Noughts & Crosses, Kryten and the cute one from The Mary Whitehouse Experience

OK, bear with me as these 3 things don't really go together but they are the things I've been doing recently!

Firstly, the Noughts & Crosses trilogy of books (in 4 parts, of course, as all good trilogies appear to be!) by Malorie Blackman are utterly fantastic. Noughts and Crosses is the first part. If you haven't heard of these books, they are children's books, though very much for older teens, set in an alternative contemporary world where Crosses (dark-skinned) are the donimant race and Noughts (light-skinned) are oppressed and ignored. It uses very clever subversion to illustrate how things can be unfair and prejudiced and explores the themes of race and terrorism in a very clear and compelling way. A warning: these books are very traumatic but utterly addictive. Despite their very bleak story, you won't be able to put them down until you've found out what happens at the end of the final book. They are not an easy read emotionally but they are powerful and extraordinarily well-written and tightly plotted.

Secondly, Kryten. OK, not actually Kryten by his alter ego Robert Llewellyn and more specifically his book Sold Out: How I Survived a Year of Not Shopping. Now, I've read a number of these books about not spending or cutting down and they all become much of a muchness after a while, but this one was different. It wasn't a diary-style memior of his triumphs and failures in his self-imposed challenge. It was a themed look at the reasons behind it and the issues which came up for him and how they linked in to his personal history and current family situation. A much better prospect. And I think one of the best books of this kind that I've ever read. Funny, honest, thoughtful and insightful

Thirdly, Rob Newman. OK, hands up who lusted after him back in the early 90s when he was part of the 'comedy is the new rock'n'roll' Mary Whitehouse Experience. Well, now he has truly become the thinking green woman's crumpet as a political activist, and if you want to improve your mind, have a laugh and a bit of eye-candy all in one fell swoop, I can do no better than to recommend this DVD: Robert Newman - History Of Oil. This is intellectual stand-up, powered by cyclists. This is a fantastic way of getting across the reasons behind green politics, and a really interesting history lesson on the west's involvement with the middle east and oil from the beginning of last century. And it's funny. Can't say fairer than that.

So, a mixed bag, but all highly recommended.

Inspiration crashing down to earth

So, as you may not be surprised to hear, I've been reading again. This time The Self Sufficient-ish Bible by Andy & Dave Hamilton, and Do Good Lives Have to Cost the Earth? which is a series of essays by various learned people, edited by Andrew Simms. As always, these kind of books are really inspiring and make you want to get out there and make some redical changes! And then real life kicks in and I'm deflated.

Okay, we don't have a car to get rid of, we never fly, we're vegetarian and we try to grow as much of our own food as we can in the garden and allotment. We use public transport and cycle and walk. We buy second hand clothes or strictly fair-trade if new. We buy fairly traded tea, coffee, chocolate, sugar, bananas, rice and everything else we can manage to. We buy as much from our local farmer's market as we can. We don't buy lots of new 'stuff'. We have 1 small, old TV and 1 computer which was second-hand. We turn everything off stand-by, have low-energy light-bulbs and try to conserve water. We have a water butt in the back garden. We use only environmentally household cleaners, ditto with the minimal toiletries we use.

But I'm not saying all this to be smug - I know there is loads more we could do (there always is unless you live in a yurt in a field in total harmony with nature), but right now, I can't see how. And this is depressing. I look round the house in a fresh zeal for getting rid of stuff and clutter, and for reforming the way we live, and come up against a brick wall. What could I get rid of - PC, no I use that for working. Cookbooks? No I use them for cooking. Printer? No. SAD light? Definitely no. Table? No. Kitchen cupboards? No. Books? Maybe. We do have a cull every now and again and are quite strict about getting rid of stuff but the ones we keep are ones we read again or refer to. Similar with CDs - we try to download individual tracks mainly these days, and have culled our CD collections as much as we can right now, considering that music is a big thing for both of us.

