we eat the better it is for the environment, since meat production is carbon intensive. Why not try out a nut roast option along with a smaller turkey this year? it will go down a treat.
• Reward yourself: remember that some of the habits you've introduced in 2006 will reward you with lower electricity bills in 2007, as well as a reduction in your carbon footprint by another ton or more. Well done!

Make this Christmas an illuminating one for you. Explore a few new habits that can become part of a brave new Christmas tradition.

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The choir sings loud and true

I went along to my local church in Marlow last Sunday for a spectacular choral concert. It was a beautiful, highly polished performance with occasional audience participation. I was surprised by joy. The best things in life are not only free, but carbon-free. We can all be happy and fulfilled with or without carbon.

I love Al Gore’s quote about willpower being a renewable resource. If ever you text Al’s name using predictive text, your mobile will predict ‘Gore’ as ‘Hope’ – how cool is that?!

Hope and optimism are not just part of the solution. Hopeful action IS the solution.

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But we are only two per cent. PAH!

MPs may only account for two per cent of Westminster village but they can still lead the way, just as we in the UK can, despite producing only two per cent of global emissions. My house is only two per cent of my street, which is only two per cent of Marlow, which is only two per cent of Bucks etc…

But I know I COUNT, just as you know you count.

By far the biggest challenge in turning this mess around in time starts and ends in our heads: we have to believe we can do it. No – we have to know we can do it.

Miracles do happen. You know that in your heart. Dig deep. Ask that child within.

Be a pessimist of the intellect, by all means, but also be an optimist of the will.

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But what about China? PAH!

Next year let’s have no more of this nonsense blaming China and India. Each Chinese and Indian person currently each emits a very small sustainable carbon amount, far, far less than many of our big purple clouds.

So remind me, how did we ever believe ‘they’ were part of the problem?

Let’s all put our own house in order, before we talk Chinese.

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We came off it – did you?

Come Off It day, our celebration of carbon-conscious living on 4 November was a big success. City Hall turned their lights out at sunset in solidarity. It was even rumoured that the inhabitants of one new office building couldn’t find the light switches. Their lights had been on continuously since handover several years ago…

There’s so much habit involved in kicking our carbon habit: we just need to shift from default on to default off.

We can drown our sorrows guzzling fossil fuel now, or we can recreate a future for our children. We can’t do both.

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Thank you, Sir David

The biggest news story of all time is already out there – in the great outdoors, in the weather… In the seasonal changes we’re experiencing first hand. Climate change has been brought home to us all this year, literally.

Sir David Attenborough is gently getting the message into people’s living rooms.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6176847.stm

Thank heavens (and thank you Sir David).

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Contraction and Convergence: have you signed yet?

“The best indicator of whether a person truly grasps the scale of the global climate crisis is not whether they drive a hybrid car or offset their flight, nor whether they subscribe to the Ecologist or plan to attach a wind turbine to their house. The most reliable indicator is whether they support carbon rationing."

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Carbon-Rationing/

For background information, visit:

http://climatechangeaction.blogspot.com/

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Invest in carbon-lite futures

…and disinvest from carbon-hungry stuff quick!

‘Gas guzzling’ is going out of fashion fast. As we become conscious of the big carbon clouds that are inherent with needless waste, and with ‘carbon-obese’ stuff such as old-style lightbulbs, inefficient cars, leaky homes) the stocks of the old stuff will become harder and harder to shift. Caveat emptor: let the buyer beware! The market premium for anything carbon-lite is on the up. In with the new!

Anyone think renewables could be a good investment in 2007? I do. My financial adviser disagrees, but I’ve bet my entire pension fund on renewables.

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Low carbon heaven in 2007? Maybe.

Lose all my money? Maybe.

Lose my children’s future. No thanks.

Keep smiling. That way they’ll want some of what we’re on! Low carb juice.

Look to the future now – it’s only just begun.

Dave Hampton
The Carbon Coach