I’m super frustrated right now – Brexit is mostly the only thing in the news and all we should be talking about is that other thing. Climate Catastrophe.

I’m raring to go and full of motivation and also fear…. but I have full time health problems and all of the exciting, powerful actions are just impossible for me just now.

So I am going to try and figure out what I can realistically do – and do it.

Gluing myself … to my sick bed?

I would totally love to get arrested with Extinction Rebellion and glue myself to something in London but it would probably put me in the hospital and need weeks of recovery time for sure. Most days, even feeling so angry and upset about the situation makes me sick. Just a little bit of stress and I am exhausted. So I think anything too stimulating is out for now.

However, perhaps a release of some of my climate rage could actually help improve my health – so I will keep looking for options.

Gas Boiler Spoiler

I would love to invest heavily in my home to make it more eco-freindly. Most things in my life are already carbon-decent e.g.

• Vegan diet
• Minimal shopping for unnecessary “stuff”
• Not flying
• Working from home
• Using a green energy, phone and IT supplier.

However, the remaining things are big:

• More insulation in my house
• Replace gas boiler with electric
• Get an advanced room-by-room thermostat suited for home-office living
• Get solar panels on my very sunny roof
• Replace car with electric one.

I just don’t have the money. I am also concerned that I will spend all the money and then the government will start rolling things out for free or cheap shortly after…. These are all the things I daydream about doing, perfect solutions, amazing kit – but they are just daydreams now because I can’t afford any of them. So let’s move on.

Got the skills?

One thing that strikes me is that, as a long time Vegan, I must have a lot of skills and knowledge about “being vegan”. I don’t feel like an expert, but rationally I must have insight to share by this point.

With such a boost to public interest in climate friendly and compassionate living right now I could maybe help there.

My first idea is to run regular vegan/climate friendly “supermarket tours” – so I wrote to my local Tesco today to ask if I can do that. It will be exhausting for me, but also controllable because I can set the time/date, prepare well, work in a familiar place (supermarket) and rest right after as it’s close to home.

Gas Boiler Spoiler 2…

I ruled out the big projects but sometimes there are smaller things that are easy to do in the same domain as the big ideas. For example I can install insulation on my hot water pipes. Many of these are easy to access in our house, they are just boxed in but accessible with only a few screws. I will have to choose between plastic-foam and recycled-wool insulation which will take me a while – ethical dilemma! But I can do that.

Letters take up their time

Another thing I can do intermittently is write letters/email to local businesses, government and my MP. It’s fairly de-motivating work as the response is often inadequate. However, like XR’s policy of taking up time police/government and resources to force change, writing letters does, in a small way take up time and energy in these organizations. Today I wrote quickly to Sainsburys and Booths via their online form to ask them to get electric car chargers in their car-parks.

Let there be dark

Another thing thing I am going to try and work on is the turning off of lights. All our bulbs are now Phillips Hue which are quite efficient, however I find that I often don’t switch them off so a solution to that would be good! I’ll research it this week and report back here!

I’ll keep trying

This is a short and fairly pointless blog I know. I wish I had more to say. I just wanted to let people who are maybe in the same position know that maybe we can find ways to do our bit even if getting arrested isn’t realistic right now. Let the spoonie climate campaign begin!