Obviously, we do have a fair amount of kids' clutter, but looking at it, most of it is fairly harmless, if widely spread - paper, paints, penicls and crayons and pens, scrapbooks, works of art (!), worksheets, packaging recycled into craft creations, glue, scissors, lego, train track, toy cars, books. We're not talking high-tech consumer hell here. Upstairs - can't get rid of stored bedding, or clothes, would be foolish to get rid of sewing machine. Downstairs - tool-box is vital, sewing box, felt, wool, other crafting stuff, bicycle helmets, play pop-up tents, vacuum cleaner, clothes horse, crockery, cutlery, baking tins, string, seeds, matches, candles. All of this stuff is pretty basic day-to-day stuff. Of course, if we lived in an African village, we could and would do without it. But living here, in the UK in the 21st century, this stuff is fairly low tech and basic.

So, where do we go from here? Well, we just used the last possible spare money we have in replacing a window which was (according to the man who replaced it) in severe danger of falling out, with a new, A-rated double glazed and properly vented one which hopefully will help eliminate the black mould on the bedroom wall (eww) and add to the insulation of the house overall. Given that other windows are also in a similar state, it would probably be eco-friendly to replace them too but we can't afford it. I'd like to try and convert our toilet to run mainly on collected rain-water but that again takes money and know-how, neither of which I have right now. Apparently we can't do solar hot water as we don't have a water tank, but other PV panels might be a possibility. If we had the money which we don't. We could maybe add to the loft insulation, but it's pretty thick already, and we don't have any more money.

So here I am racketing round the house alone (kids asleep, husband out earning the cash we don't have), keyed up with righteous inspiration and no-where to expend it. Am I just deluding myself that there's nothing we can do right now? I don't see the point of getting rid of stuff for the sake of it, especially not stuff that we actually use and is constructive or harmless or both. Now I just feel depressed.

Never listen to phone-ins on local radio

I tend to listen to LBC radio last thing at night to lull me into a sleepy state, but since the Copenhagen Summit has been going on they have been talking about climate change and several nights in a row I've found myself so angry that instead of dropping off to sleep I've been on the point of getting out of bed at midnight to phone in myself and correct a few people!

I just cannot believe the level of ignorance and wilful refusal to act that I've been hearing. Examples: one guy said "well, if anyone can give me just one example of where climate change is having a bad effect right now anywhere in the world then I'll believe it." Erm, how about the Arctic, and the Antarctic, and the Pacific Islands, and the increased flooding in the UK, and the recent hurricanes which devastated New Orleans and caused a lot of damage in Jamaica. So, apart from those, there's absolutely no evidence... how much evidence does he want?!

Another bloke said that the only reason scientists agree that climate is happening, is man-made and is important is because governments have paid them to say so. And why would governments do such an inconvenient thing for themselves, we might ask? Apparently so that they can levy 'green taxes'. So, we'll just ignore the incredibly rich and powerful oil lobby for a while, with their vested interests in denying both climate change and peak oil and we'll also ignore the fact that if this bloke's view is correct, it must be the first time in the entire history of the world that all the world's governments have put pressure on their scientists at the same time and to say the same thing. And then we'll also ignore the actual science itself - which while complex is by no means incomprehensible to the average lay-person who actually takes the trouble to enquire into it even superficially. So, leaving all those little counter-arguments aside, would governments really deliberately risk annoying the electorate as much as they seem to be annoyed by the idea of reining in their cushy and wasteful lifestyles a little for the sake of, erm, their own futures, for the sake of a very paltry amount in green taxes which will ahve to be used in actually trying to stop climate change anyway? Seems rather unlikely to me, given that most governments are terrified of doing anything even near to half the amount needed to avoid the worst effects of climate change in the coming decades due to fear of harming the economy. It seems to me that if even governments are acknowledging that something has to be done, even if they're not actually doing it, then this proves that there's actually something in this.

A third man (yes, they were all men) said that he was looking forward to having the temperature 2C higher, he thought that would be rather nice, especially now as it was only 1C in his back garden. I almost threw the radio across the room at such a complacent and ignorant assessment of what would be the consequences of the potential rises in temperature.

And that's without even discussing peak oil.

I really really hope that people who generally phone in to local talk radio stations are more ignorant and reactionary than the average. Otherwise we are all really doomed.

And don't get me started on the results of the summit itself. I'm too depressed even to think about it right now.